The new HDS/L industry meeting announced last year in cooperation with Messe Offenbach has been cancelled. The 069 Connect planned for June will not take place, the organizers confirmed to FashionUnited on Friday.
The cancellation is greatly regretted, but the number of registrations and exhibitors did not meet expectations. According to the industry magazine Textilwirtschaft, only ten companies registered for the event on June 24th and 25th in Offenbach. The brands Gabor, Josef Seibel, Tamaris, Caprice, Marco Tozzi, Peter Kaiser, Rieker, Ricosta, Pepino, Remonte, Berkemann, Braun Büffel, Emily & Noah and Suri Frey have confirmed their participation.
An event was planned that would bring decision-makers from the shoe and leather goods industry together with all the important players in the retail sector, as the announcement said. However, it was already emphasized back then that this would deliberately not be a conventional trade fair. The aim was rather “to bring the industry together in a central location”.
However, this offer did not appear to have been accepted by the industry. Under the current economic conditions, the tried and tested will be used, although there is agreement that Germany is missing a “real” industry event, explained the deputy general manager of the HDS/L, Torben Schütz.
