This study examines innovation as a shock reaction in the process of regional economic resilience, focusing on a footwear industrial district in southern Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that innovation, a mechanism of adaptability, emerged in the industrial district not only to support economic recovery, but also to mitigate the adverse effects. Firms implemented novel marketing and sales processes, and some also had to change their information and communication systems or organisational structure to support e-commerce. As such, this study highlights the influence of adaptability on economic resistance.