Performance Days
From person to person
What topics are you particularly interested in at the moment?
Anna Schuster, Head of Sustainability Performance Days: Our goal is to make sustainability tangible and practical. Each trade fair has a focused theme—currently textile-to-textile recycling with a focus on sorting and collection—embedded in a broad spectrum of solutions with clear recommendations for action, tools, and best cases. We offer guidance in various formats: Sustainability Lounge for topics such as certifications, social sustainability, and regulations; Innovation Area with early developments and market-ready technologies; and material and topic specials such as wool, footwear, and bodywear. Solution providers with AI approaches and workshops for practical knowledge are also part of it. It is particularly important to us to give start-ups a stage, because this is where we can see what's coming next. This makes Performance Days a central meeting place for product development, design, sourcing, and sustainability—where tomorrow's solutions and trends are created.
Why do you deliberately focus on the beginning of the cycle?
Because that's where the foundations are laid. Many people talk about recycling technologies, but long before that, there are people who sort materials by hand, remove zippers, or identify fibers based on their feel and experience. Despite innovative AI and RFID solutions, the process is still very manual today. At the same time, clear regulations are coming our way from the EU. We have to use recycled textiles. In order for our industry to scale, we need to understand what happens at the beginning of the chain and how we can strengthen these structures.
But our focus doesn't end with recycling. Many key questions arise much earlier – in understanding material flows, in establishing functioning structures and an infrastructure that enables innovation in the first place. That's why at Performance Days we showcase not only market-ready solutions, but also early approaches: from university material developments and pilot programs to new process and technology concepts with future potential. These early insights ultimately provide helpful guidance, creating a common understanding of how innovation becomes scalable and what infrastructure we as an industry need to build to achieve this.
For you, the focus is on people, and you can feel that at the trade show too.
We care deeply about collaboration—genuine exchange, targeted networking, and moving forward together. Through tours, workshops, and direct dialogue, we listen, identify needs, and connect brands with suitable suppliers. This leads to conversations that drive solutions forward. Sustainable innovation is our central driver. Performance Days brings together developments that would otherwise be spread out over time and continents. Many innovations are shown here for the first time because this is where product development, sourcing, and design come together, trends are identified early on, and translated into decisions. For visitors, this creates a moment of clear orientation: the concentration of knowledge and encounters makes the trade show a place where the direction of the industry becomes visible and the future is actively shaped.
