Between 2000 and 2025, the price that U.S. footwear producers received for their shoes rose 79.9%, measured by annual averages of the BLS producer price index for footwear. Over the same years, the consumer price index for footwear, which tracks what shoppers pay, rose 17.7%. The two numbers are not in conflict. They measure different shoes at different points in the chain, and the reasons they split apart say a lot about how shoe prices are formed.
What the producer price index measures
The producer price index (PPI) is a family of BLS indexes that track what sellers charge. In the words of the BLS overview, it measures “the average change over time in selling prices received by domestic producers”, and PPIs measure price change “from the perspective of the seller”. The BLS FAQ adds that the prices are taken from the first commercial transaction for many products, which for shoes means the sale out of the factory, before any wholesaler or store gets involved.
Two details from the BLS Handbook of Methods matter for footwear:
- The PPI aims at the net revenue a producer actually receives, so revenue collected for governments is left out and changes in excise taxes are “not reflected in the index”.
- Its coverage is the output of domestic industries. The Consumer Price Index, by contrast, prices goods that households buy at retail, wherever those goods were made.
So the PPI answers “what are U.S. shoe factories charging their customers”, and the CPI answers “what are U.S. shoppers paying at the counter”.
The series behind our factory pages
We read five PPI series every night:
- WPU159F2, footwear at the factory gate, a commodity index based at 1982 = 100 with data from January 1947. As of September 2026 it stood at 269.832, up 3.1% in 12 months. Its monthly history since 1947 is charted here.
- PCU3162103162102, men’s footwear excluding athletic, based at December 1993 = 100. September 2026: 222.419, up 3.7% in 12 months.
- PCU3162103162105, women’s footwear excluding athletic, same base. September 2026: 157.551, up 1.2%.
- PCU3162103162101, rubber and plastic footwear including athletic, based at December 1980 = 100. September 2026: 168.373, up 1.2%.
- PCU458210458210, shoe retailers, based at June 2002 = 100. This one does not price shoes at all; it measures store margins, explained below.
Every one of the four producer series reached its highest value in September 2026.
How far factory prices and shelf prices drifted apart
| Comparison (annual averages) | Factory gate (PPI) | Shelf (CPI) |
|---|---|---|
| All footwear, 2000 to 2025 | +79.9% | +17.7% |
| All footwear, 2019 to 2025 | +24.8% | +6.6% |
| Men’s, 2000 to 2025 | +94.8% | +16.9% |
| Men’s, 2019 to 2025 | +30.0% | +7.9% |
| Women’s, 2000 to 2025 | +48.7% | +11.1% |
| Women’s, 2019 to 2025 | +15.1% | +7.0% |
The sharpest split came in 2022 and 2023. The men’s factory index rose 10.3% in 2022 and 8.6% in 2023 on an annual-average basis, while the men’s shoe CPI rose 3.6% and then fell 0.5%. For all footwear the factory index rose 9.0% and 6.4% in those two years, against 4.6% and 0.2% for the consumer index. Rubber and plastic footwear, which includes athletic shoes, moved far less at the factory: up 20.7% from 2000 to 2025 and 9.3% from 2019 to 2025.
In the latest 12 months the two lines were close for once: the footwear PPI rose 3.1% and the footwear CPI 3.4% in the year to September 2026.
Why the two indexes tell different stories
They price different shoes
The PPI covers shoes made by domestic producers. The CPI covers the shoes Americans buy, whether they were made in the United States or abroad. Imported footwear has its own BLS index, and its 2025 annual average was 21.2% above 2000, much closer to the 17.7% rise on the shelf than to the 79.9% rise at U.S. factories. Shelf prices over these 25 years have tracked foreign selling prices far more closely than domestic factory prices.
They price different products inside the same label
“Men’s footwear excluding athletic” at the factory and “men’s shoes” in the CPI are different baskets. The producer series follows what domestic plants make and sell; the consumer series follows what households buy, including sneakers. A rising factory price for one kind of domestically made men’s shoe can coexist with a flat shelf price for men’s shoes overall. Each producer line is plotted against its consumer counterpart for men and for women.
They sit at different stages
Between a factory sale and a store sale come freight, wholesalers, rent, wages, sales taxes and the retailer’s own margin. The PPI excludes excise taxes; the CPI includes sales taxes on consumer goods. Any of those costs can move independently of the factory price.
The shoe store margin index
The fifth series, PCU458210458210, is often misread as a shoe price index. It is not. The BLS treats wholesalers and retailers as providers of distribution services, not makers of goods, so the Handbook says the PPI “tracks the average changes in gross margins received by wholesalers and retailers”. A 2012 BLS Beyond the Numbers article gives the formula: current selling price minus current acquisition price equals the margin price.
That makes the series jumpy. The same article notes that margin indexes often move more than 5 percent in a month, and it gives an example: a margin of $0.10 that rises to $0.15 is a 50.0 percent increase, even though the selling price moved by only five cents.
In our data the shoe retailer margin index peaked at 163.06 in August 2023. It then fell to 87.69 in August 2026, the lowest value since the series began in June 2002, and stood at 88.146 in September 2026, 41.3% lower than a year earlier. Per the BLS definition, a falling margin index means the gap between what stores pay and what they charge has narrowed. That can come from higher acquisition costs, lower selling prices, or both. Since the CPI for footwear rose 3.4% over the same 12 months, the narrowing is more consistent with costs reaching stores faster than shelf prices, though the store and CPI samples are not identical. Every month of the retailer series since 2002 appears in the margin index chart.
Reading these numbers together
If you want to know whether shoes are getting more expensive to make in the United States, the PPI is the direct measure, and it has risen much faster than shelf prices. If you want to know what you will pay, the CPI is the measure, and its footwear line has risen far less than general inflation. The margin index sits between them and shows how much room stores have. Our factory to store overview lines up all of these series for the same months.