Dubai: Whether the heels are high or low, the sandals are open or closed, or the wedge is fabric or leather, just about every type of shoe is now trendy.
And as the Arabic saying goes, “If it weren’t for the different tastes, the product wouldn’t sell”.
China, India and Italy top the list of shoe-manufacturing countries, according to Pier Paolo Chicco, head of Marketing and Internationalisation Area at the Milan-based Italian Footwear manufacturers’ Association.
The association is promoting the MICAM, the world’s top footwear show, which is held twice a year in Milan. Other top shoe manufacturing countries include South Korea, Russia and Brazil.
Chicco, obviously, roots for his country’s products.
“When it comes to quality, luxury, design and fashion, Italian shoes are the first in terms of quality and value world-wide,” said Chicco in an interview with Gulf News, on the side-lines of a recent event in Dubai to reveal the Spring/Summer 2017 footwear and fashion trends.
According to Chicco, Italy produces tens of millions of pair of shoes yearly worth nearly €14 billion (Dh57.1 billion). Up to 85 per cent of production is exported. There are nearly 5,000 Italian shoe-manufacturing companies, most of them small-to-medium-sized businesses, and they employ more than 15,000 people.
“It is very important industry for our economy, and represents one of the backbones of our manufacturing system,” Gianpaolo Bruno, Italy’s trade commissioner to the UAE, Oman and Pakistan, told Gulf News.
While the industry accounts for close to 2 per cent of the Italian economy, it is nevertheless very important for the ‘Made in Italy’ brand.
Top importers of Italian footwear include France, the United States, Germany, Switzerland and the UK, while the UAE market is among the growing markets.
Tourists from other Arab Gulf states and China, India and Russia also prefer to shop for designer footwear in the UAE, specifically Dubai.
“Western and Eastern Europeans also make up a significant chunk of sales, with these consumers again buying those brands that are not available in their own countries,” according to the Italian Trade Agency (ITA).
According to the Italian Trade Agency’s figures, designer footwear sales worldwide registered a 6 per cent growth in 2015, down from the 7 per cent seen in 2014.
In the UAE, year-to-year growth has been incremental.
“Italian footwear sales have risen sharply in the UAE over the past few years, reaching approximately €135.5 million [Dh552.8 million] in 2015, increasing by 7.9 per cent versus 2014, and accounting for 7.2 per cent of the market,” said Bruno.
“Despite the current geopolitical climate in the ME, the UAE continues to be a key destination for international shopping. Italian brands are highly coveted for their superior comfort and unique elegance by the residents and by the large flow of tourists coming not only from the Gulf countries, but also from Russia, China, India and the Western countries,” he added.
In the UAE, Euromonitor international, which conducts research on consumer products, commercial industries, demographic trends and consumer lifestyles in the country, concluded that the volume composition of footwear in 2015 was 48 per cent for women, 19 per cent for men and 33 per cent for children.
However, the value composition for the year 2015 was 42 per cent for women, 41 per cent for men and 17 per cent for children.
Shoe demand
When it comes to shoes, the global trends are diverse, said London-based Lori Gooding, a senior consultant at WGSN, a global trend authority. Female buyers can look for print and plain sandals, fine striping, or metallic silver, gold and colours, she said.
WGSN’s global headquarters is based in New York. “Ballerina styles [are] more fashionable,” said Gooding during her presentation of the new trends for the Spring/Summer 2017 trends.
Also, the sporty-driven wedges and men-like shoes that are put in a “very feminine look”.
As for men, “luxurious clean leather” shoes are among the trendy shoes.
