Abicalçados, the Brazilian Footwear Industries Associations, has as its objective to act as an advocate for the interests of manufacturers of shoes, leather upper shoes, leather goods, and travel goods by means of supporting the industrys favored policies. The Association watches over all domestic and international issues that pertain to the members activities and gets directly involved in such issues when they affect the industrys performance .

Abicalçados was founded in 1983, Its members include very small and medium-sized footwear manufacturers from several different states in Brazil.The headquarters of the Association is located in Novo Hamburgo, the main city in the largest shoe-manufacturing cluster in the world, the Sinos River Valley (Vale do Sinos) in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Abicalçados comprises the following bodies:

a) General Assembly;

b) Legislative Council;

c) Board of Directors;

d) Board of Treasurers;

e) Board of Former Presidents;

f) Union Board

Around 140 different countries import shoes from Brazil, generating an inward flow of US$ 1.911 billion in revenues. 177 million of which were exported in 2007. The chief importers of Brazilian shoes are the United States, followed by Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The Brazilian footwear industrial park is one of the most modern in the world. Brazilian shoe manufacturers operate state-of-the-art machinery and equipment, using high-quality raw materials, supplied mostly within the Brazilian domestic market itself.

Currently, 300,000 people are employed directly by the footwear industry in Brazil.

President

The entrepreneur Milton Cardoso, elected in July 2007, is the president of the Brazilian Association of Shoe Manufacturers (Abicalçados) until 2009. Born in the State of São Paulo in 1956, Cardoso is graduated in Economy and was already a university professor. However, he calls himself a shoemaker because he has been working in the sector for more than 20 years.
 
The word challenge is one of the most used in his vocabulary for two reasons: he is responsible for two of the biggest footwear companies in Brazil and for participating in the direction of the Association.

For more than ten years he has been the superintendent manager of Vulcabrás, where he also occupied the position of financial director. In August of 2007 he got the supervision of Calçados Azaléia. The two companies together employ more than 30 thousand workers.