FIMAST, the international exhibition for the hosiery machinery sector kicked off here in
Brescia yesterday and innovation was immediately apparent at the Brixia Forum venue.
The most obvious innovations came from the knitting machine manufacturers who were
offering solutions for shoe uppers, particularly for the sportswear brands. Santoni had some
neat shoes on display from its new X intarsia machine and Colosio showcased its S1 shoe
upper machine and a host of stylish sports shoes on an impressive booth-the company has
already sold more than 500 S1 machines worldwide. Sandonini, which specialises in
reconditioning both hosiery and seamless machines had a large stand which was packed with
its ShoeSocks 3D shoe uppers.
Another immediately evident trend was automatic toe-closing devices for socks machines
with Staubli and a number of knitting machine builders including Da Kong and Tai Ho Shing
showing new devices on machines.
More on shoe uppers and automatic toe closing to follow later.
