{"id":263,"date":"2025-08-19T20:38:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/ecco-and-lowa-to-close-factories-in-slovakia\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:38:04","slug":"ecco-and-lowa-to-close-factories-in-slovakia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/ecco-and-lowa-to-close-factories-in-slovakia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecco and Lowa to close factories in Slovakia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>      <!-- formato --><\/p>\n<div class=\"img-news-detail\">\n<figure class=\"alpha\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.worldfootwear.com\/media\/images\/news\/wf20252310741p.jpg\" alt=\"Ecco and Lowa to close factories in Slovakia \" title=\"Ecco and Lowa to close factories in Slovakia \"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <!-- \/\/--><\/p>\n<p>This summer, the German outdoor footwear brand Lowa and the Danish footwear brand Ecco are set to close their factories in Slovakia. This is a cause for concern for the country\u2019s footwear industry<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>By July and August, <strong>Ecco will close its production facility in the northern Slovakian town of Martin<\/strong>, which has attracted direct investments from Western Europe since 1998, symbolizing the country\u2019s transition from a centralised economy under communism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This decision forms part of the <strong>company\u2019s strategy to reorganise its global production<\/strong> amid a general decline in demand.\u00a0As one of six production sites in Ecco\u2019s global network, the factory has produced over 50 million pairs of shoes for international markets.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">\n<p><strong>Around 650 employees will be affected<\/strong> by the closure, though this will not impact Ecco\u2019s retail business in Slovakia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The German footwear brand<strong> Lowa is also set to discontinue production at its Handlov\u00e1 plant<\/strong>\u00a0on the 31<sup>st o<\/sup>f August. This move is part of a review of its industrial structure aimed at increasing efficiency.\u00a0<strong>The number of employees affected has not been disclosed<\/strong>, but Tecnica Group, Lowa\u2019s parent company, has stated that it is working closely with its partners to provide support for those affected, including relocation opportunities.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">The <strong>simultaneous closure of two international factories has raised concerns about Slovakia\u2019s suitability as an industrial location<\/strong>. High energy prices and declining demand in key markets have hindered the country\u2019s footwear production in recent years. According to the 2024 World Footwear Yearbook (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldfootwear.com\/store\/yearbook-2024-electronic-paper-book-version\/37.html?utm_source=Banner%20Highlights%20HomePage&amp;utm_medium=referral\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\">more information available HERE<\/a>), exports of Slovakian footwear, primarily destined for Germany, declined in 2023.<\/div>\n<p><em>Sources: shoeintelligence.com and shoez.biz\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Image Credits: windeurope.org<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldfootwear.com\/news\/ecco-and-lowa-to-close-factories-in-slovakia\/10741.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This summer, the German outdoor footwear brand Lowa and the Danish footwear brand Ecco are set to close their factories in Slovakia. This is a cause for concern for the country\u2019s footwear industry By July and August, Ecco will close its production facility in the northern Slovakian town of Martin, which has attracted direct investments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwear-socks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}