An initiative to promote social responsibility in the Italian footwear sector. Assocalzaturifici supports the Social Enterprise “I Bambini delle Fate” in the Rugby Oltre initiative in Lombardy.
A project that aims to use this sports discipline as a means of stimulating and improving motor, cognitive and social skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, exploiting the fundamental rules of the game and readjusting them to the needs of the boys and girls who participate in the activity.
Top Repute-organizer of trade shows in China and Vietnam-changes the dates for two of its trade shows:
Dates unchanged for Shoes & Leather Vietnam, which will be July 10 to 12, 2024
The 94th edition of Pitti Immagine Filati (Florence, Fortezza da Basso, Jan. 24-26, 2024) ends with a turnout of 3,000 buyers – including about 1,170 from abroad, 3 percent more than last January.
The show presented yarn collections for the 2025 spring-summer season designed and produced by the best Italian and international spinning mills, with a total of 115 exhibitors. In the ranking of international attendance, France, Great Britain, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, the United States, Spain, mainland China, Japan and the Netherlands were at the top.
It is precisely the sharp increase in Asian buyers (South Korea and China-Hong Kong should be added to the aforementioned countries) that is perhaps the element that characterized this round of the fair.
The Wortmann Group company shoe.com GmbH & Co. KG was successful before the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. In the judgment of 26.01.2024 (Ref. 6 U 29/23), the Higher Regional Court of Cologne revoked the judgment of the lower court of 11.05.2023, in which the Regional Court of Cologne prohibited shoe.com GmbH & Co. KG from selling 2 sandal models that were said to violate Birkenstock’s copyrights. The Higher Regional Court of Cologne was convinced that the copyrights had not been sufficiently demonstrated and proven. “We are pleased that the court has followed our legal opinion,” said Jens Beining, CEO of Wortmann Schuh-Holding KG, shortly after the judgment was announced. The judgment is not yet final and can be legally appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.
An increasingly united community to grow the international shoe and bag business the one that attended the 100th edition of Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags.
To celebrate the fair’s 50-year history, the entire footwear world gathered in Riva del Garda. 16 trade associations representing all major manufacturing countries gathered to discuss crucial issues for the industry.
The coming hot season, that of spring/summer 2025, will be marked by a distinct focus on natural elements, by a focus on the kind of memory built on cultural blends typical of our times, and by a future that could be forged by artificial intelligence.
What does this all mean? That a sneaker might return to nature through washed-out fabrics reminiscent of a desert after the storm, frayed rather than dusty.
But that same sneaker could feature hyper-reflective materials and have the typical appearance of a portrait from the future. Well-textured and with materials reminiscent of surfaces from distant planets. And it is amazing how ever that sneaker could be redesigned, reinvented and reimagined as if artificial intelligence had designed it. Taste then would shift to creations that look to the past but also hide a surprising touch of the present.
For it is precisely A.I. that is the perfect tool for blending worlds distant in space, culture and time, and generating astonishing novelty. On the wall where the tones of 2025 are brushed, you will find a color aesthetic that ranges from urban Afro and Latin to synthetic hyperrealism, and then crosses over into the transparencies of sporty well-being.
The Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, explained very well the challenges facing the fashion world with respect to the issue of sustainability:
“We are facing a polarized market, with on the one hand the exponential growth of luxury, and on the other a trend toward a strong acceleration of fast-fashion, creating a scenario of great complexity. There are many challenges that consumers face in choosing green options, such as lack of collections, high prices, and scarcity of information on product sustainability.”
It is precisely these challenges that we discuss in this issue devoted in particular to two important events that have highlighted difficulties and opportunities that the sector must face or seize in order to continue on the virtuous path that has undoubtedly already moved several steps forward, as witnessed by the initiatives put in place by many companies.
Breadth of perspective is what connotes Open Source software. Open software, in fact, frees users from dependence on a single pro- ducer. It facilitates their learning and receives more support from the community, as well as enjoying a high level of integration.
What if this were also the case for educational experiences? The more a School opens up its horizon of reference, the more it gains the freedom to draw information from multiple sources, to learn from the community, and to better integrate into its target sector.
For Arsutoria, the workshop School, openness and permeability with respect to the industrial world, and not only, of footwear and hand- bags has always been a given, as the next pages show: participation in international workshops, competitions, fashion shows, visits to important names in fashion, such as Hugo Boss, in-depth classroom seminars held by renowned brands.
These are all opportunities for openness and growth for the students, who thus have the chance to add a set of experiences of incalculable value to their already rich course of study (sketching and drawing by hand and digitally of the product and its components, tools and methodology for building a collection, designing and prototyping models both by hand and computer, designing and making prototypes).
Yes, you will find that Arsutoria has taken the national and international stage in recent months, not so much to show off as to provide as ‘Open Source’ an experience as possible for its pupils.
That of leather, is the core business of most of the big Luxury brands, coming to represent as much as 50% and 70% of their turnover. The Italian leather supply chain is the only one that encompasses, at the highest level of excellence, all the links of the value chain in a single territory, within specialized districts.
The aggregate leather sector (tannery, footwear, leather goods, and technology) represents an important slice of Italian manufacturing: it employs a total of more than 130 thousand people (4% of the Italian manufacturing sector), produces more than 30 billion euros in turnover and an added value of 6 billion, or 3% of the added value generated by Italian manufacturing.
In 2022, Italy was reconfirmed as the leading value exporter in Europe for supply chain technologies, tanned leather, leather goods and footwear. Italian savoir-faire is recognized worldwide: the value of exports of the four supply chains in 2022 amounted to about 27 billion euros (+15% compared to 2021). Of these, about 45% were footwear and 40% leather goods, with diversified destinations to Europe, the United States, South Korea and China among the top destinations.
The trade balance is around 15 billion euros (1.7 billion for tannery, 7.2 billion for leather goods, 5.4 billion for footwear and 300 million for technology). We are talking about a “national champion.”
The winter edition of PERFORMANCE DAYS, which took place for the first time in a larger space at the Messe München fairgrounds, ended on Oct. 5, 2023, with 2,625 visitors and 436 exhibitors from 34 countries in attendance.
Operators showed appreciation for the new features that made the event more comprehensive and easy to visit, starting with the new look and the recently integrated footwear area with its own Footwear Forum, which provided information on innovations and ‘hot’ topics in the industry.
“The introduction of the new footwear area has been very well received by both exhibitors and visitors. It perfectly complements the existing apparel offering, and some apparel exhibitors have even joined the footwear area, creating a positive synergy. A solution that simplifies the search for materials, components and suppliers for footwear designers and product managers, and which no other trade fair currently offers. The Footwear Forum has, in addition, received exceptionally positive feedback, praised as informative, innovative and inspiring.”
Nina Conrad, sustainability consultant in the textile/leather industry and the new Footwear Area
The fair’s versatile formats, such as the separate Sustainability Lounge and Innovation Forum, were also particularly well received. “I can only emphasize once again how important it is to create more and more close collaboration on the topic of sustainability within the industry,” said Anna Rodewald of GreenroomVoice and co-chair of the dedicated sustainability space, “and the Sustainability Lounge created the perfect context to foster this collaboration.
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