...and is confirmed as a great showcase of 'Made in Spain' footwear

...the fair was held between 4-6 March in Halls 6 and 8 of Feria de Madrid. MOMAD Shoes, International Event for Footwear and Leather Items, met expectations. Since its first edition it has shown itself to be a great showcase of 'Made in Spain' footwear. Throughout the course of the event, held between 4-6 March at Feria de Madrid, it welcomed visits from 5,461 registered professionals, of which around 10% came from abroad.

The Spanish autonomous communities with the highest number of buyers present were Madrid, with 28%, Valencia, with 18.5%, Andalusia, with 7.8%, and Galicia, with 6.5%.

In terms of its international scope, MOMAD Shoes received visits from foreign professionals hailing from 40 countries. Portugal, with 45% of the visits, followed by Italy, France and Germany, were the countries with the highest number of buyers present at the trade fair. The trade fair organised an International Buyers' Programme, formed by approximately 50 retailers from strategic markets for the Spanish footwear industry, like the United States of America, Canada, Russia, Colombia and Ecuador, among others.

The new monographic concept for this event focused exclusively on footwear that is being offered by MOMAD Shoes has attracted great levels of interest among professionals. 60% of the buyers that visited the event had not attended the multi-sector fashion trade fair in the last five seasons , which encompassed footwear and textiles in the same sector. “This information, together with the fact that the number of exhibitors has doubled compared with February 2015, when footwear was still presented in conjunction with Fashion and Accessories in the same trade fair, confirms that MOMAD Shoes is making progress in the right direction and that its attractive features will continue to be strengthened in future editions”, states Jaime de la Figuera, the event's Director.

Complete exhibition space

In this first edition solely dedicated to footwear, MOMAD Shoes brought together offerings from 470 footwear and bag brands –both national and foreign- and 230 exhibitors who presented their product lines for the coming Autumn/Winter 2016/17 season, in an exhibition space totalling 9,000 net square metres, double what it was in February 2015, when the footwear collections were presented together with the clothing and accessories products at the multi-sector fashion event. These notable participation figures confirm the sector's backing of this new event, and the favourable reception that the event had in all of its market segments, including the top-segment brands. Furthermore, MOMAD Shoes already had a very high level of participation in its first edition from the different Spanish production regions, the the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja and Castilla-La Mancha.

MOMAD Shoes meets exhibitors' expectations

The first edition of MOMAD Shoes ended with a favourable assessment for the majority of the participating companies. The exhibiting companies that were consulted concluded that their initial expectations had been met and validate the event as an unmissable date for the industry in the Iberian Peninsula, and a space where new contacts can be made and the loyalty of existing customers can be sustained. All of the exhibitors highlighted the effort made by the organisation to once again hold a monographic trade fair focused exclusively on footwear and leather goods. “Although it may attract fewer visitors, it is necessary that the footwear sector have its own exhibition space because our clients are demanding it", indicated Manuel Benito, Director of Prices at Luisetti.

Daniel Navarro, Sales Manager at Martinelli and Enrique Secall, Manager of TBS in Spain had positive things to say about of their participation in the trade fair. “We have made contact with potentially new, high-quality and interesting customers.” Similar feedback was also received from Nany Maños, from the Sales Department of the children's clothing company Guantitos, who assures that being present at MOMAD Shoes is “necessary and beneficial for everyone”. Maños also highlighted the professionalism of the visitors that were in attendance, saying that “most were clearly there for a specific reason, and few just to look around”. Pilar Sanchiz, Manager of the company Hannibal Laguna, was also satisfied. She declared that initial expectations had been exceeded with "a large volume of orders being made and new contacts having been established”. José Luis Arráez, Manager of Finance at Lodi, also expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the trade fair, saying that "we have not been at the exhibition for five years and it was well worth taking part in. We have received a reasonable volume of orders, despite customers showing caution in their purchases, following the complicated winter season”. For their part, Claudio Ferreiro, Sales Manager at Victoria said that they were happy with the approach of the new event. “We are making progress in the right direction. Now all we need is for brands and commerce to make a contribution towards the consolidation of Momad Shoes”, he confirmed.

Striking showcase of trends

The importance of MOMAD Shoes as a showcase of trends is brought about by the participation of a large number of companies that set the trend for fashion in footwear and accessories internationally, and also wield a great deal of influence overall in the sector in Spain, as is the case of Mascaró, Pretty Ballerinas, Pons Quintana, Pura López, Estefanía Marco, Chie Mihara, Martinelli, Wonders, Gioseppo, , Hannibal Laguna, Sacha London, Lodi, Pertini, Pedro Miralles, Xti, Refresh, Mustang, Coolway, Sendra Boots, Gioseppo and Mayoral.  Together with these brands were other significant footwear companies, belonging to different market segments, like El Naturalista, Kanna, Hispanitas, Victoria, Plumers, Tolino, Yumas, José Sáenz, Nature, Kess, Gant, Carolina Boix, Belset Menorca, Dakar, T-Man, Mario Corti, Pantofola D’Oro, Lemon Jelly, Acebo’s, Guantitos and Lotus, among others.

Similarly, in bags, the event saw the participation of leading companies like Skunkfunk, Pertegaz Bags & Accesories, Puntotres, New Rios, Drap Difusión, Coronel Tapioca and Privata and in leather, Blue Ribbon and Makari.

Attractive parallel activities

Alongside the commercial fair, MOMAD Shoes presented an interesting and complete programme of activities to attract the attention of a large number of visitors. Among them were talks that were given in the scope of the MOMAD Forum, the area for information and knowledge at the event, where topics of interest were covered for the sector as a whole, like the importance of social networks, online commerce, pop-up stores or ephemeral stores, and responsible and sustainable fashion. Likewise, the event organised by FICE, MOMAD Shoes and the magazine Global Fashion Export, with some of the main retailers in the country, like Botichelli, Calçats Muné, Foxter, Gloria Sport, Krack, Lola Rey, Oskarbi Oinetakoal, and Zabol, among others, also received a lot of attention at the trade fair and within the sector.

Furthermore, MOMAD Shoes presented the "Shoe Street Art" exhibition in the aisle of the central area at Feria de Madrid, which was organised in collaboration with INESCOP,.This exhibition presented 13 large-scale shoe sculptures, decorated by street artists using graffiti, paint and collage techniques. The event also included the photography presentation "Calzarte 6.11”, which brought together the winning and finalist photos from the photography competition held between 2006 and 2011 and promoted by the Museum of Footwear of Elda, in collaboration with the School of Photography Imaging Centre (EFTI),

The next edition of MOMAD Shoes will be held between 9-11 September, coinciding with the dates and venue of MOMAD Metrópolis, International Event for Clothing and Accessories, and the trade fairs Intergift, Bisutex and MadridJoya.

MOMAD Shoes, Madrid
(21/03/2016)