It is perhaps not known to many that India has a thriving footwear industry and is the second-largest footwear producer in the world. The main clusters are Bahadurgarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Karnal and Ambala in Haryana, Jalandhar and Ludhiana in Punjab, Kanpur, Agra and Noida in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata in West Bengal, Mumbai in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, Bengaluru in Karnataka and Chennai, Ambur, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi, Trichy and Dindigul in Tamil Nadu that produce a sizeable chunk of both leather and non-leather footwear with the former mainly for exports while the latter caters to the domestic market.
However, the footwear industry in Haryana has seen an exponential growth since 2014 with leading brands and companies setting up large-scale manufacturing units in the state. The progressive economic policies of and push for a strong domestic manufacturing sector by the central and state government since 2014 has immensely helped this sector that is projected to grow at 20 percent CAGR for the next 35 years!
The footwear industry falls under the ‘Green Category’ attracting incentives for being a dry and labour-intensive industry with a high economic growth. Around 60 percent of all non-leather shoes made in India are manufactured in Bahadurgarh. There are over 12,000 units employing over 7.5 lakh people with an annual turnover of more than Rs 10,000 crore.
It is estimated that more than Rs 2,000 crore worth goods are exported to the UAE, Oman, South Africa and several Asian countries every year. Before 2016, 80 percent of the non-leather shoes in the Indian market were made in China but since 2016, non-leather shoes made in China have taken a massive hit and are now only at about 2 percent of the total production.
On an average, 16 lakh shoes are made daily in Bahadurgarh with an annual production of 60 crore shoes. The most popular footwear manufactured and exported are Dress Shoes, Casuals, Loafers, Slippers, Floaters, Moccasins, Sports Shoes, Sandals, Ballerinas and Boots.
Written by Lakshmi Subramanian
sahasa.in 
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