Despite the difficult market situation, the International Exhibition of Shoes and Accessories GDS, held in Düsseldorf in mid-September 2008, increased the number of exhibitors by 6%: 820 exhibitors from 32 countries presented their Spring-Summer 1950 collections in September 2009 ... The exhibition was attended by over 33 thousand people. In September, the exhibition took place for the first time in the new pavilions of the Düsseldorf exhibition center and with a new concept
Key changes
The exhibition was segmented in a new way - taking into account more market niches (for more details see Shoes Report, # 57).
The distribution of the various expositions in the pavilions was made so that visitors could orient themselves at the exhibition as quickly as possible.
The design of pavilions and stands has become more modern.
The GLS Accessory Show is now fully integrated into GDS to provide the necessary synthesis between shoes and accessories.
The business program has been strengthened to make GDS the main information platform for the shoe business community.
Soul movements in the rhythm of rap
Young and talented designers demonstrated their abilities in the “design attack” zone. Traditionally, every season a certain theme is selected for this exhibition - this time it was held under the motto SOULEXPRESS (“soul movement”). The object of research participants became the relationship between fashion, art and rap. The brands Gumbies (Great Britain), HOKKA (Germany) and Buygo (Germany) took part in the project. After the reorganization, the “design attack” zone was supplemented by expositions similar in direction - “urban fresh” and “urban active”, where the mainstream of youth fashion - Skechers, Yellow CAB and Tatonka was presented.
And the Confederation of German Footwear Manufacturers (HDS) for the 11th time held the Footwear Fashion Future Award for young designers during the exhibition. The jury evaluated creativity, originality, innovativeness, technical performance. The prize fund was 5000 euros. The works of the winners were transferred to the German Museum of Leather and Shoes.
Profit VS Ethics
A separate exposition at GDS was dedicated to companies that have chosen caring for the noosphere as their main development strategy. The relevance of such a choice in Europe is obvious - according to German studies, 60% of women from 14 to 64 years old pay great attention to how responsible manufacturers are in protecting the environment. The purpose of the exposition is to show, using specific examples, how such conflicting interests as economic benefit and social responsibility can be combined. Terra Plana, L'O, Simple, TOMS Shoes, El Naturalista, shared their experience in this area (by the way, it was this company that received the “Ethical Fashion Product of the year 2007” status from the British Observer magazine).
Sneakers for the winter
The GDS business program this time was unusually rich in themes.
An agency from Amsterdam, Y Trends, specializing in youth fashion, held several seminars with provocative names: “Pros and Cons” of eco-shoes, “How to Make Sneakers for the Winter,” “Sunday Morning Creativity Test.”
Disney shared its experience with licensed products and presented a collection of footwear for teenagers, the characters of which are the characters of the series High School Musical (the series will appear in the Russian box office in 2009).
The Shoe Institute, HDS in collaboration with Ricosta and the Institute of Sports Medicine from Postdam presented the results of their research project: in a few months they measured more than 10 thousand children's feet and processed the data to create a new fullness scale. During the exhibition, everyone received information about.
Schuhkurier editors gave a lecture on merchandising practices in German stores.
Summing up the exhibition, Ralph Riker, president of HDS and managing partner of Ricosta, said: “In fact, we were pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of visitors. All three days were filled with work, and the order portfolio was very well assembled. The reorganization of two exhibitions - GDS and Global Shoes - brought significant positive results. ”
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