Seventy-One Portuguese Footwear Companies Open a Milan Week With a 100 Million Euro Investment Cycle Behind Them

Seventy-one Portuguese companies from the footwear chain open a week of trade fairs in Milan on Sunday, carrying with them the results of a three-year research programme that the industry says is the largest investment cycle in its history.

The count comes from APICCAPS, the association of Portuguese footwear, components and leather goods manufacturers. Thirty-two shoe companies exhibit at Micam from Sunday to Tuesday. Thirty-one more take stands at Lineapelle, the leather, materials, accessories and components fair, from Tuesday to Thursday. Another eight show at Simac Tanning Tech, which covers machinery for footwear, leather goods and tanning.

The association is blunt about the backdrop. The Milan week takes place, it says, against "a general slowdown in world footwear trade". Portuguese footwear exports fell 2.1 percent in the first half of this year, to 813 million euros, and the sector's recent trade figures have been a story of holding position rather than gaining it: Italy and Spain lost considerably more over the same period.

Ten actions, two months, a hundred companies

Milan is the first of about ten overseas initiatives the Portuguese footwear sector has scheduled from September onward, run with AICEP, the trade and investment agency, and supported by the Compete 2030 programme. "In just two months, practically 100 Portuguese companies will take part in actions in international markets, confirming the sector's dynamism and export ambition," said APICCAPS president Luis Onofre.

What the companies are taking with them is the output of two large collaborative projects funded through the Recovery and Resilience Plan, both of which the industry is presenting to buyers for the first time at this scale. "After three years of investment, research and development, it is time to present these innovations to international buyers and to turn the knowledge created into new business opportunities," Onofre said. The association puts the full cycle at more than 100 million euros invested in sustainability, digitalisation, artificial intelligence and new technologies, and expects to close it by the end of the year.

BioShoes4All and FAIST

The first project, BioShoes4All, goes on show at Lineapelle. APICCAPS describes it as the largest collaborative project the Portuguese footwear industry has ever run in bioeconomy, sustainability and industrial innovation: 69 partners and an investment of about 60 million euros over four years, producing more than 200 scientific, technological and industrial results.

Those results include materials that incorporate agro-industrial waste, new leathers and water-based finishes, recycled and recyclable components, rubbers with a high proportion of biological raw materials, and processes designed to cut the use of energy, water and chemicals. "Several of these solutions have already passed the laboratory stage and are ready for industrial application," the association says, which is the claim the Milan stands are there to test in front of brands, manufacturers, designers and buyers.

The second project, FAIST (Fabrica Agil, Inteligente, Sustentavel e Tecnologica), appears at Simac Tanning Tech. It is an investment of close to 50 million euros aimed at the production technology of the Portuguese footwear cluster, and it delivered 34 new products, processes and services: advanced equipment, automatic lines, digital systems and pilot units for testing new technology. The stated purpose is to make small, personalised runs viable, automate the most demanding operations, improve working conditions and reduce the consumption of raw materials and energy. Whether any of that shows up in the export figures will not be visible until well into next year.