The economic development of the Brazilian footwear industry started in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul with the arrival of the first wave of German immigrants in July, 1824. These early settlers of the Sinos River Valley (Vale do Sinos) practiced agriculture and animal raising activities, but they also brought with them a culture of craftsmanship, especially in leather goods.

At the early start, their production was all homemade and was devoted mostly to the manufacture of harness gears. It would soon be boosted by the war efforts against Paraguay, a major armed conflict in South America which lasted from 1864 to 1870. With the war over, there was a need to increase the consumer market of both harness gears and shoes. As a result, the first tanneries and machinery manufacturing businesses started to appear, thus enabling the manufacturing process to become more industrialized.

The first shoe factory in Brazil opened in 1888 in the Sinos River Valley, a business founded by Pedro Adams Filho, the son of German immigrants who had been a manufacturer of harness gears and who also owned a tannery. The demand for shoes in the state of Rio Grande do Sul""s consumer market surged on a yearly basis, thus allowing for increased production volumes every year. With time, this expansion led to the formation of what is currently one of the largest industrial clusters in the footwear industry worldwide.

The need to expand shoe sales to overseas markets began to take shape in the early 1960s, in contrast with the downward trend in exports of salted raw hides. The first large-scale Brazilian export sales occurred in 1968 with the shipping to the United States of Franciscano brand sandals manufactured by Strassburger.

Brazilian domestic production in that decade was around 80 million pairs of shoes per year. Soon, new markets started to open internationally and businesses prospered. The shoe manufacturing companies at the time made direct contact with international buyers and worked directly with their line builders. Today, footwear exports are the second most important item in the Brazilian trade sheet, generating US$ 1.8 billion in revenues in international operations.

Currently, Brazil has over 7,500 footwear manufacturing businesses located in several different states, with the largest footwear clusters located in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, and Ceará.