Expo Riva Schuh: a workshop full of ideas and new trends for the market

Expo Riva Schuh closes its 80th edition with 10,850 visitors, +1.5% compared to June 2012.  “Expo Riva Schuh is an ever-evolving workshop which celebrates its 80 years looking forward to the future – states Giovanni Laezza, Managing Director of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi. At every single edition, around 3 billion pairs of shoes are sold and concrete  business opportunities continue to multiply. As far as we are concerned, we can only continue to enable this enormous potential to grow, a force that has been built up over the years offering new spaces and new services: for example, this time round we have added 1,500 square metres of exhibition space, involving new countries such as Ethiopia, Greece and Singapore”.

During the four days of the event, the halls were filled with people from all over the footwear world. Interesting to note the strong presence from countries outside of Europe, and especially Canada, the United States, Japan China, Mexico and Chile, as well as the operators present from Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.

From this very international workshop, new guidelines emerge regarding the trends for the 2014 Spring/Summer collections: for women, a very open kind of footwear, with ankle boots that wrap around the foot up to the ankle and hand-made thong sandals; for men, the British style evolution shines through along with the used look and shoes made of natural leather. While for children, as well a fluorescent colours, a trend inspired by comics is much in evidence.

“Expo Riva Schuh is a real melting pot of ideas and trends - explains Carla Costa, Manager of the Fairs Unit of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi. Our event continues more and more to know how to ‘move and shake’ new trends and new ideas for footwear in terms of innovation and research, offering just the right mix between the quality brands and the lower priced production from southern Europe, Asia and Latin-America.”

Expo Riva Schuh celebrated its historic birthday with 1,297 exhibitors (of whom 954 were foreign) starting off with numerous, young, new brands which came from emerging markets such as India and the Far East: a truly great glocal project which succeeded in bringing all the stars of the international footwear market to this Trentino town.

Thanks to its early position in the exhibition calendar, the event represents an important moment for the sector to meet and a privileged showroom for worldwide production. The big volumes of shoes sold in Europe pass through Riva del Garda: the event has established its strategic position as the appointment from which the big distribution chains build their sample collections, as well as being a meeting point for a confirmed presence of retailers.

Expo Riva Schuh confirms the dates for the next edition which will run from January 11th to 14th 2014.