Despite a huge market for sports shoes, India with its considerably large shoe manufacturing hubs is still lagging globally in sports shoe manufacturing. Most of its demand for sports shoes is met through imports as there is a considerable dearth of quality sports shoe manufacturers.
The condition of the sports shoe industry, a sub-sector in India is less than impressive. We are strong in leather shoes but not at all in sport's shoes. China manufactures 53 per cent of the world’s sports shoes. India manufactures only 10 per cent. Out of this 10 per cent, most are budget shoes. Only three to four per cent matches quality standards, and out of that, two per cent is exported.
The domestic market in India for the sports shoe sector is growing steadily. The state of the Indian sports shoe market can be assessed by the fact that high import duties on foreign sports shoes do little to deter Indian consumers from buying them over indigenous ones.
Sports shoes are the future
Changing consumer lifestyle alongside increasing consciousness towards fitness is pushing the demand for athleisure footwear or sports to greater heights. The rising demand for sports footwear has resulted in it emerging as a successful alternative for leather shoes.
More than 80 per cent of Indians want to regularly wear sports shoes. With a drastic increase in working hours, it has become commonplace for people to wear white sneakers to work. Fashion is changing for good. Seen from this point, the scope of leather is slowly but surely diminishing.
Furthermore, leather is essentially an animal by-product, limiting to a certain extent the steady availability of leather shoes. Sports shoes, such as the ones Evertrade manufactures, are made from artificial fibres. They are always in steady supply and environmentally sustainable.
India and the sports shoe industry
The global athleisure footwear or sports footwear market is valued at $114.8 billion by 2022, growing at a rate of CAGR of 2.1 per cent during the forecast period 2016 – 2022. The Athletic footwear market in India is expected to grow annually by 14.3 per cent (CAGR 2020-2023).
The Indian sports footwear industry is currently represented by organized domestic SME footwear manufacturers. With changing consumer behaviour and modern lifestyle, the sports footwear made by those medium and large brands is likely to witness bigger sales in the near future. So, these manufacturers must step up their sports footwear manufacturing capabilities to meet rising demand for quality sports shoes.
