Portugal is no longer just a traditional footwear producer. It is transforming its industry to lead globally in technology, sustainability, digitalization, and competitiveness.
Here are 10 clear reasons why investing in Portugal makes strategic sense:
In 2025, Portugal produced 80 million pairs of shoes, exporting 90% of its production to more than 170 countries across five continents.
The footwear cluster reached €2.23 billion in exports in 2025, demonstrating resilience in the face of economic challenges and maintaining sustainable growth. Even in a volatile global market, Portugal increased exports, with footwear exports reaching 68 million pairs (+0.8%) in 2025.
Portugal outperformed countries such as Italy and Spain and navigated a downturn in the Chinese footwear industry, reinforcing its solid competitive position in the global market.
4. Consolidated and integrated cluster
Portugal offers a complete and highly specialized ecosystem that includes footwear manufacturers, tanneries, component producers and leather goods manufacturers. This cluster operates in a vertically integrated way, ensuring quality control, rapid response capability and greater production flexibility.5. Specialization in high-value products
Portugal is one of the world’s leading exporters of high-quality leather footwear, with 82% of exports concentrated in this segment, while also showing strong growth across new product categories. Major international brands, including luxury labels, increasingly rely on "Made in Portugal.”6. Record investment in innovation and the future
The sector is investing €600 million by 2030 in innovation, sustainability, internationalization and training, the largest investment program in the history of the Portuguese footwear industry.7. Technology, digitalization and sustainability
Over the past three years, the Portuguese footwear industry has invested more than €100 million. Two flagship projects clearly illustrate this transformation. BioShoes4All represents a direct response to global sustainability demands, bringing together 70 partners among companies, universities and technology centers, with an investment of €60 million in the development of eco-friendly, recyclable products with very low environmental impact. The FAIST project involves a €50 million investment in automation, robotics and digitalization. It has already created 300 new jobs, including 100 highly qualified positions, and is developing integrated production lines, software and innovative manufacturing solutions that increase efficiency, speed of response and global competitiveness.8. Flexibility and Fast Response: Portugal’s Competitive Advantage
In an increasingly dynamic global market, time is a competitive factor. Portugal positions itself as one of Europe’s most agile, flexible and specialized partners in footwear and leather goods manufacturing.9. Technical expertise and talent
Innovation projects are generating highly qualified employment and unique technical capabilities, strengthening production capacity and the delivery of high value-added solutions.10. Strategic advantage in sustainability
Portugal is positioning itself as an international benchmark in sustainable solutions, combining production quality with eco-friendly materials, efficient processes and responsible sourcing, a decisive advantage for today’s and tomorrow’s global markets.