The present study shows the impacts of globalization and its interference on internationalization strategies and competitiveness of the shoe sector. It presents as a study case shoe companies based in the state of the Ceará, the process of internationalization and the used strategies to promote it. The study is based on bibliographical research as well as statistical data. It analyzes the globalization and the difficulties of management that companies come across, the importance of cooperation between companies, the tax and financial incentives granted by the government and presents the structural change that the sector is causing in the trade balance of the state traditionally agricultural. It concludes that the use of tax incentives for the attraction of companies of footwear from the south and southeast of the country has been very productive for the state mainly for having given to the sector an international projection.