Micam Milano, the world’s largest footwear trade show, wants to capitalize on the growing sneaker and urban outdoor trends with the second edition of the Players District, a new segment within the fair in which companies like Lotto, Joma Sport, CMP and Garmont participated last September in a dedicated space. The encouraging results of this experiment have led the organizers to continue the initiative at the next edition, scheduled to be held in Milan on Feb. 16-19, but the list of the participants is not yet available.
Micam’s Players District will again be anchored by Skechers. Like us with SGI Europe and Shoe Intelligence, the American footwear brand has being playing successfully in both the fashion and athletic segments of the footwear market, with a presence in regular shoe shops as well as in the sporting goods stores. It has had one of the largest booths at the fair for years. Big sporting goods retail groups, including Intersport, have been successfully running growing networks of lifestyle shoe stores under different banners in the last few years.
At last September’s edition of Micam, 8.5 percent of its visitors showed interest in the sports shoes presented at the fair, with 34 percent of them looking for men’s sports shoes and 40 percent for women’s shoes. Furthermore, 16 percent of the interest in this segment was concentrated on trekking and other outdoor shoes, with an even split between men’s and women’s styles.
Another reason for Micam’s new initiative, which is supported by Assosport, is the fact that Italy has many sports and outdoor brands, especially in the area around Montebelluna, and that many of them continue to manufacture some or all of their products in Italy.
In the first nine months of 2019, Italian producers exported 11.8 million pairs of sports shoes, 9.5 percent more than in the corresponding period of 2018. Exports of the items reached a level of €650 million, 6.7 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2018. Furthermore, while Italian consumption of footwear in general stagnated, Italian households spent 3.4 percent more on this type of shoes than in the corresponding period of 2018, after an increase of 5 percent in 2018.
