Inaugurated on 15th September to end on Wednesday 18th at Fiera Milano Rho, Micam 88 , 50° edition – and the first led by the new president Siro Badon – of the international footwear exhibition every six months, says a sector that enjoys good health, but with some critical issues.
First semester: more shadows than lights
In the first half of the year, in fact, data show an export characterized by favourable dynamics in value (+8.4% in the first 5 months) and with a double-digit increase in the trade surplus (+13.1%). However, the first half of the year also recorded volume contractions, increasing differences between large brands and SMEs, difficulties on important foreign markets, a chronic weakness in domestic consumption, which, after a decade of slow erosion, show a -3.7% in volume and a -3.2% in value, with declines in physical stores (-11% in sold pairs, with a decrease close to 16% in expenditure), and a constant growth in online trade (+10.3% in quantity and +17.3% in expenditure)and now covers 11% in quantity and 13% in expenditure of the total purchases of Italian households. An important sector however that represented by micam, that it is worth approximately 14,3 billion euros of turnover, employs beyond 75.000 employed and exports more than 85% of the production.
The numbers of Micam88
The 50th anniversary edition includes more than 1300 exhibitors – 695 Italian and 608 international – distributed over about 60,000 square meters and that sees among the brands “returned” Nero Giardini, Alberto Guardiani and Nine West and among the new entries North sails, hush puppies and Donald Pliner. «We celebrate fifty years looking mainly to the future– emphasized the new president Siro Badon– we will tell five decades of the history of footwear with an exhibition that we will set up first at the fair and then at the mudec in Milan. But let us not look only to the past: new creative ideas, start-ups, new values for the sector and original channels of communication are, in fact, the guidelines on which to focus in order to look with confidence at the next fifty years». Set up in Hall 1, “It’s shoe Time” is the title of the exhibition that celebrates the fifty years of micam with a digital setting that will trace five decades of shapes, colors and fashion of footwear. After micam the exhibition will move to the mudec of Milan where it will be open from 19th to 22nd September. At Micam88 there are also numerous initiatives dedicated to the prospects of the sector and to young talents. Like the“emerging Designer” that from this edition will see every designer supported by the activity of an influencer, in the sign of an evolution that is not only about the product, but also the way to communicate it. “International Lab of Mittelmoda – The Fashion Award”, which on 16th September saw the parade of the 25 finalist collections from 14 countries, is also back.