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Sport and Style unite
The hotly anticipated ispo SPORT & STYLE took place in the eclectic city of Munich this month. Approximately 17, 500 trade visitors came to the premier of the new trade fair concept, which reflected the fusion of sport with fashion, music and lifestyle. Becci Knowles reports on what turned out to be a deeply inspirational show…
A total of 821 exhibitors from 35 countries presented their latest products and collections for summer 2008, to purchasers from approximately 89 countries at the new and improved ispo summer show. About 80% of exhibitors and 48% of visitors were foreign, a clear indication of the high esteem in which the show is held worldwide. In addition to Germany, the highest number of visitors came from Italy, the USA,Switzerland,Austria,France, China, India,Pakistan and Taiwan.A British exhibitor however, commented on the lack of UK brands at the show, but was adamant this was not the fault of organisers. In fact,my source put it down to the language barrier – though most nations speak English, few of us Brits speak another language. Our current education strategy seems therefore to be undermining the efforts of Industry – a non- English speaking visitor to a stand where the exhibitor can only speak his native tongue may well have spent a large sum of money had he only been able to communicate. This has strong implications for our economy, and is a subject we will look to expand on in future issues.
The new branding – did it work?
Almost all the visitors welcomed the new concept, but considered some improvements necessary, especially with respect to the arrangement of product groups and the trade fair categories, said organisers.The large distribution organizations and fashion retailers were said to be impressed with the fair.Traditional sports retailers however, are still not fully at ease with the new concept and in part would like a greater range of hardware offers.Certainly the impression I got was that the specialist sport retailers would have liked to have seen a few more of the industry’s key players in attendance - Nike, Puma and Adidas for example. There to showcase its latest collection, including the new ASICS GEL-KINSEI 2, the Asics stand looked pretty busy throughout the show, so it seems that the sports brands that did opt to exhibit, benefited greatly from doing so.
Stag and ispo join forces
I was pleased to have met Ward Robertson of Stag by chance in the International Lounge.Ward filled me in on the buying group’s new retail partnership with ispo – we had a great conversation about the industry and it seems Stag just keeps on going from strength to strength. The group has just signed up Jack Wolfskin as a supplier, a top quality brand that brought with it to the show its latest product, the torsionally stiff trekking shoe - Solid Trail; said to defy every terrain.Another Stag supplier, Canterbury of New Zealand won a GQ style award. Unfortunately as SGB UK went to press it was to soon to get a comment from the brand, but we will bring you more news of this in the next issue.
Accentuating the uber cool
I was very impressed with the show. The ambience in each of the crisply clean, newly carpeted halls was amazing, and it was great to see brands like MAC and Bed Head accentuating the uber cool sports style theme.
In ‘sports style’ hall B1, young and upcoming artists from music, art, graffiti, breakdance, tattoo and parcours demonstrated the latest trends on the Entertainment Show Stage.Meanwhile the DEATHLESS Gallery & Live Painting area was awash with visitors enthralled by the various works in progress. Images of retro trainers and interpretations of urban life grabbed the attention of every passer by. I was especially struck by the Artistik World stand, where I saw graffiti and street art on walls, canvas, trainers, hats and apparel. I made a beeline for the artist responsible for the work to find out more: “I’ve been doing graffiti since 87’.We can take orders for store designs or onproduct ranges.We’re not in competition with anyone here – we’re unique – we can work with anybody to produce a creative.”And creative it was.
Also well worth taking the time to see was the “Slack Collection”. This amazing photography exhibition was comprised of works from an array of cutting edge international artists, each representing the world of surf, skate, snow and lifestyle, which was very much in keeping with the show’s overall theme.
Thumbs up from exhibitors
Still in B1, I made my way over to the Quicksilver stand, which was very at home in this segment. A spokesperson said that although the show was not hugely busy,“…the quality of visitor is high, so we’re very happy with it”.As usual, visitors seemed to be enjoying themselves at this particular stand,with the bar upstairs heaving with buyers and other exhibitors throughout the day.
Also in B1, the managing director of fashion swimwear brand Shivwi told me: “This has been a very good show for us.”And over at Watercult, Mr Dinkela blamed any uncertainty for absent swimwear brands on the weather: “We need a good summer – we rely on the sunshine!” he said in good humour.
Having featured heavily in the daily fashion shows Arena, another swimwear brand in the ‘sports style’ hall, was pleased with what the fair had to offer: ‘It’s been very, very good for us” said a spokesperson.
