Portugal’s footwear industry is stepping up its push into the United States, betting that a new trade landscape, more than €100 million in recent investment in advanced manufacturing and generations of shoemaking expertise can help the European producer gain ground in the world’s largest footwear import market.
The Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association (APICCAPS) will bring a carefully selected group of Portuguese footwear brands to New York on December 1-2 for the Portuguese Shoes Showcase, a business-focused initiative taking place during FFANY Market Week at Ideal Glass Studios, in Manhattan.
The showcase will feature a limited selection of Portuguese brands chosen to reflect the diversity, quality and contemporary character of the country’s footwear industry. Ambitious, Centenário, Felmini and Nobrand are among the brands already confirmed.
"This will not be a large-scale exhibition. We are deliberately bringing a very carefully selected group of brands that we believe can make a difference in the American market,” said Paulo Gonçalves, Executive Director of APICCAPS. "We want to show a contemporary Portugal: creative, sophisticated, technologically advanced and capable of producing some of the best footwear in Europe.”
Rather than operating as a traditional trade exhibition, the program is designed as a market-entry platform, combining an exclusive showcase with pre-arranged meetings with buyers, retailers, distributors and agents, individual mentoring for participating companies, public relations and follow-up commercial development.
A market moving up Portugal’s priority list
The United States has already become one of the fastest-growing destinations for Portuguese footwear. Portuguese footwear exports to the U.S. increased 12.5% in the first seven months of 2026, reaching €57 million and 1.5 million pairs. The growth pushed the United States ahead of the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest market for Portuguese footwear exports.Yet APICCAPS believes those figures remain small compared with the size of the opportunity. American consumers purchased around 1.95 billion pairs of shoes in 2025, and the country remains overwhelmingly dependent on imported footwear.
"The numbers tell us two things: we are already gaining traction, but we are still only scratching the surface of what is possible,” Gonçalves said.
"We have the product, the design capabilities, the industrial capacity and the flexibility. What we need now is to connect Portuguese companies with the right American partners and turn that potential into long-term business.”
A changing trade environment
APICCAPS also sees the changing U.S. trade environment as potentially creating a more favorable competitive position for European manufacturers.Changes introduced by the Trump administration have reshaped tariffs on imports from major footwear-producing countries, altering the relative competitive position of suppliers to the American market.
For Portugal, this comes at a time when the industry has been looking to diversify beyond its traditional European markets.
"The new tariff environment changes the competitive equation,” Gonçalves said. "Europe is not suddenly becoming a low-cost sourcing destination — nor should it try to be. But the gap between European production and some of our international competitors is changing, and that creates an opportunity for companies that can offer much more than price.”
"We will not win in America by trying to be the cheapest. Our opportunity is to be one of the best and most reliable partners,” he said.
The New York initiative follows an unprecedented investment cycle in the Portuguese footwear industry.
Over the past three years, the sector has invested more than €100 million in innovation, automation, robotics, advanced manufacturing technologies and sustainability, accelerating the modernization of an industry that already has a deeply rooted manufacturing culture.
Portugal is currently the second-largest footwear producer in the European Union, with around 93% of its production sold abroad. Portuguese footwear reached 174 international markets in 2025.
APICCAPS believes changes in global sourcing strategies could also play in Portugal’s favor as American brands and retailers reassess supply chains and seek greater diversification.
Portugal’s relatively compact footwear cluster brings manufacturers, component suppliers, tanneries, technology centers and research institutions into close geographical proximity, allowing companies to develop collections and respond to smaller or more specialized orders.
That flexibility is particularly relevant for independent brands, premium retailers and American companies seeking European manufacturing partners.
The Portuguese Shoes Showcase will take place on December 1 and 2 at Ideal Glass Studios in New York, during FFANY Market Week. The event will bring together a carefully curated selection of Portuguese brands and U.S. buyers, retailers, distributors, agents and other industry professionals.
"Our goal is not to come to New York for two days, sell a few pairs of shoes and go home,” Gonçalves said. "We are coming to build relationships. We want American buyers and brands to discover what Portugal can offer today — and we want them to see Portugal as a long-term partner.”
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