SIC 3144 Women's Footwear, Except Athletic

Encyclopedia of American Industries | 2005 | Copyright

SIC 3144
WOMEN'S FOOTWEAR, EXCEPT ATHLETIC

This category covers establishments engaged in the production of women's footwear designed primarily for dress, street, and work. Establishments engaged in the production of athletic shoes and misses', children's, infants', and babies' footwear are classified in SIC 3149: Footwear, Except Rubber, Not Elsewhere Classified. Establishments primarily engaged in the production of rubber or plastic footwear are classified in SIC 3021: Rubber and Plastics Footwear, and those manufacturing orthopedic extension shoes are classified in SIC 3842: Orthopedic, Prosthetic, and Surgical Appliances and Supplies.

NAICS Code(s)

316214 (Women's Footwear (except Athletic) Manufacturing)

Industry Snapshot

The U.S. women's footwear industry is dominated by large companies that design and manufacture a wide variety of shoes each year. A steady market of consumers eager for new styles, along with the short life span of a pair of shoes, have produced lucrative profits for the nation's well-established footwear manufacturers. According to Footwear Industries of America (FIA), U.S. companies produced and shipped approximately 37 million pairs of women's shoes in the late 1990s. In relation to the overall footwear industry, women's models accounted for about 30 percent of all shoes produced by manufacturers in the United States. However, since the early 1990s, the industry has been heavily influenced by the continuing popularity of rubber soled athletic shoes and other outdoor oriented casual models that do not fall directly into this category.

The import of foreign-made footwear has been the biggest problem for domestic shoe manufacturers as comparably stylish but lower priced models made outside the United States continue to dominate the market. Approximately 92 percent of shoes sold in the United States in the late 1990s were made abroad, arriving primarily from China, Brazil, and Indonesia. These imports were able to undercut their American counterparts in large part due to the lower labor and production costs incurred by foreign shoe companies. As a result, total industry shipments declined significantly throughout the late 1990s, falling from $703 million in 1997 to $373 million in 2000. The total number of employees dropped from 10,442 to 6,114 over the same time period.

Organization and Structure

Unveiling a wide assortment of new shoe styles each season is how industry leaders regularly improve their product lines and increase their market shares. A key aspect of this process consists in the work of a shoe company's in-house design staff, which develops appropriate new versions of their firm's basic products by monitoring European and American fashion trends. As this is one of the most expensive parts of the entire manufacturing process, more and more American companies have attempted to reduce overall costs by relocating many preliminary manufacturing tasks to foreign factories where labor expenses are lower. Nevertheless, shoes are frequently returned to the United States for a number of final production steps, at which point the finished footwear is distributed to stores across the nation. Marketing teams from each manufacturer then negotiate with retail...

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