In 2026 apparel and footwear manufacturers face economic uncertainty, rising tariffs, and supply chain disruption, alongside sluggish growth, shifting consumer behaviour, and increasing sustainability pressure. The brief summarizes the market landscape: low single-digit growth, rising price sensitivity, and uneven regional performance.
It details five critical supply chain challenges — tariff volatility, procurement disruptions from raw material shortages and labor constraints, logistics complexity, inventory management and forecast accuracy, and sustainability pressure.
The SAP portfolio section covers SAP IBP for real-time demand sensing and scenario planning, SAP Business Network for end-to-end visibility, SAP Ariba for supplier diversification and contract management, SAP Product Footprint Management for sustainability and compliance, and SAP's cloud ERP for automated workflows, intelligent procurement, and integrated financials.
The full brief is available above as a PDF. For the three-page summary see the "Footwear and Apparel Manufacturing Industry Fact Sheet 2026", and for the complete deck see "Footwear and Apparel Manufacturing Industry Overview 2026: Market Landscape, Supply Chain Challenges, and SAP Cloud Solutions" in the Resource Library.