Footwear Brands at Coterie and Magic Say These Shoe Trends Will Dominate Spring 2025
Traffic in New York City was at a gridlock this week thanks the influx of world leaders and dignitaries convening in the city for the U.N. General Assembly. Unfortunately, that meant a slower start for some brands at Mmgnet Group’s Coterie and Magic New York trade shows, who said buyers appeared hesitant to brace the traffic — and soaring hotel prices — for the shows this week.
Still, the brands that exhibited at the Javits Center in New York City between Sept. 22–24 said the buyers that did come out appeared overall upbeat about the upcoming spring ’25 season.
“People are optimistic,” said Mike Kerr, vice president of sales at J Slides in an interview with FN. “They’re buying for spring, and they’re actually buying at once, too. So that’s good.”
According to Mmgnet Group, there were 950 exhibitors at Coterie this season, with over 85 footwear brands on the show floor. Twenty-seven percent of the brands at Coterie were new to the show this season and over 400 brands were international. Over at Magic, the trade show featured more than 300 brands, including 40 footwear brands and 50 international brands.
“There is a lot of buying that’s done online and there’s a lot of digital platforms, but there’s nothing like connecting in person,” said vice president of Magic Jordan Rudow in an interview with FN. “It’s a tactile industry, especially with footwear. Things translate so differently when you see it on a website versus when you see it in person, so I think that is the best thing about the event.”
When it came to buying trends, some brands said retailers seemed more surgical in their approach this season. According to Heather Korman., an account executive with Chinese Laundry, retailers on the trade show floor took a more “item driven” approach to building out their shoe assortments as opposed to buying large collections.
“Maybe they’re on the hunt for the perfect Western booth this season or a new boot or they’re in the mood for the perfect mesh ballet flat or Mary Jane,” Korman said. “They’re very specific on what they’re looking for. Before you would create collections. And now they’re buying deep into one style.”
Account executive at Katy Perry Footwear Diana DellaRocco also noted that buyers are looking across a multitude of seasons and styles and selecting the standalone silhouettes that seem to work best for them. She specifically called out a tinsel-covered Christmas-themed ballet flat that she said was catching attention and orders. Like Kerr at J Slides, she also said more buyers are looking to fill in orders across several seasons, not just spring.
“People are looking at fall, even though we’re showing spring,” DellaRocco said. “We’re definitely getting a mix of both people looking for a couple of boots, but also excited about the new sandals that we’re showing.”
Trends also pointed toward a positive upswing for the boot category, following a few rough seasons.
“We’re at the beginning of a long overdue boot run,” vice president at Frye Footwear Andy Smith told FN. At Frye, the brand’s $498 campus boots has led the way for the boot resurgence, in part driven by an organic viral moment on TikTok featuring the boots.
When planning for the season, Smith said the brand doubled its prior year shipments numbers. But even that turned out to not even be a quarter of enough supply to fuel demand for the popular boot this year across retail.
“Boots are coming back,” Smith said. “People have sneakers, which are great, we have sneakers. But people are wanting to wear boots.”
On the higher-end side, luxury dress shoe brands at the show said demand for high quality, comfortable dress footwear is still strong.
“There’s definitely a need for higher [quality] Italian luxury footwear,” said Morris Jarada of Bruno Magli, whose shoes live in a higher price range ($250 to 600 a pair, depending on the style). “They like to be on trend and comfort is a main factor.”
“Ayelet by Naot,” Naot’s luxury dress shoe line that launches this fall, is also benefitting from its focus on luxury and comfort. Ari Levy, Naot’s director of sales, told FN that Ayelet already hit its retail goals and is close to running out of its initial shipment. Levy credits the new brand’s ability to mix high luxury with Naot’s traditional focus on comfort.
“For those who really specialize in comfort, when you put your foot into something, you know the difference,” Levy said. “In that high lux world, there’s nothing really out there that has this type of comfort quality.”