CIFF joins forces with ISPO Munich

A new collaboration in the fashion fair landscape has risen. Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) and ISPO Munich are joining forces, with the former to take up a partner stand at the German sports fashion fair, while ISPO Munich will also visit the Danish fair. The aim of the collaboration is to unite sports and fashion.

The partnership is a response to the increasing merger of sports and fashion, and the resulting business opportunities, a press release read. In addition, the two fashion fairs want to make sportswear and fashion more accessible to retailers.

CIFF will be presenting its partner stand at ISPO Munich from 3 to 5 December with a sports fashion concept featuring denim, sportswear, streetwear and sneakers. The Danish fashion fair will be located in the Zeitgeist by ISPO area on the German show floor, where there will be a focus on athleisure, sports fashion and streetwear, highlighting the role of sports fashion in everyday life.

CIFF appears at ISPO Munich and ISPO Munich moves to CIFF

CIFF in turn welcomes a select number of ISPO Munich partner brands that will present themselves at the AW25 Copenhagen Fashion Week for the 64th CIFF edition.

“Sports and fashion are increasingly converging and traditional boundaries are shifting. This creates exciting opportunities for brands and retailers that we would like to highlight together. Especially in the Nordic region, sports and fashion brands have been influencing each other for decades, learning from each other and creating new materials, designs and innovations. We want to tap into this potential, support it together, make it visible and stimulate it,” Tobias Gröber, executive director consumer goods and managing director at ISPO Group, shares in the press release.

Sofie Dolva, director of CIFF, adds: “The future of fashion is created by strong partnerships, knowledge sharing, close collaboration and openness across borders, fashion categories, cultures and genders. The time is ripe to build new alliances with the competent partners in our neighbouring countries and we are happy to join forces and share our visions of the future of fashion with the talented people of ISPO Group.”

Fashion industry stock market landscape in motion

The fashion industry trade fair landscape is in a state of flux. Among the shifts, British trade fair Pure London merged with its smaller peer Just Around the Corner earlier this year, a partnership that is now coming into its third edition. In Germany, meanwhile, Premium closed its doors, while sister Seek made its solo debut in January 2024.

Other changes have also been evident in Denmark and the Netherlands. In the latter, Modefabriek has set its sights on becoming a womenswear-only fair and will be moving to the new location of Expo Greater Amsterdam. CIFF, on the other hand, opted to take over Revolver in January 2023, and in the same year debuted a beauty segment, which has since secured an established place on the trade fair floor.

The disappearance of fashion fairs, new locations, mergers and eliminated segments are creating a gap in the fair landscape. Fair organisers could see collaborations as a solution to attract buyers from Europe's largest fashion markets by centralising the offer.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.NL. Translation via AI and edit by Rachel Douglass.