Women’s Shoes Lead Price Increases in September

Shoe prices increased in September in tandem with overall inflation, according to the latest data from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA).

In September, retail prices of footwear climbed 1.3 percent, just shy of August’s 1.4 percent advance and the second fastest in seventeen months, the FDRA noted.

This comes as prices were generally higher across each target market last month. Rising 2.8 percent from twelve months earlier, prices for women’s footwear led to the upside in September, the second fastest in more than two and a half years.

Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA, told FN that the September expansion in total pushed year-to-date footwear prices “modestly higher.”

“Retail footwear prices now have climbed year-over-year for three straight months. We look for this streak to lengthen as surging duties on footwear imports permeate the footwear supply chain all the way to the checkout register.”

This new data comes at the same time as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff increases continue to instill anxiety over shoe price hikes for the rest of 2025 and heading into 2026.

Last month’s increase in retail footwear prices also comes at the same time the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that overall inflation continued to gain traction in September.

September also marks the fifth straight month that the annual inflation rate has accelerated.

According to the delayed release of the bureau’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), a broad measure of goods and services costs across the U.S. economy, retail inflation rose 3.0 percent in September from a year earlier, the fastest increase in sixteen months.

The report also saw prices increase 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in September, after rising 0.4 percent the prior month. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the core CPI rose 0.2 percent in September and increased 3.0 percent over the same time last year.