Retail prices for footwear climbed 1.1 percent in December, but overall footwear inflation in 2025 was flat for the full year, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).
With average landing costs for footwear imports continuing to rise, however, inflationary threats are forecast to build this year.
The 1.1 percent increase in U.S. retail footwear prices in December comes after prices slipped 0.1 percent year-over-year (y/y) in November. Overall, footwear prices have grown in four of the last five months.
Gary Raines, chief economist at the FDRA, stated, “This supports our earlier view that November’s modest dip in footwear prices was likely to be fleeting.”
Among categories, men’s footwear prices rose 1.7 percent y/y in December, while women’s footwear prices climbed 1.9 percent, higher for the fifth straight month. Echoing the previous two reports from November and October, prices for children’s footwear helped offset these increases, with prices down 1.9 percent y/y.
December’s price hike came as the average landed cost of footwear imports rose year-over-year again in the latest month, marking the eighth straight month of increases.
For the full year, the FDRA found footwear prices were flat in 2025. Women’s shoe prices increased 0.7 percent in 2025, while men’s dipped 0.2 percent and children’s prices declined 1.5 percent. Footwear inflation in the U.S. eased for the third straight year in 2025 to its slowest growth in five years after spiking in 2021 and 2022.
Raines cautioned, “While footwear prices stalled as inflation moderated further in 2025, we caution that average landed costs and average duties per pair on footwear imports continue to climb, hinting at latent price pressure across the footwear supply chain that may reach store shelves and into footwear shoppers’ pockets in 2026.”
Image courtesy JD Sports/Charts courtesy FDRA
