Shoe Prices Saw Little Change in 2024, But Looming Tariff Hikes Could Dramatically Alter the Landscape
Shoe prices showed little movement in December, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).
Last month, retail footwear prices increased a scant 0.6 percent from a year ago, according to the FDRA. This came as higher prices for children’s shoes, up 2.5 percent, and women’s footwear, up 0.4 percent, were offset by a 0.2 percent decrease in men’s footwear prices in December.
For the full year, the FDRA noted that footwear prices rose a modest 0.7 percent from 2023, the second straight year of little change. Full-year prices similarly were little changed across segments, with men’s shoe prices increasing 2.0 percent and women’s footwear rising a scant 0.1 percent in 2024. Children’s footwear prices slipped 0.3 percent last year, only the second full-year decline in fourteen years for the segment, the FDRA noted.
“We see this lack of price pressure for footwear owing to a combination of factors witnessed last year, from footwear imports growing faster than demand to lower average import costs to a stronger dollar,” Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA, told FN. “Prospects for looming tariff hikes on footwear could dramatically skew this pattern, driving average duties per pair and average landed costs sharply higher, issues likely to push retail footwear prices higher.”
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Steve Lamar, president and chief executive officer of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), added that the threat of more tariffs under incoming President Trump could mean higher prices going forward.
“Whether tariffs are collected by Customs or President-elect Trump’s proposed new ‘External Revenue Service,’ the fact remains that tariffs are very much an internal cost ultimately paid by Americans,” Lamar noted. “Tariffs are taxes on you, which you pay at the register when you step foot into retail stores to purchase shoes, clothes, travel goods, and other accessories as you prep for spring break travel, and spring holidays, and other accessories.”
December’s movement in footwear prices comes at the same time the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall inflation ticked up last month as high energy and food costs still linger.
The bureau’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, saw prices increase 0.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.3 percent in in November. Prices were also up 2.9 percent over the last 12 months.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 0.2 percent in December, after increasing 0.3 percent in each of the previous four months, and increased 3.2 percent over the same time last year.
