Fashion industries on the move: spatial restructuring of the footwear sector in the enlarged European Union

What is it about?

The European footwear industry has recently faced another stage of considerable restructuring, in terms of its geography, the spatiality of value chains and the strategic focus of its lead firms. Drivers have been the crisis of Fordism, political-economic changes in Europe and the world, and the emerging dominance of fashion on the markets, all of these factors unfolding at different times and speeds. The paper takes stock of the sector’s shifting geography by reviewing relevant literature on footwear districts in the European Union, augmented by document analyses. Upgrading footwear to a fashion industry generated an altered intra-European spatial division of labour under the double imperative of investing in market access and achieving low production costs. A variety of footwear companies have emerged that have affected the dynamics of former and actual footwear districts by increasingly creating production networks between different production spaces in Europe. As a result, a dynamic and complex production network, connecting a diversity of places across the EU, has emerged. Keywords: European Union, footwear industry, global production networks, industrial district, industrial restructuring.

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