REVIEW ‘Gallery SHOES & Fashion Industrial Showroom’

REVIEW
‘Gallery SHOES & Fashion Industrial Showroom’
18 – 20 April 2021

“Despite all the current restrictions in place, we are thrilled that we were able to get this one-off ‘Gallery SHOES & Fashion Industrial Showroom’ special edition off the ground as an exclusive service for the industry. But we are obviously delighted that the next events in our seasonal portfolio – Gallery FASHION & Shoes in July 2021 and Gallery SHOES & Fashion at the end of August 2021 – are still being planned to go ahead on the regular, scheduled dates.”

Ulrike Kähler
Managing Director of Igedo Company

Following strict regulations, Igedo Company invited the industry to place their orders at Areal Böhler in Düsseldorf: at the special-edition ‘Gallery SHOES & Fashion Industrial Showroom’ from 18-20 April 2021. Spanning three days, the special ordering event has now closed its doors. It was attended by around 350 brands – covering three halls and with the required distance of at least 1.50 metres between the individual showroom areas.

“Of course the cautious mood has meant that visitor numbers and the overall response weren’t as robust as they would have been at a regular event,” reports Ulrike Kähler. “But it was still important to us as industry partners to show continuity and offer additional solutions, especially in times of crisis.”

In Ulrike Kähler’s opinion, it’s a pity that, due to the COVID pandemic and the associated lockdowns, many people have found it difficult to look optimistically ahead to the future and leave their individual safety zones. But plenty of leading German retailers – and also smaller ones – were still represented at the special edition and used the opportunity to place orders, network and bring themselves up to speed on the latest collections.

Kähler went on to confirm that meetings in person and face-to-face interaction are essential if some semblance of normality is to be maintained at order events. And now more than ever, it is important that industry partners briefly come together in order to prevent the market from fragmenting completely.

As well as accessories, visitors were mainly looking for fashionable collections with a later delivery date to finalise their autumn/winter 2021/22 orders.

“We are expecting regular numbers of visitors to attend our upcoming seasonal order events in July 2021 and at the end of August 2021. This latest one-off edition represented another show of strength,” sums up Ulrike Kähler. But people are still very much looking forward to the regular timetables falling back into place, which will make it easier for everyone to do business again.

“Vaccinations will have picked up pace by the summer and this will ease the overall situation a lot. In the upcoming summer months, there will be much more of a buzz than we are seeing at present due to the lockdown restrictions,” concludes Ulrike Kähler.

 

Upcoming dates in 2021

Gallery FASHION & Shoes 24 – 26 July 2021
Showroom Concept 22 – 26 July 2021

Gallery SHOES & Fashion 29 – 31 August 2021
Showroom Concept 27 – 31 August 2021