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Pitti won’t return to pre-pandemic levels but “the wheels are turning in the right direction”

Tom Bottomley
18 May 2023

The CEO of Pitti Uomo, Raffaello Napoleone, does not believe that the level of buyers visiting the menswear trade show will return to pre-pandemic levels because the market has changed so much – with far fewer stores in Italy and beyond.

Speaking at the UK press conference for Pitti Uomo 104 in London yesterday, Napoleone said: “I don’t think Pitti will go back to pre-pandemic levels, but I don’t think it’s just Pitti – it’s just a question of the whole market, which is changing.

“The figures recently published in Italy have said that pre-Covid there were 71,000 shops across men’s, women’s, children’s and accessories, but post-pandemic there are 21,000 less shops – so now only 50,000. We’re not going to have 21,000 more shops opening any time soon.

“Pitti Uomo remains the main reference of the menswear industry worldwide. But the scenario has completely changed.

Pitti

Raffaello Napoleone in London yesterday

“In terms of UK buyers coming to the show, in January 2020 – just before the Covid pandemic struck – we recorded 524 buyers. When we re-started, in June 2022, there were 213, and then in January 2023 there were 369, so things are going in the right direction. But, in my opinion, we are not going to be going back to what it used to be because the market is just not the same.

“There are also less retailers in the UK now too, and I know it’s the same in France, Germany, Spain and also in the States. I have recently come back from our press conference in New York and there are a lot of empty shops. The market is performing, but not in the big numbers as before. The balance is different.

“However, we are very positive. The turnover of the Italian menswear industry is growing. In fact, it’s much higher than in 2019. But there is now a different kind of distribution. China is not what it used to be, but it’s coming back. Japan has been very weak, Hong Kong and Russia have been below zero -  they haven’t grown in the last few years. But things are moving with a different scenario to look at.”

The 104th edition of Pitti Uomo is set to run at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence on 13-16 June 2023. There will be over 50 British brands exhibiting, including Cheaney, Sanders, Yogi Footwear, Johnstons of Elgin, Only The Blind, Hardy & Parsons, Fox Umbrellas and The Cambridge Satchel Company.

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