The global footwear category is undergoing a fundamental recalibration. While sneakers remain a commercial anchor, department stores worldwide are seeing consumer demand shift toward more polished, versatile styles, alongside rising expectations for precision service and immersive experiences that digital channels cannot replicate. 

The footwear business across IADS members demonstrates stability in turnover share. Women's shoes maintain a consistent 5% of total business across 2024-2025, while men's shoes hold steady at an average share of 3%. Yet beneath this stability lies significant strategic transformation as department stores rewire their operations, assortments and customer engagement models.

Sneaker recalibration: from explosive growth to strategic rightsizing

Comfort remains the foundation of footwear purchasing across all markets. Brands such as On, Adidas, New Balance, Ugg, Birkenstock and Golden Goose continue to anchor performance. However, the sneaker supercycle that defined the past decade is showing clear signs of maturation.

Breuninger exemplifies this shift. Despite delivering its strongest sneaker performance in 2025, with luxury customers purchasing three pairs of Adidas at once, whereas they previously bought one pair of luxury sneakers, the German department store anticipates reducing the total sneaker share of sales. The company has reviewed its women's sneaker brand assortment, with a focus on Veja, Autry, Axel Arigato, Asics, Adidas and On, which continue growing. The collaboration with Adidas delivered a steady increase in customers under 24, demonstrating that strategic brand partnerships can drive recruitment even as the category matures.

The "return to office" dynamic is also reshaping demand patterns. At El Palacio de Hierro, male customers increasingly seek formal yet comfortable options. Brands like Santoni, equipped with rubber soles, perform well in this emerging segment. John Lewis reports women's trainer sales stabilising after years of explosive growth, with Adidas and New Balance still excelling but ballerinas, Mary Janes and loafers gaining ground. Manor witnesses a similar slowdown in sneakers alongside rising demand for versatile, well-priced styles, reflecting heightened price sensitivity.

Yet sneakers retain strategic importance. Galeries Lafayette is leveraging sneaker momentum to build a lifestyle offering, and is considering creating a space that combines sneakers and ready-to-wear: a "brand destination." The ready-to-wear offering focuses on sport-adjacent pieces such as leggings, athleisure, and everyday wear, designed to increase cross-selling.

Strategic priorities: the missing middle and private-label differentiation

Department stores face a recurring challenge: identifying contemporary brands that bridge luxury and sport at accessible price points with genuine scale potential. Galeries Lafayette has identified several French brands showing promise in this segment: Bobbies, Odaje, Repetto, and Jonak. Sam Edelman serves this role for Tryano in the Middle East.

Premium brand scaling represents another strategic lever. Breuninger focuses on scaling Pomme d'Api, Alohas, Aeyde and Santoni to secure high-value customer segments. Breuninger also aims to increase its private-label share, focusing on high-quality European production.

At Galeries Lafayette, the private label serves as the entry-level brand. The assortment includes carryover styles providing continuity and margins, plus trend-responsive styles. Tryano is exploring private label in footwear following initial success in eveningwear.

Operational excellence: service precision and experiential differentiation

Service innovation is becoming a competitive differentiator. Breuninger's Stuttgart flagship has deployed dedicated “runners” on Fridays and Saturdays in the women's shoe section. Sales associates scan shoe barcodes and select the required sizes; shoes are delivered to the shop floor within 1 to 3 minutes, depending on traffic. During weekdays, associates can both sell and act as runners. The efficiency of this system in both service quality and sales uplift demonstrates that operational precision directly impacts commercial performance.

Store reinvestment demonstrates commitment to physical retail. John Lewis is updating flagship locations, including Oxford Street and Bluewater, to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Boyner's store layout emphasises newness by shifting the brand mix toward more affordable luxury brands. El Palacio de Hierro plans to double its exposure of contemporary and luxury shoes, with a presence both on the shoe floor and in ready-to-wear shop-in-shops, to drive traffic and cross-selling.

VIC (Very Important Customer) programming has become a strategic priority. Level Shoes drives loyalty through curated brand events; El Palacio de Hierro hosts VIC dinner experiences in partnership with top luxury brands; Sogo in Hong Kong offers brand workshops centred on craftsmanship storytelling. Going further, Breuninger organised an exclusive behind-the-scenes visit to a luxury Italian production facility for top clients , turning provenance and craftsmanship into a memorable loyalty tool.

