Nonwovens / Technical Textiles
Bits and Bytes replace the Munich exhibition hall
As you all know, Munich as a venue for the sourcing of functional textiles had to be cancelled due to the Corona pandemic. Yet it was clear to the event organisers from the beginning that if no physical trade fair could be realised, the fair had to remain a stellar calendar event on its planned date of April 22-23 despite the difficult circumstances. Only a few weeks later, PERFORMANCE DAYS kept its promise and published its Focus Topic “Inspired by Nature - From Fibers to Green Treatments”. Since last week, the new Digital Fair has been enjoying great popularity, as user feedback shows: “It's great to have the webinars available online. Could you do this every year, even once the Pandemic is over. A digital show could save a lot of air travel!”, is the enthusiastic words of one Digital Fair visitor.
Webinars
A total of eight Expert Talks with around five hours of specialist knowledge content went online in the form of webinars, and continue to be available on the website. Among them, as always, were the key trend talks from Ulrike Arlt and Nora Kühner with the presentations of materials and color trends for summer 2022. Lena Weimer, Senior Marketing Manager sums up: “Feedback from webinar visitors is very positive, with ratings of 8 from 10 points on a scale of satisfaction. With almost 1.500 signed up participants, the values correspond to the experiences at the actual fair itself with the great difference that the webinars are still available after the fair dates, with the result that overall more material buyers and designers can benefit from it.”
PERFORMANCE COLORS BY NORA KÜHNER
After winter 2021/22’s “Inbetween” theme, summer 2022 will go under the title “Stories of another tomorrow” with the key message of actively shaping our future. According to the designer Nora Kühner, the lockdown shows even more how dependent we are on nature. Faced with darker times, the colors for summer 2022 are particularly intense and radiant. This radiance is also reflected in the pre-orders of PERFORMANCE COLORS by Nora Kühner. Following her talk, registrations for the free colour trends are starting to take on a record-breaking look.
Digital Sourcing
Long-time trade fair visitor, speaker and journalist Charles Ross also praises the new possibilities: “PERFORMANCE DAYS delivered far more than I expected. The highlight of the event is normally split between the PERFORMANCE FORUM and the Expert Talks. Via the Digital Fair, both of these attractions have remained and can be accessed. The clarity of the PERFORMANCE FORUM made it easy to focus on the trend and new developments." For the summer 2022 season, the jury of experts selected the best 414 material samples. Lisa Lechner, Senior Project Manager has this to report: “Since we are missing the personal interaction with visitors at the PERFORMANCE FORUM, we decided together with the jury that individual jury members would present their personal favorites. A further section on this topic will follow shortly under Digital Fair – Forum Highlights, along with further information per newsletter”. And colleague Theresia Brandl adds: “Also exhibitors such as Polartec, Drirelease, Everest, Pontetorto, Südwolle Group and many more are now presenting themselves in a total of almost 40 videos. These are available under the individual profiles. Simply click on the company logos.”
Winners
BenQ Materials Corp. from Taiwan, the winner of the PERFORMANCE AWARDS, took time to present itself per video. Its 3-layer fabric “0D677”, made of recycled polyester convinced with its Xpore Membrane, free from the use of water or solvents, and with a water column of 18,000mm at 10,000g/m²/24h. breathability. Swiss company Stotz received the ECO PERFORMANCE AWARD for the development of its “Ventile Eco 205”, a hemp-cotton fabric that is windproof, breathable, and also water-repellent thanks to its PFC-free finish. A further 69 materials were awarded the “100% Jury Like” predicate. A total of 13,000 materials were viewed digitally by 20,000 users over the past few weeks and several hundred samples from the PERFORMANCE FORUM have already been ordered from suppliers via the “Request Sample” link.
Exhibitors
Daniel Odermatt, Digital Fair exhibitor from Stotz, is upbeat about the spectrum of working facilitations: "The Digital Fair is the perfect platform to introduce new developments. We’ve had numerous enquiries through it. However, this doesn’t replace any of the real events, but at least allows to stay in direct contact with the customers.”
Outlook for the future
In view of these achievements and success, Marco Weichert, General Manager of PERFORMANCE DAYS expresses his plans: “The Digital Fair is a proud result in view of the short time available, and a project which we will certainly continue to pursue. PERFORMANCE DAYS is a platform for industry interaction between designers, product managers, purchasers and suppliers. Regardless of external circumstances, it is important to us to enable such dialogues, trends and innovations both physically and digitally.” As a consequence, further content is planned in the run-up to the next trade fair, starting with the jury’s favorites, the publication of Sportfashion by SAZ specifically for the fair, and more.
And the best of all about the Digital Fair: It will of course continue to remain online! There is a webinar online now on the website highlighting all the possibilities the Digital Fair offers.
Digital Fair at