Milan June 28th, 2019 – the first edition of MISAF – Milan Shoes and Accessories Fair – ended today. The shoe fair organized in Italy by Asian producers to give visibility to their products and to open up to both Italian and European market has become a meeting point between designers and buyers.
Milan, world capital of style and hub of the most important fashion and design schools, with a business that amounted to 75 million euros, is once again a strategic location of an international manifestation and centre of the industrial cooperation between Europe and Asia. An overview of the entire Made in China shoe production chain, among the first markets in the world with around 5 million of sector employees and almost 14 billion of pairs of shoes produced.
“The three days shoes fair has offered an overview of the entire shoe production with a particular focus on the Made in China production, which wants to increase the cooperation in the European and Italian market, starting connections among producers, buyers, designers, brand operators, distributors and e-commerce platforms” – declared Zhang Jie, vice president of the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Light Industrial Products and Arts-Crafts.
At the welcome greeting, in addition to the Chinese personalities present at the fair, there were Patrizia Bisio, from Fashion, Design and Creativity Unit, and Mario Boselli, the President of the Italian Chinese Institute.
“The key word of this manifestation is complementarity, which represents the same philosophy emerged during the partnership recently signed between the National Chamber of the Italian Fashion and the China Fashion Association – commented Mario Boselli, President of the Italian Chinese Institute.
“As the representative of the city, we consider this first appointment very important and it confirms once again Milan as a meeting point of international commercial cooperation. We believe that it’s fundamental to strengthen the collaboration with the Asian market also with the perspective of the next appointment with MISAF that will take place at January 2020. The town administration has the duty and also the right to dialogue with all the stakeholders in the mutual increase, because Milan has an international audience and has to continue to be an example and drive of opportunities and synergies” – declared Patrizia Bisio from Fashion, Design and Creativity Unit of Milan District.
The manifestation, which took place at East End Studios in Via Mecenate, has been organized by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Footwear and by Plum Solution, company that promotes exchanges between China and Europe, and that has created the foundations for becoming the new professional platform for the large-scale footwear industry, giving visibility to the companies that have been on the market for almost 40 years with the ability of satisfying every kind of commission with the best quality-price-design ratio, quality that has been realized also thanks to the entire shoe production that the Chinese industry could realize during the years.
“It’s the first time that China has moved towards Europe with an initiative this important, and we have done because the UE is the main exportation market for Chinese footwear, and Italy, with a percentage around 50% registered in the last years, is the reference importer, even if last year there was a decrease of almost 2 percentage points – declared Ying Wang, General Secretary of the National Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of the Chinese Footwear – We want to revamp the international image of the Chinese footwear showing our potential to everyone: large-scale industries, guaranteed quality and favorable prices, suitable shoes to the large-scale distribution, a lot of comfort products with a good quality-price proportion. We want to promote the cooperation between Asia and Europe and between China and Italy with commercial, technological and design exchanges.”
The models showed at the 102 booths were thousands, from fashion shoes to sports ones, to safety shoes, from a rich offer of men, women, children shoes to interesting proposals of hats, bags, leather products and many more. These are products that have always been appreciated by European consumers.
To increase the connections between Chinese and Italian companies and to deepen the collaborations of mutual benefit, several workshops have been organized during the fair. Seminars were about the evolution of the Italian footwear industry, digital marketing and all the channels of retail trade, European fashion trends. Renato Fiocca, Marketing Professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Director of Marketing Studies Centre in Milan; the designer of the footwear world, Sergio Belloni, who is Professor at Moda in Pelle Academy, and other famous professionals have interacted with exhibitors and all professionals who took part the fair.
At MISAF design has met the best of Chinese production, such as Sheme, first luxury Chinese brand that has participated at Paris, London and New York Fashion Weeks, and Ranch International Limited, among the youngest companies of the Chinese panorama, which is eco-friendly and incubator of new local brands, and also well-known all around the world for their collaboration with famous brands like Adidas.
“We close the first edition of MISAF with the awareness of having created a new and essential business appointment for companies, a commercial overview to promote exchanges, mutual collaboration and win-win relationships” – concludes Xiaomei Yin, General Manager of Plum Solution – “we are very satisfied of the number of visitors that took part at this first new meeting where exhibitors had the chance to sign agreements and negotiations. Today at MISAF the best footwear production offer is made available to international designers and buyers that prefer a good quality but medium-level product”.
Next appointment with MISAF – Milan Shoes and Accessories Fair is fixed for January 2020 during the MFFW.
Press office
SEC SpA
Teresa Baroni, baroni@secrp.com
Arianna Marenzana, marenzana@secrp.com
The first edition proves to be a meeting point between shoe designers and buyers highlighting Milan as the best choice in terms of style and business concreteness.
At the inauguration Mario Boselli, President of Italian Chinese Institute, and Patrizia Bisio, from Fashion, Design and Creativity Unit of Milan District.
