OPORTO, Portugal — The Portuguese footwear industry is on a mission to take its know-how into the digital era and future-proof its craftsmanship and business growth with 600 million euros in investments by 2030.
As part of the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, or PRR, APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear, Components, Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association, is driving this transformation by spearheading dedicated programs of innovation, enrolling the companies it represents.
Among them, FAIST, an acronym for Factory Agile, Intelligent, Sustainable and Technological, has seen 45 footwear enterprises invest about 50 million euros into advancing its high-tech capabilities, with robotics and automation taking center stage. The Portuguese government contributed 30 million euros via PRR funds.
You May Also Like
“Portugal has the knowledge, creativity, tradition and technology to bring a competitive model forward,” said Luís Onofre, president of APICCAPS speaking at Oporto, Portugal’s Palácio da Bolsa, or Stock Exchange Palace, during the two-day conference “Welcome to the Industry of the Future” which wrapped Wednesday. “FAIST is the greatest evidence of trusting the future,” he said.
In 2024 the local footwear industry’s exports — mainly toward European countries, in addition to the U.S. — stood at 2.1 billion euros in 2024, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.2 percent since 2020.
Global competition is mounting and increasingly pressuring the country’s supply chain and business targets.
“Europe cannot be confined to a secondary hub. It’s the place of quality… We have to maintain productiveness and be competitive on a global stage, and we’ve been focusing on the added value that our products and brands bring about,” Onofre said.
According to data provided by Vasco Rodrigues, associate professor at the Porto Business School of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Asia drives footwear production globally, which in 2024 amounted to 23.9 billion pairs of shoes, with China alone accounting for 54.3 percent of the total, followed by India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan.
The latter country manufactures more shoes than Europe as a whole, as the Old Continent’s production represented only 2.3 percent in 2024, while contributing to 12.6 percent of all footwear exports, especially within the Continent.
FAIST Explained
About 45 entities have co-promoted FAIST, including universities and technology centers, in addition to footwear players. They have committed to fostering automation for smart production lines, digitization processes, data-driven manufacturing and energy rating systems, sustainable products and materials as well as pilots for the circular economy, explained Florbela Silva, FAIST project coordinator.
“The main objective of this project is to broaden the industry expertise of the sector and be competitive across footwear products and across markets,” Silva said. “We want to increase the digital and technological quotient of local production and have a quick response to market trends, and not less important, to have sustainable production and products driven by constant innovation.
“The Portuguese footwear industry is not following the leaders. We want the leaders to follow us,” Silva said.
The program currently stands at 75 percent of completion.
During multiple visits to manufacturing complexes of enrolled companies in the area surrounding the town of Felgueiras, the level of manufacturing automation stood out for its seamless integration with artisanal approaches.
At Carité, for example, a robot helps smooth out the shoes’ upper part before artisans glue-press the outsole onto it.
“The demonstrated impact of this kind of project is a faster time to market, improved production efficiency and stronger sustainability and traceability,” Silva said. “Fueling innovation is redefining our growth goals.”
Such a directional initiative results from the volatility of international markets and hurdles faced by global supply chains.
According to Universidade Católica Portuguesa’s Rodrigues, the local footwear industry will be facing a number of variables in the next years, including an expected contraction of the European population by 5 percent until 2050; shifting consumer preferences that are increasingly valuing sustainability, comfort, health and personalization, as well as the hurdles of completing the nearshoring processes further fueled by the U.S. tariffs amid a lack of workers in the Old Continent and the wave of high-tech innovations to embrace.
Competition from global footwear makers is also factoring in.
“There has been a transformation in the industry with the outsourcing of production [outside Europe]. Until a certain point it worked but now those markets are not importing from abroad… while flooding the region with their products,” said César Araújo, president of ANIVEC, Portugal’s National Association of Apparel manufacturers, textile and fashion industries, voicing his concern for the number of parcels shipped to Europe from ultra-fast fashion companies not subject to custom duties — a reason for worry also in France and Italy, as reported.
“We’re going through a lot of challenges and changes but it’s also a time of great opportunities and the Portuguese industry is going to find its way through it,” Rodrigues said in reassuring and hopeful remarks to the conference audience.
Are Jobs Safe?
Amid technological advancement, the future of manufacturing workers — and lack thereof — came up frequently on stage, but APICCAPS and the FAIST promoters have estimated the creation of 300 highly qualified jobs as a result of the investments.
“I have often been asked what the future factory will look like and if we are bound to have people working at all. The answer is we will have both and FAIST is a proof of that. We are developing technologies to improve jobs in the factories, to help our factories to be more efficient,” Silva explained.
Vitor Almeida, technical director at Tropimática, a company producing automated industrial machinery, concurred.
“As someone who’s worked with robotics for decades, I hear people saying that robots and tech will steal jobs from people. If we exclude some very niche professions and industries, companies not investing in technology and robotics are not going to be able to produce in Europe in the near time also for a lack of workforce.
“Unqualified jobs being replaced by qualified jobs, sometimes via reskilling, is a great good-practice example,” Almeida added.
To be sure, high-tech factories are seen as a driver of the appeal of manufacturing jobs, according to companies enrolled in the FAIST program.
“The footwear industry in Europe has two great issues: One is the lack of workforce and the second is that there are repetitive tasks that people do not want to do,” said Albano Fernandes, chief executive officer and founder of AMF Safety Shoes.
“What’s the cost of not implementing tech?” he questioned. “There is no other possibility in my view besides the investment in automation and robotics to still be competitive in the current market.”
Ventura Correia, manager of the mold-making department Carité, urged his peers to keep investing in human resources.
“Robots are quite important in manufacturing, but they shouldn’t be seen as substitutes. Any company replacing people with robots hoping they will produce more and better are going to experience a backfire. Robots need to be a complement not a supplement to humans,” he said.
“Companies are people, without people companies are worth zero,” echoed Fernando Ferro, president of FFI Group and CEO of DCSI PRO, a company active in machinery automation.
“The company is part of society and when doing investments, it should take into account productivity, efficiency, quality and uniqueness, but also value the people,” said Carité’s Correia.
In addition to FAIST, the Portuguese footwear industry’s total investment of 600 million euros includes a second project worth 60 million euros geared at the larger-scale implementation of sustainable materials.
Known by the moniker Bioshoes4ll and led by APICCAPS and CTCP, Portugal’s center for footwear technology, the project brings together over 70 entities across the sector committed to scale the use of bio-based ingredients derived from olive residues, coffee grounds, rice husks, eggshells, and extracts from olive trees, pine, mussels and tomato pulp.
“We’re facing big economic, environmental, and technological transformations and we need to ensure that they are all at the service of the people, their jobs, and their creativity. Footwear is not just about manufacturing but also about identity, creativity, design and innovation,” said Rosana Peran, president of the European Footwear Confederation.
“That doesn’t mean giving up on tradition but embedding technology into craftsmanship. Innovation can redefine competitiveness, but AI cannot replace the experience and intelligence of human beings. Technology needs to be a tool at the service of people,” she said.
“The Portuguese footwear industry proves that tradition might be modern and technology can be fostered by a human touch,” added Sofia Moreira de Sousa, a Portuguese representative of the European Commission.
