The footwear and apparel industry faces sluggish, low single-digit revenue growth in 2026, with luxury brands plateauing, consumers growing more price-sensitive while still asking for sustainable and ethically sourced products, and uneven growth across Asia, China, Europe, and the US.
The fact sheet lists the key challenges — tariff volatility on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada, raw material shortages and labor constraints, shipping delays and rising freight costs, demand forecasting and inventory accuracy, and sustainability and transparency pressure.
It shows how SAP cloud solutions respond: SAP IBP for agile planning and forecasting, SAP Business Network for end-to-end visibility, SAP Ariba for sourcing optimization, sustainability tracking for ESG and regulatory requirements, and SAP ERP Cloud for resilient, automated operations.
The full fact sheet is available above as a PDF. See also the "Footwear and Apparel Manufacturing Industry Overview 2026: Executive Brief" and the complete "Footwear and Apparel Manufacturing Industry Overview 2026: Market Landscape, Supply Chain Challenges, and SAP Cloud Solutions" deck in the Resource Library.