Retail footwear prices rose 1.5 percent year over year, higher than six of the last seven months and only a bit slower than January’s advance, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).
U.S. retail footwear prices in January climbed 2.0 percent, the highest rate since 2022.
Among key categories, men’s retail footwear prices in February rose 1.5 percent, higher than 21 of the last 28 months. Women’s footwear prices climbed 0.8 percent, higher than 47 out of of the last 48 months. Children’s footwear retail prices jumped 3.0 percent — the fastest in fifteen months — to a fourteen-month high.
Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA, in e-mailed comments said the increase in kids’ retail footwear prices came as the average landed, duty-paid cost per pair of children’s footwear imports jumped 9.7 percent year over year in the latest month, extending to 21 months the streak of increases, the longest streak in more than thirty-five years of record keeping.
Raines said, “The lengthening streak of y/y increases in landed costs witnessed in recent months hints children’s retail footwear prices may continue to gain more traction later this year, as this price pressure permeates the supply chain to store shelves and into footwear shoppers’ pockets in 2026.”
U.S. consumer prices rose 2.4 percent in February from a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 11, in line with forecasters’ expectations and matching the gain in January.
Core inflation, stripping out volatile food and energy prices, was also flat at 2.5 per cent, in line with Wall Street forecasts. The period covered by the release was before energy prices surged over the past two weeks in the fallout from the Iran conflict, which is expected to push up inflation when March data is released.
