Bits and Bytes replace Performance Days Munich exhibition

Bits and Bytes :: The Performance Days tradefair, which was earlier planned to take place on April 22-23 at Munich, had to be cancelled due to corona pandemic. The fair is now being hold digitally, which is still on-going online. The new Digital Fair has been enjoying great popularity. The focus topic of the fair is ‘Inspire by Nature – From Fibers to Green Treatments’.

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, were the key trend talks from Ulrike Arlt and Nora Kühner with the presentations of materials and colour trends for summer 2022.

“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,” said Lena Weimer, senior marketing manager of Performance Days.

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 Kühner, the lockdown shows even more how dependent we are on nature.

Faced with darker times, the colours for summer 2022 are particularly intense and radiant. This radiance is also reflected in the pre-orders of Performance Colors by Kühner. Following her talk, registrations for the free colour trends are starting to take on a record-breaking look.

“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,” said speaker and journalist Charles Ross.

For summer 2022 season, the jury of experts selected the best 414 material samples.

“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 favourites. A further section on this topic will follow shortly under Digital Fair – Forum Highlights, along with further information per newsletter,” said Lisa Lechner, senior project manager.

“Also exhibitors such as Polartec, Drirelease, Everest, Pontetorto, Südwolle and many more are now presenting their latest developments and trends in a total of almost 40 videos. These are available under the individual profiles. Simply click on the company logos,” said Theresia Brandl, colleague of Lechner.

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 per cent 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.

“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,” said Daniel Odermatt, Digital Fair exhibitor from Stotz.

“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,” said Marco Weichert, general manager of Performance Days.

As a consequence, further content is planned in the run-up to the next trade fair, starting with the jury’s favourites, the publication of Sport fashion by SAZ specifically for the fair, and more.

Performance Days ‘functional fabric fair’ was founded in 2008 as the first and only event specifically for functional textiles for sportswear and workwear. The goal of the biannual fair is to provide top-class and innovative textile manufacturers, suppliers and service providers with the opportunity to present functional fabrics, membranes, as well as coatings, laminates, paddings, finishes and accessories such as yarns, tapes, prints, buttons and zippers.

Industry visitors to the fair – designers, product managers, buyers and decision-makers from almost all European sportswear and functional apparel manufacturers will find the complete portfolio of high-quality materials at exactly the right time in April/May and October/November. Thanks to the specialisation in functional textiles, the timing is optimally chosen for summer and winter sports collections. The current list of exhibitors is available online under ‘Exhibitor List’ along with trade fair catalogues of previous events under

The relaxed and focused working atmosphere distinguishes the functional fabric fair from other, often unclear and stressful fairs. This too contributes to making the Munich trade fair, in the heart of the European sportswear industry, the top address for new fabrics, innovations and industry meeting point for business relations.

The unique Performance Forum at Performance Days provides the visitor with an inspiring and knowledgeable overview of new materials, trends and innovations from the various exhibitors. The prestigious (Eco) Performance Award is also presented here.

Top-quality Talks, Workshops, Guided Tours round off the information on offer. All talks will be also available online subsequent to the fair in ‘Presentations Library’.

Since 2018, in cooperation with Reed Exhibitions, the functional textile fair has been taking place in the US as the ‘Functional Fabric Fair powered by Performance Days’. At the Javits Center in New York and the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, the sourcing fair presents the latest trends in the functional textile industry in line with the event in Munich and is the platform in the US for the sourcing of functional fabrics and accessories. The event includes exhibitions, workshops, talks from industry experts and a programme for professional networking and connecting of producers and purchasers.

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