For the first nine months this year, Vietnam’s footwear exports increased 10.2 per cent year-on-year. Vietnam is the second biggest exporter of footwear to the US behind China. US sports apparel company Brooks Running is considering shifting its manufacturing operations from China to Vietnam to avoid trade war tariffs.

Vietnam will be a new supply chain for Brooks. The impact of the US trade war with China is going to put a 45 per cent tariff on the company’s running shoes. The move will allow Brooks Running to be more competitive in the US and in the world as tariffs are lower in Vietnam. Brooks sells sports footwear, apparel, bras and accessories in 50 countries worldwide.

Meanwhile Adidas too plans to shift footwear sourcing from China to Vietnam. Vietnam has in fact overtaken China as Adidas’ top supplier, with Vietnamese factories producing 44 per cent of its shoes by volume last year against 19 per cent by Chinese manufacturers.

The US-China trade war escalated last month as the US levied new tariffs of ten per cent on Chinese products, with the tariffs set to go up to 25 per cent by the end of this year. China retaliated immediately with five per cent and ten per cent tariffs on US products.