hello there!
is anyone familiar with any website which provides trend forecasts for the fashion industry in general or the shoe industry specifically.
thanks in advance
tom
I use:
ah yes, but you don’t pay $25K a year for it…
I’ll sell ya a user name and password for a tenth of that amount,…
…just kidding
I know that at the fashion dept. in parsons the students are able to go through libraries of books and magazines on trends that would cost a shyt load of money-so maybe try asking friends at local art school(s) if they have access to these types of catologs and booklets.
I haven’t heard of anything online-except for style.com (more about fashion)
they have trends for fashion and accessories (bags, jewlery, shoes)
thank you all!
i visited both websites you mentioned above.
WGSN seems like something i could use, but i didn’t really understand the process over there (maybe it’s my english which is not good enough…).
i have kind of applied for a registration and received “WGSN Subscription Request” e-male which announced that “a representative will be in contact with you shortly”. and nothing since than…
what does it mean?! and how much does it cost?
can anyone help?
isn’t there anything in this cruel world which is FOR FREE ?!
frustrated tamoo
Fashion and trend forcasting industries are intentionally kept at bay from all but the companies with deep pockets willing to pay to stay “cool”. We use wgsn, and it is good, however if I was not working at a big company, I probably could buy a stack of fashion and design magazines and still stay aware of the current trends. You will be hard pressed to find a FREE service that will spoon feed the information to you like wgsn or similar services.
… they have to eat and pay rent too …
hey, a bit of humor… i’ve never meant that they should starve or live on the streets…
i work for a company which also demands a more “formal” forecast then my personal impressions and therefore i need the service of a website like WGSN, and i am willing to pay for it! but it never hurts asking…right?
anyway, could anyone tell me what is supposed to happen now that i got this “a representative will be in contact with you shortly” massage? i live in the middle-east (of the world and not of the united states 
so i guess this representative won’t knock on my door…
and again - how much does this service cost?
thanks and i hope i’m not nagging too much…
tamoo
If you work for a company you will usually get a call back from a sales rep who will evaluate the seriousness of youy inquiry.
they will the tell you the benefits of WGSN, take you thru a free tour and give you a password that lasts for about 24 hours.
at which point they will let you know that it costs $24K a year for up to three passwords for access.
in my opinnion the $24k is worth it if you have to do any sort of research into the fashion and style industries. for Product design, its not as “robust” but it could help.
Its tough justifying a $24k outlay; but for some companies it can be cheaper to send a designer to London NYC and tokyo for a week twice a year to do their own on the spot research. but for others who need the trend info like a Tweeker needs meth the $24K is small change.
There are many ways you can get insider tips for the footwear trends. Of course WGSN is great but very expensive. WWD is good, as the shoe trends ususally coincide with apparel trends. Also style.com is good, as well as the british version. Footwear trade magazines are great and I really recommend magazines from overseas, which are costly and difficult to get a hold of but very worth it.
There’s always Josh Rubin’s Cool Hunting. He has a shoe fetish:
I can save you a lot of research in the field, the trends for the near future are:
- number: 3
-color: tuquose
-shapes: rounded, but not really
-material: rough
-favourite day of the week: saturday
That should do the job.
here’s a trend:
corporations being led by these service beareaus that sell a service that ‘no one else can do’ (think IDEO)
the result?
everything looks, smells and feels the same under a thin veil of differentiation.
Personally, I think all those trend forecasting services are just a huge waste of money and only capitolize on the insecurity of finanical departments dependent on design departments/functions.
I used to work with a large company that spent lots of money on footwear trend and color reports. ive seen the books and sites. In general, most of them just take a few pics at the usual shows (WSA, ISPO, Bread+Butter, etc.) and cut and paste a few random images from fashion magazines, comic books to develop an obscure story/theme (like “Asian Cowboy” ??! wtf?).
Color directions are even worse. they include a pallete of everything to cover pretty much anything you can think of. A bright color palette, and pastel color palette, a metallic color pallette, a natural color palette, etc. useless!
As others have hinted to in this thread I would say you are much better off just browsing the shops around you and checking the usual blogs, magazines etc. For a bunch of links to start with check http://del.icio.us/rkuchins/footwear
My theory is that its not like “new” trends all of a sudden appear, but just different styles/colors/whatever just become more prevalent. Nothing is really 100% new.
I’ve had a similar dicussion to this many time with fellow people in the industry on how best to “trend forecast”.
Ill be laying out some of my own thoughts on my new footwear design development blog first pullover. Trend Forecasting feature to come soon.
Just my $0.02.
R
Learn to do your trends yourself. I used wgsn when I worked for a big company but I can’t stretch to their fee’s now I’m freelance.
But what is very telling is that I do fashion forecasting for quite a few companies that already have wgsn. Just because everyone has got it, it makes it a bit samey and every company is looking for that point of difference.
TBH I’m pleased I no longer have it because it forces me to be more creative.
You will get much more out of travelling to different cities around the world and being interested in everything (films, books, other types of design, vintage clothes and shoes, etc.). You could also go to Premiere Vision and Lineapelle for materials trends.
I also find View on Colour is the best colour forecasting tool. I was told that all the other trend forecasting groups use this colour forecast as a basis for their trends.
Subscribe to magazines that inspire you (I get about 15 a month), buy even more on your travels (I love the Japanese fashion mags)and learn to make storyboards.
Finally, join as many discussion forums (in the areas that interest you) as you can and check them regularly - I’ve spotted many a trend this way.
not really a pure shoes trend site but check out www.superfuture.com awesome trends shopping site, maps with locations of all diff shops bars, museums etc rated stores and brief sum ups of exhibitions…