This paper focuses on the examine how the Vietnamese leather and footwear industry can develop in order to become a strong competitor on the global market. From the concepts we developed a conceptual model which will guide us through the research. The uncompetitive national environment of an export industry will have a bad influence on the performance of the firms and lead to export barriers. Firms can overcome these barriers by learning from global buyers. Knowledge transfer from the global buyer to the local firms will only occur if there is a good relationship between the two. When firms succeed to overcome their export barriers they have achieved upgrading.