Set up in 1977, FICE is the business organisation that represents the overall interests of the footwear sector, both at national and autonomous region level and internationally.

It comprises 11 associations based in major industrial areas: Elche, Elda, Villena and Vall d’Uxó (Community of Valencia); Almansa and Fuensalida (Castile-La Mancha), Arnedo (La Rioja), Majorca and Minorca (Balearic Islands); Illueca (Aragon) and Valverde del Camino (Andalusia), and a number of companies linked directly with it from outside the aforementioned areas. 

FICE draws together more than 700 companies that together represent 90% of production and export in the sector across Spain. Generally speaking, its work is aimed at fostering business competitiveness, playing to companies' strengths and guaranteeing a future for the sector through various strategies including internationalisation, promotion, training and information, marketing and distribution, quality, brand support, environmental issues and new technology. It also encourages commitment to innovation, both directly and through the vital support provided by the Footwear Technological Institute INESCOP.

As the EU's second producer and exporter of footwear, through FICE the sector participates in a particularly active way in in Europe as a member of the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry (CEC), the organisation led by FICE's Executive President, Rafael Calvo, for six years in two periods, following which he was named Honorary President.