Following October’s edition of The Schoolwear Show, CWB catches up with some of the new exhibitors to learn more about their product offerings. 

 

AIS Sports & Leisure

Associated Independent Stores (AIS) buying group (pictured above) has over 300 retailer members. A number of these members sell schoolwear along with sports, and in some cases, toys and homewares. For this reason, the AIS Sports & Leisure team felt The Schoolwear Show would be the perfect opportunity to connect with non-AIS Member retailers that may wish to expand their offering, especially into sports.
“For the first time, the AIS Sports & Leisure team secured a stand at The Schoolwear Show to showcase just some of the relevant brands that the group works with, such as Under Armour, Puma, GM Cricket, Zoggs and Slipfree®,” says Nina McNamara, Sports & Leisure Retail Operations Manager. “Since this was our first time exhibiting at The Schoolwear Show, we wanted to display a small selection of relevant top sports brands to let retailers know about some of the suppliers we work with. Both Under Armour and Puma are well-known brands offering a wide range of multisport apparel, footwear and accessories. These brands sell well in our AIS Member stores as they offer everyday sports items for juniors, including black, blue and grey essentials, bags and hats. GM Cricket has everything a retailer needs when it comes to all things cricket, and we were proud to showcase some of the key pieces at the show. Swim is also an important category for our schoolwear retailers, so we were keen to show products from Zoggs and Slipfree®. Slipfree® non-slip shoes are designed with protection in mind − protection from slipping and falling around the poolside or at the beach − as well as burning on hot surfaces and from harmful sun rays, with the shoes also being rated UPF 50+.
“Being present at the show also gave us the opportunity to tell more retailers about AIS, which owns the building where The Schoolwear Show takes place each year. In total, there are over 70+ sports and leisure suppliers working with the group, and so one of the main benefits of being a member of AIS is having access to these brands. Furthermore, most of these brands offer a Member Settlement Discount. Other benefits include our unique central payment system, which saves retailers valuable time and resources; access to our online retailers’ hub, where members can view all the latest information from suppliers, and an invitation to our INDX Sports & Leisure Shows, which take place twice a year and allow retailers to meet the suppliers and view the brands as well as meet other retailers from the AIS community.
“The AIS buying group is the UK and Ireland’s leading fashion, home and leisure buying group for independent retail. AIS is a membership organisation that celebrates individuality and entrepreneurship. We make sure every member thrives by combining all our strengths, buying power, creativity and expertise. With collective retail sales of £1.5 billion, suppliers and brands from around the world are eager to partner with us.”
www.aistores.co.uk

 

 

Little Green Feet

Making its debut at The Schoolwear Show in October was Little Green Feet, a new sustainable school shoe collection made from recycled materials created by full-service footwear company JBI Footwear. Little Green Feet is passionate about educating future generations and helping children have fun participating in safeguarding the planet. For this reason, the brand has a partnership with The Wildlife Trust charity for Lancashire, Manchester & North Merseyside. As well as donating to the charity with every sale, Little Green Feet includes a packet of wildflower seeds with each pair of shoes that children can grow at home to see the benefits of nature and wildlife. The collection comprises styles for girls and boys and includes characters Ellie the Bee and Sam the Spider to tie in with the brand’s nature theme. As well as its recycled school shoes, Little Green Feet also presented new rubber wellingtons and recycled backpacks and pump bags at the show.
“We felt The Schoolwear Show was a great platform to launch Little Green Feet to independent retailers,” says JBI Fashion Divisional Manager, Claire Ireland. “The feedback on the link with The Wildlife Trust, the free packet of wildflower seeds and positive messages on the product was amazing. Buyers felt the story of Little Green Feet − being made from recycled materials and giving back to nature − was a real point of difference to other brands.”
JBI is part of the Sutton Group of companies that has its own charitable trust − The Riverside & Florence Trusts − which was established in 1972 to benefit communities in which the Group operates. Since 2010, the trusts have supported hundreds of charities, schools, institutions and local communities with more than £2 million in donations.
www.littlegreenfeet.co.uk

 

 

Trodat

As the UK’s largest manufacturer of custom self-inking stamps, Trodat provides the reseller, office products industries and the education sector with high-quality stamps. It offers products precisely to its customers’ requirements, working with a network of thousands of businesses to provide its customers with the best self-inking stamp possible.
At The Schoolwear Show, Trodat exhibited its versatile Stamp ‘N Stick, which offers a quick and easy way to mark all belongings. The pack includes one green stamp with a black textile ink cartridge; one letter and number set with fun icons to design your own stamp; 30 durable stickers for attaching to trickier materials; one-metre iron fleece for better legibility on darker materials, and one set of tweezers to easily apply characters to the stamp. Producing thousands of impressions, the black ink cartridge is also dermatologically tested, so perfectly safe to be used on fabrics in close contact with skin, making it ideal for marking on school uniforms, paper, cardboard, containers, pencil cases, toys, stationery and PE kit.
“The Schoolwear Show is an excellent place for products such as our Stamp ‘N Stick to be recognised, with the potential of forming new relationships and growth in the education sector,” says Trodat’s Karen Smallwood. “Having looked at the history of previous shows along with its renowned professionalism, we decided to take our new product and showcase the versatile stamp to the people who could help us take it to the next level of recognition. We saw the show as an excellent opportunity to not only present our product but to further Trodat’s commitment to the retail industry and what we can offer. There is no place better than The Schoolwear Show to get real feedback from customers.”
www.trodat.co.uk

 

 

David Sharp

David Sharp is at the sharp end of embroidery design quality and production efficiency. The company is Europe’s biggest embroidery digitiser, with the name David Sharp having become synonymous with quality. The business provides embroidery digitising and print file vectoring; essentially the setups of bespoke embroidery design files and print-ready vector files. It also offers fully finished bespoke badges – embroidered, woven and silicone – which are ready for customers to apply to garments and proved hugely popular at The Schoolwear Show with those looking for new ways to become production efficient and stand out from the crowd.
Commenting on exhibiting at The Schoolwear Show for the first time is David Sharp’s director, Jamie Hood. “Schoolwear is a huge part of many of our customers’ day-to-day work, so it made sense to exhibit at the biggest event in the schoolwear suppliers’ calendar. We think getting in front of new and existing customers and putting faces to names is invaluable.”
www.davidsharp.co.uk