According to the Banque de France Index (BdF), footwear retail sales reflected the impact of the Omicron-variant wave and the subsequent reinstalment of restrictions in late 2021. But, with the progressive lifting of such restrictions since mid-February, the BdF Index returned to pre-pandemic scores in March, less than 20 percentage points below the 2010 baseline. In fact, footwear saleswere even one of thetop categories, up by more than 10% year-on-year.
COVID-19 had a strong impact on footwear consumption in the advanced economies of North America and Europe, contributing to the shortening of the gap between per capita consumption across continents. Nonetheless, there are still important geographic differences in consumption patterns. Per capita footwear consumption varies from between 1.5 pairs in Africa to 4.3 pairs in North America.