Manshoea price ledger for American shoes
12-month change to Sep 2026: Men’s +4.5%Women’s +3.9%Kids’ +0.4%
BLS CPI series CUUR0000SEAE03

Women’s shoes price history since 1978

What women’s shoes cost Americans from 1978 to September 2026, measured by the official consumer price index, set against overall inflation and the factory.

Last 12 months
+3.9%

September 2026 vs a year earlier. Higher than 81% of all 572 twelve-month changes in the series.

$100 in 1978 today
$173.82

With overall inflation it would be $516.52. Shoes rose 1% a year, everything 3.5%.

Real price since 2000
−40.3%

Women’s shoes relative to all consumer prices, 2026 year to date vs 2000.

Cheapest month
January

1.9% below trend on average, 2015–2025. Priciest: October (+1.6%).

Bought women’s shoes years ago? Open the calculator with women’s shoes from 2000 →

Women’s shoes vs overall inflation, 1978 = 100

100200300400500 1980198519901995200020052010201520202025
Annual averages, rebased to 1978 = 100. 2026 = year to date. Source: BLS CUUR0000SEAE03 and CUUR0000SA0.

What the numbers say

From 1978 to 2025 the women’s shoes index rose 62.6%, while the all-items index rose 393.5%. Put another way, a pair that tracked the index cost $1.63 in 2025 for every dollar it cost in 1978, while the average basket of goods and services cost $4.94. The highest annual average so far was in 2025.

Among the three groups BLS publishes since 1978 (men’s, women’s, and boys’ and girls’), women’s shoes rank 3rd for total price growth from 1978 to 2025. Men’s shoes rose 97.3%; Boys’ and girls’ shoes rose 109.8%.

The largest one-year increases were in 1979 (+6.3%), 1980 (+6.1%), 1981 (+5.0%); the largest declines in 2020 (−2.9%), 1986 (−2.4%), 2014 (−1.8%). 34% of years since 1979 ended with lower average prices than the year before.

Women’s shoes, monthly index since 2022

130135140 20222023202420252026
Monthly values show the regular seasonal swings. October 2025 was not collected because of the federal shutdown, so the line skips it.

Decade checkpoints

  • 1980$154.16$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 92.2 · overall inflation would give $408.87
  • 1990$128.48$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 110.6 · overall inflation would give $257.88
  • 2000$118.79$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 119.6 · overall inflation would give $195.67
  • 2010$113.41$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 125.3 · overall inflation would give $154.52
  • 2020$117.87$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 120.6 · overall inflation would give $130.19
  • 2025$106.90$100 then, at September 2026 prices · index 132.9 · overall inflation would give $104.66

At the factory gate

The producer price index for women’s footwear, excluding athletic rose 55.6% from 1994 to 2025, while the consumer index for women’s shoes rose 10.4%. Producer prices follow shoes made in the United States, while store prices also cover imported pairs and retail markup, so the two lines can drift far apart. Compare every stage →

Seasonal swing

On a typical year (2015–2025), prices run 1.9% under trend in January and 1.6% over it in October, a spread of 3.4 points. Month-by-month table →

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, series CUUR0000SEAE03 (1982–84 = 100), retrieved nightly. Index numbers track price change, not price levels: an index of 150 for men’s shoes and 130 for women’s does not mean men’s shoes cost more. How we calculate