Brand New Awards
Over in hall B2,‘trends and innovations’, I made my way over to the ‘ispo brand new’ area to see what was going on. There I found a cool new brand called mahagony, which specialises in designing, producing and distributing urban street and sports wear.Winners of a brand new award, the company’s Stephan ‘Gizmo’Haramina told me: “We all came from Hip Hop, and though we design, manufacture and distribute we all have day jobs”.Very humble indeed, especially when you consider that not only is he heavily involved in the music scene, he also works full time as chief art director and international editor for the well-known BACKSPIN Hip-Hop magazine. Stephan Gerber meanwhile helped establish clothing brands such as Rocawear and Wu-Wear, the Wu-Tang-Clans very own clothing line, whilst the third person behind the brand, Daniel Berlin has designed for numerous hip hop artists. It’s fair to say that it is brands like this that define the lifestyle created by the fusion of sport with fashion and music.
YKK, sponsors of the Brand New Award,welcomed me to their stand.Here Jonny de Boer explained why they had come to the show: “As part of a new strategy, YKK is now working closely with target accounts in the sportswear industry to launch a new fastening solution called QuickBurst zipper.We have been proud to present the first result of this new approach at ispo SPORT & STYLE: Loeffler is now using QuickBurst zipper in a new range of premium sportswear.
Loeffler has developed an Outdoor jacket and trousers combination, using QuickBurst zipper as an easy and exiting new way to detach the arms and trouser legs. It is specifically designed to make you burst out of your garment whenever you want to” he said.
I asked Jonny what he thought of the show and his response was a positive one: “This is an important exhibition for us. I think we will come back next year.”
A vision
Over in hall C1 was ‘ispo vision’.The Premium Design tunnel presented exceptional, limited and exclusive designer products in a stylish shop window environment. Several stagings of the Feelings-Lifesyle Worlds show explained the correlation of personal style, individual interests, athletic activities and musical preferences.Hence the presence here of a photography exhibition,“The Art of Sailing” by America’s Cup photographer Richard Walch, the brand new Volvo xc70 and V70, the MAC Beauty Lounge, the Samova Tea Lounge, Golfino and Philip Plein for instance.
The eponymous owner and managing director of Phillip Plein commented:
"ispovision was really beautifully designed. I especially liked the Design Tunnel, which showed new decoration elements and possibilities.My expectations were completely fulfilled in this respect.We hope to become better known and establish new contacts with our presence here.”
The GQ Style Night presented by Volvo also took place in this hall. The guest list read like a who-is-who from fashion, lifestyle,music, beauty and sports. Special guest of the evening was Naomi Campbell.
In hall C2, which also flew the flag of sports style, I spoke to Elisabeth Vigue Culshaw, business development manager for the French arm of Trespass. She said: “We use this show to make new contacts and open new markets.We are looking to branch out into Eastern Europe and the show has been very useful from that point of view.This is a shop window for new products.“ Trespass supplies high quality apparel at a very reasonable price. In the French market, you are looking at a 2.2 mark-up, in the UK at least double too.We have a wide collection to adapt to the various markets.Not only that,with the seasons all over the place, you really do need a line that will sell whatever the weather.”
Putting fashion in its place
The Golfwear village was also situated in hall C2, demonstrating just how much the line between sport and fashion has become blurred. The likes of Golf Junkie and the PGA’s of Europe seemed to be intermingling with a wide range of interested visitors.
The fashion show took place twice daily in C2,with the likes of Asics,Trespass,Arena,Watercult and Eva showing their latest products. The show was packed each day and the fun, urban vibe seemed to work well.
What a performance
Over in C3, the ‘performance’ hall,were a number of key brands, from Asics to Fila and Molten.There was also a range of events well worth getting involved in, such as the Runner’s World Action Point, which held panel discussions and product presentations with experts and athletes. This strong emphasis on the educative responsibility of the sports industry was carried through into the Be your own hero – AIDS awareness Expedition; the introduction of the Olympic sports school; a presentation about “Raw diamond”– a scholarship sponsored by ispo on behalf of the sporting goods industry for the Olympic Sports school and the “Rookie of the Year” award for the best of new talent presented at the “runner’s world action point” is testimony to that.
I had a fantastic time at ispo SPORT & STYLE and will be interested to see how the concept evolves over the coming years.
