Turkey's Footwear Exhibition —— Industry Insights Connecting the World       

Maggie at AYSAF Exhibition

Following Maggie's footsteps into Turkey's premier footwear materials event  

These days, Liyu New Materials' Maggie is in Istanbul, Turkey, conducting on-site visits at the AYSAF Turkey Footwear Materials Exhibition held from April 29 to May 2, 2025. She's serving as the "advance team" for Liyu New Materials, bringing back first-hand market intelligence

Day One at the Exhibition

The atmosphere isn't as lively as before

   Maggie shared that this year's exhibition appears somewhat "subdued"

•     Only about 100 exhibitors, significantly fewer than previous years' 300-400

•      Key reasons for reduced foot traffic include lingering pandemic effects, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and competition from the concurrent Canton Fair

  Nevertheless, our "scout" continues tirelessly examining every detail.

Market Observations:Traditional strengths, innovation lags slightly

Maggie observed that the core products at the exhibition mainly consisted of leather materials and insoles, along with products like double soles, welts, metal accessories, EVA, and fiberboard.

 From our interactions, we discovered:

• The local market has "deep roots" - even small street shops are backed by long-established businesses</li>

• Benefiting from language and geographical advantages, the market focuses more on local and European connections, but shows strong interest in the Chinese market

• Chinese products face a 20% tariff plus shipping distance challenges

• European imported materials enjoy 0% tariffs and have better quality reputation

How Did Our Materials Fare at the Exhibition?

The local market maintains strong traditional thinking with limited adoption of innovative products. For instance, Liyu New Materials' vegan leather series, as an alternative to genuine leather, still requires significant market education and development. Traditional rubber soles remain the dominant product, with customers' essential requirements including:

•  Proper hardness

• Printing that mimics genuine leather

• Positioned as mid-to-high end with good cost performance

Although there were fewer buyers than previous editions, this investigation provided extremely valuable references for our future market strategy:

• Deeper exploration of rubber soles' potential and enhanced promotion of specialty products

• Progressive market education to increase awareness of vegan leather, bio-based materials and other innovations

• Product line and sales strategy optimization based on customer feedback to identify better market entry points

Notably, several industry peers mentioned that the November 2025 Turkish footwear materials exhibition will likely be more attractive. We will maintain our focus and prepare our market entry strategy accordingly.