Atlanta Show Market continues to receive high marks

24 Feb '10

3 min read

The Atlanta Shoe Market completed its February 2010 Fall Market to the tune of another record increase in exhibitor and retailer attendance, supporting speculation that the show has become the most important seasonal event for footwear buyers and sellers.

Once considered a regional event, attendance statistics reveal The Atlanta Shoe Market has grown to an industry event of national, even international importance. The February 19-21 Fall Market counted retailers and exhibitors from 33 states, representing all sections of the country, as well as continued increases in Caribbean attendees.

The February 2010 show recorded increases of 15.3 percent in retailer pre-registration, 13.1 percent in exhibition space and 8 percent in attending exhibitor personnel. “The show has simply become too important to miss,” noted George Mustafa, sales manager for the Children's Division of Trimfoot Company, who was exhibiting at the show for his 24th consecutive year. “It is evident in the participation of the majors from all across the country.”

Mustafa and Trimfoot were one of 75 children's shoes vendors displaying more than 110 lines of fall merchandise in a new and apparently here-to-stay section created for the February 2010 event, “The Kids Shoe Box.” The new area in the ballroom of the host Galleria Renaissance Hotel was a big hit with retailers and exhibitors as the exclusive home for children's styles.

“The retailers have had very positive comments on the idea of gathering all the children's lines in one area,” Mustafa pointed out. “It is one more way the show has been able to make it easier for them to do business – and after all, that is what this show is all about, providing the most effective environment to conduct business.”

Continuing to build on its reputation as the season's “buying show,” The Atlanta Show Market also continues to receive high marks for convenience and affordability – convenient to work, easy to get to, and with such factors as exhibit space at a fraction of the cost of other national shows and hotel rates in the hundred-dollar-a-night range, eminently affordable.

“This is about industry productivity not our profitability,” noted Laura Conwell-O'Brien, show manager and executive director of the Southeastern Shoe Travelers Association (SEST), sponsor of the show. “And that has gotten around. Retailers and vendors want to maximize their investment in attending a show. As the one major show that is a non-profit venture, run by the industry for the industry, we can make that promise and deliver on it.”

The Atlanta Shoe Market is held twice a year in Atlanta, Ga., to feature fall and spring styles respectively. The show is sponsored by the Southeastern Shoe Travelers Association (SESTA), which was founded in 1942 and today counts more than 1100 industry representatives as members. The Atlanta Shoe Show ranks among the 10 largest shoe trade fairs in the world.

Atlanta Shoe Market

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