Pop-up activations have become universal tactical tools. Tryano deploys in-store activations and pop-ups featuring Aquazzura, Ugg and Axel Arigato alongside On. Bloomingdale's organised an On pop-up in its NYC 59th Street dedicated space, and events with Veja and Ugg. Galeries Lafayette's pop-up strategy featured an Ugg takeover in the Champs-Élysées store during Paris Fashion Week. El Palacio de Hierro's portfolio spans Moon Boot, Zegna, Santoni and more. Boyner collaborates with Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Guess. Breuninger's interactive Copenhagen Studios pop-up in Munich featured influencer activations that leveraged digital creators' audiences to drive foot traffic.

Digital penetration and AI adoption

Online penetration for women's shoes has climbed to an average of 43% of category sales. Men's shoes show lower digital adoption, with an average share of 36%.

Breuninger has scaled online inventory for top-selling styles, ensuring availability and conversion. Boyner develops its marketplace by onboarding new brands to expand digital assortment. Galeries Lafayette reviews assortment, architecture, and open-to-buy allocation for leading brands.

AI is transitioning from experimentation to practical application. Tryano will relaunch e-commerce in 2026 using AI in photo shoots to improve efficiency. The Chalhoub Group has developed an AI assistant for its beauty app, FACES, which has led to longer time spent and higher conversion rates, an initiative that could transfer to other categories. Bloomingdale's is considering AI to optimise floor space and productivity. Boyner uses AI to monitor competitors' prices online.

Retail design principles reshaping footwear environments

Mid-market retailers are investing heavily in elevated store environments, sometimes rivalling luxury merchants on aesthetics. The "less is more" philosophy is filtering from luxury to mass market. As noted by IADS partner and retail analyst Newstores, Zara now employs spacious, edited displays helping customers feel relaxed rather than overwhelmed.

Lifestyle merchandising has become essential. Footwear is increasingly integrated with clothing and accessories as complete lifestyle presentations, as exemplified by Banana Republic's NYC flagship. Standalone shoe shops are becoming rare as category mixing drives additional sales.

Lower-priced retailers face the challenge of maintaining stock depth while projecting an aspirational atmosphere. Primark demonstrates how keeping low displays for shoes with multiple sizes allows sightlines while maintaining density without a discount feel.

Lighting has emerged as the single most critical design element. Marks & Spencer's newly opened Bath store uses backlit shelves and overhead spots to create hero lighting, strategically placing white shoes midway along walls to draw the eye across entire shelves. The principle: light the merchandise, not just the space.

The footwear category stands at an inflexion point. Department stores are actively reshaping their businesses through strategic brand curation, operational precision, immersive experiences, and service innovations that build community. While comfort-driven categories continue to anchor performance, the market is shifting toward polished, versatile styles balancing elegance with ease. Physical retail is justifying its existence through experiences that cannot be replicated digitally, VIC programming that builds loyalty, and service precision that customers can feel. In a world of infinite digital choice, department stores are demonstrating that the most powerful competitive advantage remains the ability to make customers feel that a physical space was designed for them. 

Newstores is a service that delivers daily information about stores that have just opened, been refurbished or remodelled. It analyses what this means for the market and where it points in terms of trends and the direction that retail is taking. Newstores provides a global view of what’s happening from Seoul to London, and from Mexico to Dubai. Issuing four annual trend reports detailing the major moves, Newstores helps retailers make informed decisions. Newstores is compiled, edited and written by John Ryan, a retailer and journalist with more than 30 years of experience, covering all categories, from food to fashion.

Contact: johnhilldown@aol.com 

The International Association of Department Stores (IADS) is the only expert body specialising globally in the department store retail format. Consisting of leading department store members worldwide, the Association serves as an international network that facilitates exchange and communication among its members. It also conducts research to address the current challenges of department stores and provide actionable insights for its members.

Today, IADS permanent members include Almacenes Siman (El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica), Beijing Hualian Group (PRC), Bloomingdale’s (USA), Boyner (Turkey), Breuninger (Germany), Chalhoub Group (UAE), Centro Beco (Venezuela), El Corte Inglés (Spain), El Palacio de Hierro (Mexico), Falabella (Chile, Colombia and Peru), Galeries Lafayette (France), John Lewis & Partners (UK), Lifestyle International Holding (Hong Kong), Magasin du Nord (Denmark), Manor (Switzerland), The Mall Group (Thailand), TSUM Kyiv (Ukraine). These retail leaders are joined by a network of other department stores and retail companies as corresponding members.

Together, the IADS members, all key players in their respective markets, create a landscape of diverse business models and cultures, representing more than € 41billion in combined annual turnover, achieved through over 563 stores with 257,000 associates in 32 countries.

Through its activities and partnerships with Retail Hub, RH-ISAC, and Newstores, the Association remains constantly up to date on its members’ questions and challenges. It generates solution-driven problem-solving processes for its members, preparing them to face the future of the retail industry.

Press Contact: IADS, press@iads.org

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