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WF FOOTPRINTS
HAPPENINGS, PEOPLE AND PLACES
month footwear study in Dongguan,
China.
The second prize winner was
Michael Matteo from Cincinnati, Ohio,
who received $15,000, while the third
place winner was John Muhlenkamp
from El Dorado Hills, California, who
won $10,000.
The three winners were flown to New
York City in June to officially unveil
their designs. Founded in 2010, Power
Force produces ion-infused athletic
shoes and apparel.
LOUBOUTIN EXHIBITION
BREAKS RECORDS
An exhibition showcasing luxury
shoes designed by Christian Louboutin,
which opened at the Design Museum in
London in May, has broken all previous
visitor figure records with an average
daily attendance of 910 visitors. The
exhibition has attracted over 38,000
visitors and closes on July 9. To
accommodate demand the Design
Museum extended its opening hours,
staying open to 9.45pm on some days.
The exhibition celebrates Christian
Louboutin’s career to date, “revealing the
artistry and theatricality of his shoe
design from stilettos to lace-up boots,
studded style, glamour, power, femininity
and elegance”, the organisers said. For
his part, Christian Louboutin reacted to
the news of the exhibition’s popularity by
saying: “It’s been a real pleasure to see a
lot of my ‘babies’ featured all together for
the first time. It’s not only an entire
collection of shoes but for me a huge
collection of souvenirs, precious
moments, and very rarely sorrows.”
CICEG ELECTS NEW
PRESIDENT
The Guanajuato footwear industry
association (CICEG) has elected Ysmael
López García as its new president, taking
over from Armando Martín Dueñas. On
accepting the role he said he wanted
footwear manufacturers in Guanajuato,
Mexico’s most important footwear
manufacturing state, to concentrate on
design and innovation and to focus on
promoting ‘Made inMexico’ as a brand.
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WORLD FOOTWEAR | JULY/AUGUST 2012
MINISTER WANTS THE LEATHER SECTOR
TO ADD MORE VALUE
Industry minister Débora Giorgi
(pictured)
has
welcomed the export performance of the country’s
leather sector, but believes it can do better.The
government wants the footwear industry to use more
local leather, to produce more shoes (200 million pairs by
2020, compared to 115 million pairs in 2011) and to
create around 12,000 new jobs in the process.
“Exporting semi-finished leather is not the future that I foresee for Argentina
as we head towards 2020." At an industry event in June, the minister explained
that the government was helping tanners and footwear companies find strong
demand in the domestic market, making investment in new technology possible
through soft loans and protecting local industries from anti-competitive imports.
The industry should add as much value to Argentinean leather as possible.