This paper attempts an appraisal of competitiveness levels in international trade in the footwear industryand its parts in Norte de Santander in the period 2007-2012 from the standpoint of export boom, in doingso, a methodology based on the Index of Export Performance (IDE ) is used, which is composed of sixdifferent variables that have different weightings within the index, whose rating is from 0 ( the industrywith no successful export performance ) to 10 ( the industry with successful export performance ),the results suggest that Norte de Santander’s industry is not successful and highly uncompetitive ,whose overall score of 3.8 pts IDE is the result of reduced operations at the end of the research period,low diversification in main export markets, this, together with the high dependence of a single exportmarket and low efforts regarding complexity of markets, reduces opportunities for growth and industrydevelopment both at home and abroad . Keywords: international trade, competitiveness, growth, exporter performance, industry