Retail shoe prices fell about 6% in the first three months of the pandemic, climbed back through 2021 and 2022, and then barely moved for three years. Over the whole stretch from 2019 to 2025, the footwear index in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 6.6% while prices in general rose 25.9%. Meanwhile, the price factories charged for shoes rose far more than the price shoppers paid.
Spring 2020, a fast drop
The Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped all in-person price collection on March 16, 2020, according to its page on the effects of COVID-19 on the CPI. Collection in the Seattle area had stopped earlier, on March 5. About 65% of CPI price data is normally collected by personal visit, so many prices could not be gathered. BLS says missing prices were generally imputed from prices collected in the same or a similar geographic area.
The April 2020 CPI release, published May 12, 2020, reported that the apparel index fell 4.7% in April, among the largest monthly declines in the history of the series named in that release. Its detailed table showed seasonally adjusted footwear down 3.9% from March to April. The all-items CPI fell 0.8% that month.
Here is the same period in the monthly index values our site reads.
| From February 2020 to May 2020 | Change |
|---|---|
| All footwear (seasonally adjusted) | −6.2% |
| All footwear (not adjusted) | −6.6% |
| Apparel (not adjusted) | −7.9% |
| All items (not adjusted) | −0.9% |
Not every group bottomed at the same time. Men’s shoes hit their 2020 low in May, 5.2% below February. Women’s shoes reached theirs in June, down 7.9%. Boys’ and girls’ shoes kept sliding into September, when the index stood 9.6% below its February level, before rebounding sharply in October and November. On an annual basis, 2020 brought the largest yearly fall for all footwear since its annual record begins in 1947 (−2.5%) and for women’s shoes since 1978 (−2.9%). You can see that year in detail on our 2020 prices page.
Spending fell even harder than prices. FRED’s copy of the BLS Consumer Expenditure Surveys puts average household footwear spending at $419 in 2019 and $314 in 2020. Footwear prices fell only 2.5% on average that year, so most of the drop reflects fewer or cheaper purchases rather than lower price tags.
2021 and 2022, the catch-up
Prices recovered through 2021. Measured December to December, the not seasonally adjusted footwear index rose 6.0% in 2021, close to the 7.0% rise in all items and a little above the 5.8% rise in apparel.
In 2022 the paths split. All items rose 6.5% from December 2021 to December 2022, but footwear rose only 0.8% and apparel 2.9%. On annual averages, footwear gained 4.6% in 2022, against 8.0% for all items. The monthly peaks came mid-to-late in the year, with men’s and kids’ shoes topping out in June 2022 and women’s shoes and the overall footwear index in September 2022.
| Annual average change | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All footwear | −2.5% | +3.7% | +4.6% |
| Apparel | −4.8% | +2.5% | +5.0% |
| All items | +1.2% | +4.7% | +8.0% |
Among the footwear groups, kids’ shoes had the largest 2022 increase (+5.8%), followed by women’s (+4.9%) and men’s (+3.6%). Our shoes versus clothing comparison charts footwear and apparel side by side over the full period.
2023 to 2025, the flat years
After 2022, shoe prices stopped climbing while general prices did not.
- All footwear averaged +0.2% in 2023, +0.7% in 2024 and 0.0% in 2025.
- Apparel averaged +2.8%, +0.7% and −0.1% over the same years.
- All items rose 4.1%, 2.9% and 2.6%.
By group, men’s shoes fell 0.5% in 2023, rose 2.0% in 2024 and slipped 0.2% in 2025. Women’s shoes rose 1.1%, 0.1% and 0.7%. Kids’ shoes rose 0.4%, then fell 0.3% and 1.5%.
The 2025 averages carry a footnote. CPI prices went uncollected from October 1 through November 12, 2025, during the federal government shutdown, and the BLS notice says the missing data affected the October and November 2025 indexes. There is no October 2025 value in the series, so our 2025 averages use the 11 published months.
Put the six years together and shoes became cheaper in real terms, meaning after accounting for general inflation. Measured against all items, the real price of shoes fell 15.3% from 2019 to 2025. Our shoes versus inflation page tracks that ratio back to 1978.
Factory prices rose much more
The producer price index (PPI), which tracks what domestic factories charge, tells a different story. The PPI commodity index for footwear stood at 210.0 in February 2020 and barely moved during 2020. It then rose steadily, reaching 248.142 in November 2022, 18.2% above February 2020. Annual averages rose 3.0% in 2021, 9.0% in 2022 and 6.4% in 2023, before slowing to 1.9% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025.
From 2019 to 2025 this factory index rose 24.8%, almost four times the 6.6% rise in the retail footwear CPI. The men’s non-athletic factory index rose 30.0% over the same years, and the women’s 15.1%. See the full line on our factory-gate footwear page.
One reason the two lines can diverge is coverage. The PPI measures prices received by U.S. producers, while shoes brought in from abroad are tracked by a separate import price index.
Import prices barely moved
The BLS import price index for footwear, which measures prices of shoes bought from abroad, was 118.2 in February 2020. Its lowest 2020 reading was 1.0% below that level, and by December 2022 it was only 2.9% above it. On annual averages it rose 0.4% in 2020, 0.7% in 2021 and 2.5% in 2022, then dipped 0.3% in 2023, rose 0.7% in 2024 and fell 0.7% in 2025. From 2019 to 2025 the total rise was 3.2%.
Footwear imported from China moved a little more. Its index went from 100.7 in February 2020 to 106.7 in December 2022, a 6.0% rise, then fell 1.6% on average in 2025. Over 2019–2025 it rose 2.8%. Our footwear from China page shows the monthly path.
With import prices up about 3% and retail shoe prices up about 7% over six years, the pandemic period did not bring a lasting jump in what shoes cost Americans. The dip of 2020 and the rise of 2022 largely canceled out against a much faster rise in general prices.
Where things stand
As of September 2026, the footwear CPI was 154.506, up 3.4% from September 2025, against 3.7% for all items and 3.4% for apparel. Men’s shoes were up 4.5%, women’s 3.9% and kids’ 0.4%. The factory index was up 3.1% and imported footwear up 1.9% over the same 12 months.