Chennai: With India increasingly becoming a major sourcing hub for leather and non-leather footwear, it is time the Indian footwear component industry to gear up and scale capacities to meet increasing global demand, leather industry players said. With more global companies looking at India for sourcing their footwear requirements, as an alternative to China, there is already pressure on the component industry to expand capacities.
The turnover of the Indian footwear industry is expected to increase from $10 billion in 2021-22 to $18 billion by 2025-26. Indian industry registered a 19.24% increase in exports of leather, leather products and footwear in the last quarter of 2021-22, a statement from Indian Shoe Federation (ISF) said. “Globally the footwear industry, which faced a setback due to Covid, has since bounced back. Indian leather industry will touch $30 billion including $10 billion in exports and $20 billion through domestic sales. If the industry has to make a quick turnaround, component manufacturing is a key focus area and will account for $four billion,” Habib Hussain, president, ISF told the media here on Wednesday.
The industry is organizing a two-day exhibition –‘ShoeTech 2022’ to highlight India’s premier leather and footwear components – at Vellore on July 22 and 23. The exhibition is being organized along with Indian Footwear Components Manufacturers Association (IFCOMA) to harness the emerging potential and exhibit the industry’s abilities to the world market.
“Among the key challenges India needs to tackle are its lack of infrastructure for components manufacture to cope up with global demands, a shortage of sole mould shops and the need to have a bigger pool of competent talent. Addressing these promptly would raise the profile of India in this unprecedented time for the sourcing market,” said J Suresh Kumar, director, country manager – Clarks India Services Pvt Ltd.
“The lack of larger capacities and ability to deliver consistent quality had been a problem faced by major sourcing companies, who are forced to continue to look at China as an option for sourcing,” he said.
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