Country-level analysis of the relationships between sustainability and the textile–clothing–leather–footwear industries

The current study aims to investigate the relationships between sustainability and the textile–clothing–leather–footwear (TCLF) industries in four countries, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The quantitative approach involved using the linear regression model for data from 2010 to 2020 related to three independent variables of TCLF configurations and six dependent variables of sustainability. Our findings show significant positive relationships between the trade balance values of agricultural raw materials (TB of ARM), footwear (TB of FOOT), and textiles and clothing (TB of TEXT), which were recognized as the key variables of the TCLF industries with overall sustainability and an emerging circular economy in the study areas. Among the four countries, the strongest correlations between TCLF industries and sustainability belonged to Italy. The novelty of this research lies in identifying the relevant variables from the World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) and Eurostat databases to evaluate the TCLF industries–sustainability relationships at the country level.