Ispo winter 07, which took place at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre on February 4-7, recorded a 5% increase in trade visitors, totalling approximately 64,000 compared with 61,087 in 2006. International participation was high with a 65% share of foreign visitors and an 84% share of foreign exhibitors. The visitor share from Eastern Europe and Russia showed particularly high growth. Over 20% more visitors were counted from the Netherlands and the UK, 14% more from Switzerland, 11% more from the Czech Republic, 7% more from Italy and 6% more from Austria.

Textile and shoe retailers received the greatest purchasing interest with 50% of visitors at this year’s event interested in obtaining information about the current range of offers for textiles—from functional clothing to sport-oriented fashion—compared with 40% last year. 22% of visitors expressed interest in the ski sector, 10% for the board sector, 9% for outdoor hardware and 9% for fitness and running.

1,970 exhibitors presented their products and fashion collections for winter 2007/08, up from 1,633 in 2006. Wearable technologies and ispo Best Ager as well as the ispo Award winners and next generation projects were very popular. 50 awards were presented to fashion, hardware and footwear suppliers as well as to designers this winter.

More than 900 people attended the Volvo SportsDesign Forum, which preceded ispo and over 1,000 participated at the Sport Sponsoring Congress of the European Sponsoring Market in St Gallen.