After its successful debut, the Players District, a dedicated area inside MICAM Milano for outdoor and sports shoes, will be back for the show (Feb. 16-19) at the Fiera Milano. The layout’s central feature will once again be The Arena, an area dedicated to demonstrating all the different types of sports footwear “in action” through a series of performances and dynamic events in tune with the spirit of the sports lifestyle.
The Players District is a reflection of market trends which indicate that the sports footwear segment is expanding rapidly, according to show organizers. In the first nine months of 2019, Italian families spent 3.4 percent more on sports-related shoes compared to the same period in 2018 for a total of €750 million and 15.4 million pairs sold. Along with sneakers, the sports sector is the only one to show an increase in sales in the Italian market, which has been undergoing a long period of stagnation.
Figures provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) regarding exports of Italian sports shoes are also positive. In the first 9 months of 2019, Italy exported 11.8 million pairs, an increase of 9.5 percent. Extending the analysis to the European Union, Eurostat reports that the 28 member States exported more than 200 million pairs in the same period, for a total of €6.3 billion.
Assocalzaturifici has been monitoring sports footwear trends for some time and has set up this area to demonstrate the importance of this specific segment and provide manufacturers and buyers with an exclusive area to conduct business. At the September edition of MICAM, sports shoes were amongst the products most dealt-in at the fair. Sixteen percent of interest in this segment was concentrated on “trekking and outdoor footwear”
