Footwear show Sole cancelled, will take place next year

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 24, 2020

The organiser of footwear tradeshow Sole has become the latest company to cancel its event with the August show on hold and the event likely to return in 2021.

The still-new show debuted in February this year, just before the coronavirus crisis took hold, and it had been planned to take place for its second edition in Coventry this summer.

But in a statement, it said: “Due to the unprecedented events surrounding Covid-19, we have taken the decision not to run the August 2020 edition of Sole Fashion. This has been a tough decision, particularly after the positive reaction to the February 2020 debut edition, but we feel it’s the right one – safety is paramount. We are keeping a watchful eye on developments for 2021 and continue our discussions with the Ricoh Arena, exhibitors and suppliers. As soon as it is appropriate to do so, we will get this show back on the road.”

Tradeshows have been among the biggest sufferers of the fallout from the pandemic and the future still looks uncertain for many of them. At the height of the pandemic, a number of event spaces were even converted into temporary hospitals as it was clear that they’d be closed for some time and they were ideal spaces for conversion.

While some events have been able to move to digital formats, those based purely on physical products are unable to do this in a big way.

The UK government this week announced more measures to ease the lockdown and while that lockdown is virtually over for much of the economy, event spaces and conference centres remain shuttered with no hint of when they will be allowed to open.

It means the decisions already taken by a number of event organisers to cancel shows planned for July, August and even September now look extremely sensible.