The weekend of 23/24 March saw the “Inter-Schuh-Service 2013” event held in its usual location of Wiesbaden in Germany. This event, held every three years features shoe repair industry suppliers from across Europe. Although Standard Engineering were not exhibiting on this occasion (our equipment was featured on the Jos America stand 6-years ago) Managing Director Keith Malyon and the writer flew over to attend.
Officially our intention was to meet-up and catch-up with numerous suppliers, customers and even rivals from the Continent. Unofficially it is an opportunity for me to try out my pigeon-German, and to indulge in a couple of half pints of the local firewater.
On the Saturday, we paid our entrance fee of €13- and made our way into the exhibition. My first thought was what would be the reaction of the average UK shoe repairer to being asked to pay £10.00 to attend our own Cutting Edge Exhibition? I can’t say for certain, but I don’t think I’d be too far from the mark imagining the second word would be “Off!!!”
But things are different on the Continent it would seem. The visitors seemed to have no problem with paying for the opportunity of seeing how they could spend even more money. Another noticeable difference was the standard of attire of the visitors. The vast majority were very smartly turned out, in suit and tie, or, at worse, a smooth, metro-sexual vibe complete with skinny jeans, the ubiquitous euro-tied scarf and man bag. All a far cry from the repairers at Cutting Edge who (and please don’t forget, we love you all desperately, and this is not meant in any critical way…….) invariably turn up in ripped T-shirts, dirty cargo shorts and flip flops. And that’s on a good day!
Slick continental glamour aside, the exhibition is very similar our own. For example, we were not 10 metres inside the hall than we bumped into Richard Earl, Frank Gaylard and Gordon Moss who had taken up residence in the café and we were forced to have a drink and a catch-up.
Once we had braced ourselves for the exhibition proper we made our way through the four halls of goodies. What did we see? Well, there seem to be a lot of material suppliers in attendance. And a lot of materials which wouldn’t be especially familiar to those from the UK trade. We saw a number of exotic rubber sheets, soles, heels and leathers, which impressed the latent repairer in Keith.
We were both impressed by several stands which projected olde-world quality, with lots of rich, lacquered woods and heavy leather and the sort of expensive products we’d all like to buy were we not such bargain-hunting, penny-pinching Brits!
Another difference between this exhibition and our own was the large number of machinery suppliers in attendance, from top end Jos America and Mebus, through DSS, and down to handful of little companies with identikit, seedy, drab grey machines. The top-end equipment is invariably very expensive (when compared to our own quality and competitively priced machines that is…) but is usually used for the more orthopaedic end of the market, where, if this kit was any indication, there is a lot of money!
A strong feature of the “Inter-Schuh-Service 2013” was the celebration of quality of both supply and repairs. A large section of the hall was given over to showcasing “before and after” shoe repairs for the Inter-Schuh competition. Keith, a former repairer of no small standing, announced himself suitably impressed with much that was on display. Hopefully a similar turn out of quality repairs for the JR competition will be on show at the Cutting Edge Exhibition in Manchester?
So, did we sample a few half-pints of the local brew? I’d be lying if I said we didn’t…..
And did I get to use my smattering of German? Not really, as most Europeans have had the good taste to learn English, and then the bad grace to speak it better than we do!
