“I am proud to say that we are the major international footwear event of 2021 – said Tommaso Cancellara, managing director of the event, at the press conference to present the event, last 8 September, at the Hyatt Central in Milan – we have 652 exhibiting companies, 262 of which from abroad, and an area of 30 thousand square metres … more than at this year’s Salone del Mobile!”.

Director Paolo Borghini, who signals the return to the fair of important names in all product sectors, such as Liu Jo, Primigi, Igi & co and Valleverde, as well as new entries such as Furla and Luciano Padovan, presents the contents of the event. “Exhibitors will be located in 5 pavilions – he explains – the Premium area wil be set in pav. 1 and 3, the Contemporary area in pav. 2 and 4 and in pavilion 6 they will give space to the Every Day area where the SS 2022 collections will be presented. MICAM Digital Show will enhance the physical fair held from 15 September to 15 November, allowing brands to plan visits and meetings with buyers before, during and after the event”.

The projects of MICAM Milano

There are any new features in this edition, starting with Italian Artisan Heroes, a new area of ​​200 square metres dedicated to the Italian manufacturing tradition housed in Hall 3 which reflects the B2B online marketplace, where international brands and retailers can meet the manufacturing excellence of the Bel Paese.

In the same pavilion 3 there will also be the installation of MICAM Tales Square which brings the enchanted world protagonist of the new advertising campaign “MICAM Glass Slipper” to the fair and which for its first landmark #glamourous disaster will entertain visitors by sharing the various “disastrous looks”.

MICAM X innovation hub confirms, instead, that in Hall 1 it will return to host a full calendar of seminars presenting market trends, style, materials research (in collaboration with Lineapelle), future of retail and sustainability – this latter theme finds reverberation also in The Garden installation at the pav. 3. The area will also host MICAM Start-up Boot Camp, incubator and accelerator of the best innovative start-ups in the footwear sector.

Hall 1 also confirms the scouting area for Emerging Designers’ talents dedicated to 12 international footwear designers: “a project that is demonstrating MICAM’s ability to promote and affirm them as a brand on the market, given that several names of previous editions have become exhibitors with their own spaces”.

Collaborations

With the aim of supporting the internationalisation of companies in the sector, MICAM has entered into important partnerships with the most qualified distribution players in Italy and abroad – Italian Fashion Federation, Best Showroom-Assomoda, Histories, NIAM, National Shoes Retailers of America, Russian Buyer Uunion – and thanks to the promotion and incoming plan in collaboration with ICE it will bring to Milan a delegation of Chinese and Russian influencers, as well as 120 operators including international buyers and journalists. Moreover, a pilot project will start in September with an influencer marketing campaign in support of the best Made in Italy footwear stores in Russia.

On the exhibition side, important collaborations to internationalise MICAM’s offer are those with Fice (Spain), Apiccaps (Portugal), BF (England), Iktib (Turkey) and with the new entries of HDSL (Germany, which for the first time obtained a state budget to invest directly in MICAM) and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, for the first time at the fair with 15 companies selected for the quality of the proposal.

MICAM will also host the fashion show and the award of the International Lab of Mittelmoda, an event in partnership with Confindustria Moda, the National Chamber of Fashion and the Italian Textile Foundation, presented at the conference by Matteo Marzotto: “30 young designers from 12 countries, selected from 608 international fashion schools will be present”.

Finally, the synergy is consolidated with the other events in the fashion sector under the hashtag #restarttogether and with Fashion Jewel, The One Milano, Mipel Play together with the new entry Date of Florence which are exhibited in Hall 1 during the fair, and Lineapelle which overlaps in its own spaces at Fiera Milano from 22 to 24 September 2021.

Safety

You can participate in the fair with Green Pass or full vaccination with any of the EMA authorised vaccines, a rapid molecular or antigenic test report with negative results valid for 48 hours, or a Covid-19 recovery certificate valid for 6 months starting from the date the recovery is certified. During the event, at the entrances to the exhibition centre, some hab swabs will be available where it will be possible to carry out rapid antigen tests.

In any case, the use of masks will be mandatory and all the anti-contagion provisions provided by the health institutions, such as distancing, as well as control systems for the flow of visitors in the pavilions, will be guaranteed.