Women’s Shoe Prices Continued to Decline in November as Men’s and Children’s Footwear Rise Modestly
Stephen Garner
Senior Editor
Shoe prices rose slightly in November from a year ago, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).
Last month, retail footwear price pressure remained modest despite another uptick in overall inflation. According to the FDRA, overall shoe prices climbed 0.7 percent in November from a year ago, the 24th straight month prices have risen no more than 1.5 percent.
This modest gain came as higher year-over-year prices for men’s footwear, up 1.0 percent, and children’s footwear, up 3.4 percent, offset the fourth straight month of lower prices for women’s shoes, down 0.9 percent, echoing a similar pattern witnessed in October, the FDRA said.
“Despite children’s footwear prices rising the fastest in over a year and a half last month, we still look for these prices to sink in 2024—albeit moderately—reversing three straight years of gains, likely to be only the second annual decline in the last fourteen years for children’s footwear prices,” Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA, told FN. “Elsewhere, we look for prices for overall footwear, men’s footwear, and women’s footwear to rise modestly in 2024, despite modestly lower average import costs for each of these categories, good news for importers and retailers.”
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Steve Lamar, president and chief executive officer of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), added that the rise in kids’ shoe prices come at a time when children need their newest sizes of snow boots — and this is before any across-the-board tariff threats take effect in the new year.
“The time is now to reconsider smart trade policies that encourage fair and responsible trade policies, not punish American businesses and hardworking American families,” Lamar noted.
November’s movement in footwear prices comes at the same time the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall inflation rose at a faster annual pace last month.
The bureau’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, saw prices increase 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, after rising 0.2 percent in each of the previous four months. Prices were also up 2.7 percent over the last 12 months.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 0.3 percent in October, as it did the previous three months, and increased 3.3 percent over the same time last year.
Indexes that increased in November included shelter, used cars and trucks, household furnishings and operations, medical care, new vehicles and recreation. The index for communication was among the few major indexes that decreased over the month.
