An excellent start, with good opportunities for growth and development: this, in brief, is the impression of the debut of ShoesRoom by Momad, the event dedicated to the footwear industry, which was held this past 1 to 3 March at Madrid’s La Nave. This former factory of elevators was in fact reconverted into a striking trade fair complex, located just to the south-west of the city in the Villaverde neighbourhood, a well-connected area that is also easy to reach by the new Metro Line 3.
For this first edition, 85 quality brands presented their latest Autumn-Winter 2019/20 proposals and Spring-Summer 2019 re-stockings to a professional public, as the best expression of  ‘Made in Spain’ footwear. Among them were brands of the calibre of Callaghan, Pons Quintana, Pertini, Exe, Chie Mihara, Meraviglie, Mustang, Unisa, Gioseppo, Jaime Mascaro, Luis Onofre, Sison, Hollies, Igor, Alma Candela, Gaimo, Kelme, Victoria, Vidorreta, United Nude, Pepe Milano, Arche, Aerobica, Nerogiardini and many others.
The decision made by the organisers – IFEMA in collaboration with FICE and ICEX for the invitations extended to foreign buyers – was to completely revolutionise the concept of the former Parque Ferial, proposing La Nave as the more intimate and trendy venue, capable of cancelling out the dispersive and anonymous feeling of the fair’s previous venue. The proposal of just one pavilion and of the homogeneous and modular stands with only 3 available sizes, gave visitors the possibility to see the essentials of the autumn-winter collections in just a short amount of time and in a practical and pleasurable way.

“We managed to convince the sector to support this new event, by involving not only the companies that participated, but also the visitors and those who have already confirmed their intentions to take part in the next edition. – declared with satisfaction Charo Izquierdo, director of ShoesRoom by Momad – This however is just the start. – she continued – I believe that this fair model has all the potential for growth and development in the near future, but to achieve this we must continue to work for its promotion, so that it becomes the most important footwear event in Spain”.

As far as the programme of international buyers is concerned, it involved 49 representatives of large distribution chains and wholesalers coming from Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, South Korea, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon.
Among the events taking place in conjunction was the Innovation Awards, which saw Mikonos of Logroño win in the ‘Retail’ Category; Excelsus as the winner in the ‘Fashion’ Category; Gioseppo taking the prize in ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’; while the award for ‘Innovation in Technology’ was granted to Callaghan and the ‘Career’ award went to Unisa.
Now, all that’s left to do is to get ready for the next edition to be held from 20 to 22 September 2019, when the event will be fully operational, with the presentation of the previews for Summer 2020.