Portuguese footwear industry invests 50 million in innovation

The Portuguese footwear industry will invest 50 million euros in innovation and digital economy to make the sector "the world leader in customer relations through product sophistication, rapid response and service level."

FOOTure 4.0, announced today at the Footwear Technological Center (CTCP) in São João da Madeira in a session chaired by the Prime Minister, António Costa, presents itself as a "roadmap for digital economy" aimed at "exploring the opportunities created by Industry 4.0", involving "a new ecosystem" of more than 70 entities between companies, ‘startup’ (companies with growth potential), universities, intelligence centers, as well as entities of the scientific and technological system.

According to the Association of Footwear, Components, Leather Goods and Their Substitutes (APICCAPS), FOOTure 4.0 defined four "strategic priorities": create ways of customer interaction in a digital and network context; improve flexibility, customer response time, business intelligence and sustainability; qualify the sector for Industry 4.0, making it more dynamic, innovative and capable of creating business; and improve the intelligence and image of the industry sector.

To achieve these goals, the roadmap foresees, for example, the development of new business models, the use of omnicanal strategies and the adoption of customer co-creation processes; the adoption of technologies and processes to ensure rapid and flexible production as well as transformations in terms of product development, efficient prototyping and scanning processes.

With FOOTure 4.0 it is also intended to attract young people and create skills, to qualify the top management of companies and promote qualified entrepreneurship, as well as to put forward the collective image of the industry sector.