It comes to the fore in the footwear industry (6)
I believe the answer is:
toecap
'it' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'to the fore in the footwear industry' is the wordplay.
'the fore in the footwear industry' becomes 'ecap' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to'+'ecap'='TOECAP'
'comes' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for toecap that I've seen before include "Front cover of shoe" , "part of footwear" , "Shoe protector" , "Protective front of boot" , "Tip of shoe" .)