If one word can be used to define leather these days that word would be ‘fashion’. The demand is for more colours, an ever widening range of uses, ‘breathable’ and waterproof, harder-wearing, greater comfort and lighter in weight. Leather is the material of choice for footwear, bags, upholstery, garments, belts and hats. The industry continues to change to meet the ever greater range of uses of this premium material.
APLF – MM&T is held annually with 26 years experience under their belt, the show is generally recognised as the premiere international leather, materials and components event in Asia.
In 2009, despite industry-wide concern about the global economy, the positive mood at the Hong Kong exhibition laid many of those concerns to rest. Leather remained in high demand, especially for the high-end and luxury markets.
Leather can be used to great effect when combined with other materials. This ensures its continued popularity with fashion designers and high street shoppers. Increasingly, the market is combining leather with the fast growing high-performance fabric sector. Longchamp and Gucci are just two examples where this marriage of leather and other top-end fabrics is proving popular. Visitors to APLF – MM&T will be able to view and evaluate these high-performance fabrics alongside leather.
The APLF covers the entire spectrum of leather making from raw, semi and finished hides and skins, dyes and chemicals, tannery machinery, CAD/CAM, and support services.
Building on the more positive mood of 2010, extra exhibition space has been made available to accommodate many previous exhibitors demanding more space this year and 100+ first-time exhibitors, almost double 2009. More space has been booked in several national pavilions: with that of Turkey increased by over 20%, and larger pavilions for South Korea, Pakistan, Portugal (and China, located in the Synthetic Material Section).
To date, the raw materials and finished leather sections remain the largest group, with 61% of the total fair space, which includes an 8.4%, increase. Tannery machinery exhibition space is up over 20% with 44 tannery machinery suppliers from China, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Turkey.
According to the show organisers visitor numbers are looking good with promising visitor pre-registration numbers including buyers from companies such as Coach, Bally, Ecco, K-Swiss, Li & Fung, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Bauhaus, Debenhams, Diesel, Lane Crawford, LVMH, Marks & Spencer, Calvin Klein, Armani, Celine, Kwanpen, H&M, Clarks, Lacoste, Cole Haan, New Balance, Li-Ning, Aokang, Levi Strauss, and Next.
As usual APLF – MM&T is held alongside Fashion Access, the finished products fair offering head-to-toe fashion, and, again visitors registered at one can gain entry to the other.
Prime Source Forum also runs concurrently. The event brings together top executives from leading companies – this year including LVMH, Li & Fung and Hugo Boss.
APLF Limited is a joint venture between UBM Asia Limited and SIC SA, Paris and is managed in Asia by UBM Asia Limited.
