‘No country for old women!’

SLEM presents free SLEMinars about comfort shoes and a Slipper Battle at GDS! SLEM, the international education and innovation institute for footwear and its master class of students, presents a wealth of information and inspiration at the upcoming GDS in Düsseldorf, from March 13-15.


Join us at our booth #03 in zone 3E and find ‘The battle of the SLEM slipper’.
Master students previously divided into two teams will actualize the concept live at a makeshift workshop. Participate by trying on the slippers and casting a vote! The winning concept will be immortalized within the school, used by future visitors in order to preserve the new ‘wet-blue’ floor, designed after a step in the leather tanning process.

The free SLEMinars called: ‘Comfort Footwear: A walk on the wild side’ – will launch the series of lectures, workshops and classes about innovative solutions for comfort footwear, which will be held at the SLEM schools in both the Netherlands and China later this year.

As always, Nicoline van Enter, creative director of SLEM, will also present the trends for both footwear and sneakers for the upcoming seasons.

All SLEMinars will be held in the Speakers corner, in Hall 7. This is the full schedule:

Wednesday 13th
11:00 – Young fashion footwear trends for AW13/14
11:30 – Sneaker trends for AW13/14
12:30 – Comfort footwear: ‘A walk on the wild side’ – the future audience for comfort footwear
16:00 – Join the early bird, Young fashion footwear and sneaker trends for SS 14 and AW 14/15

Thursday 14th
10:00 – Comfort footwear: “a walk on the wild side” – future retail concepts for comfort footwear
11:30 – Young fashion footwear and sneaker trends for AW13/14
17:00 – Comfort footwear: “a walk on the wild side” – the future needs for comfort footwear
17:30 – Young fashion footwear and sneaker trends for AW13/14

Friday 15th
11:00 – Young fashion footwear and sneaker trends for AW13/14

The future audience for comfort footwear
Out-dated assumptions about the main target group for comfort footwear (women 50+) are common; while most brands agree the target group has a much younger mindset/lifestyle than past generations of that age, they struggle in applying that knowledge in the best way. How should you prepare for the rapidly growing future generations of middle aged and elderly consumers?

Future retail for comfort shoes
The way we shop is already drastically changing, but what does that mean for the middle aged target group in particular? This presentation offers in-depth research and fresh ideas on how new retail concepts, both on and offline, can make shopping for comfort more comfortable.

Future needs for comfort footwear
As our lifestyle changes, so do our feet and the way we use them. We no longer only need shoes for walking , since nowadays we spend most of our time sitting, which brings other foot issues, such as bad blood circulation. This lecture addresses what needs we might have in the future, both physically and mentally and how these can be met with the right shoes.

Cannot join at GDS? Then please check SLEM for more info after GDS.