Related Articles

• Mr Site helps fashion retailers make their mark online  

  Smaller retailers in the fashion trade often just can’t compete with the website budgets of the big retailers selling online – or else it can be a serious squeeze to pay website design costs. Now, with brand new website building package Mr Site Storefront, new and established fashion and accessories retailers can create an e-commerce shop to challenge even major e-retail sites like Topshop and ASOS.

• Retail Technology sponsor 'Best Etailer/Use of Technology Award' 

  "Retail Technology are pleased to be a part of the new footwear industry awards and delighted to be sponsoring the “Best Use of Technology/EPOS Award.”', said Kim De Sylva, "It is fantastic to see the support and involvement of more of the industry associations in the Footwear Awards, which will undoubtedly be a larger, more prestigious event."

• GORE-TEX® footwear with SURROUND™ product technology for spring/summer 2012: Great selection all over Europe 

  GORE-TEX® footwear with SURROUND™ product technology is seen as one of the greatest innovations in the footwear industry. Its open sole structure and waterproofness surrounds your feet with climate comfort. In spring/summer 2012 it will be playing an even more important role in the collections of Gore’s brand partners, appearing in stores all over Europe for the first time.

• Slip sliding away - testing in snow and ice 

  Slips, trips and falls at home, work and in public places can cause serious injury, lost productivity and major compensation claims. The risk of slipping increases where people walk in conditions of snow and ice. Such risk can often be greatest at entrance and exit points of buildings where partially melted snow and ice creates a hazardous combination, made worse by the tendency of many people to relax attention when stepping inside from extreme external conditions.

  Working direct with manufacturers and public and private institutions and companies, SATRA Technology Centre plays a key role in research and development to improve the slip resistance of footwear and floor surfaces. Thirty years ago SATRA designed and built the first prototype laboratory-based slip testing rig and developed the corresponding test method.

• Footwear business benefits from new technology 

  Case history: Barnack Country Clothes & Wellieboots.com are linked businesses whose inspiration came from an agricultural diversification project. In 1992, at a low point for the British farming sector, farmer Harry Brassey decided to turn empty stone buildings on his property into stables and offices. With one barn spare, he embarked on the sale of animal feeds. Practical issues meant that this did not return the required margins.

  Harry's keen interest in country sports then took him into the direction of clothing and footwear, in particular for shooting, and the rebranding of the business as Barnack Country Clothes and Wellieboots.com.