Zweitausendachtzehn

My usual approach to keeping a diary or maintaining a blog is writing everything down while it is still fresh. There are some situations, however, where I need to change my ways – moments that intense and overwhelming that need a bit of time to take a certain place in your memory, so that the brain could actually process them and make something out of them.

These lines above, believe me or not, are the first I have written down since I returned from a course trip to Germany and it is still hard to put all the impressions into acceptably ordered sentences. Won’t even start with first impressions, as, contrary to what is widely accepted, they are not nearly the most meaningful ones. What I will do, however, is start from the very beginning – not in Germany, but still in England.

Agitation and irritation rather than happiness and excitement. The last thing I feel like doing on a Saturday end of January night  is get on a smelly cold bus for 10 hours. I do pack and kick myself out of the warmth and comfort of home and thank all gods I have a kind housemate to at least drag my suitcase for a quarter of an hour in the cold.

When the bus finally arrives there is a feeling of relief in every frozen centimeter of my body. This feeling turns out to be quite deceiving, however, as the bus is freezing, and broke down halfway towards London. Another bus, another break down, tube, delay, caught the flight. Didn’t manage to get any sleep really, also, playing Crash Bandicoot the whole previous night feels like the worst decision I have ever made. Doze off on the bus from the airport. Looks like we have reached a hotel-looking-like building, full of weirdos from all over the world, turns out later the same night. No energy for looking around Munich. Sleeping instead. In bunk beds, but feels like heaven after more than 50 hours without sleep.

 

Alarm, sun, quick Fruehstueck, S-Bahn, time for ISPO 2018.

All I really see is big halls, full of stalls and grumpy people. Everyone is headed somewhere, purposeful and eager to make the next big deal. I am not, simply because I don’t know what my place in such a new world is. Then I realize – I don’t have to find myself any place, I just need to make every place mine. And so, despite the majority of serious people with serious business and serious lack of time, I got to speak to quite a few special individuals – truly inspiring, confident and amazing in what they do, showing me what their work is all about, how their concepts turn into plans and how their technology makes them stand out from the similarity of stock currently on offer.

There is too much to be said about the two days at ISPO, so I will try to sum up, having been most impressed by the ‘Visions’ sector, where I thoroughly enjoyed the display of gold winners, the EA7 hall, with stunning lighting and perfectly made clothing, as well as the Houdini, Arys, and X – bionic stalls, where creativity, technology and simplicity were just overwhelming.

It wasn’t just the products at the fair that got me inspired, but also the numerous shows and performances that were being put out during the time of the event. The most interesting part was that anyone could actually participate in a number of games, contests, try out snowboarding, darts, have a nice chat with other people from around the world, who were there for so many different purposes, but the result was thousands of different people of various age and backgrounds being brought together and having fun with complete strangers. The feeling at the end of it was so much more comfortable and warm than the filled with confusion and uncertainty first moment I walked into the halls. We all left ISPO rich in impressions, inspiration, knowledge, and heavy with ideas and numerous catalogs.

The next day was a sort of an ‘industry free’ one, so what we did is literally avoid any shops or buildings where we could bump into any kind of clothing, well, at least that’s what I did, as my mind was so full of seams and patterns, prints, logos and email addresses, that the pavement seemed to me as a big zip guard and the beer coasters were massive white buttons. Hence my decision to buy a book instead of a top and to sunbathe instead of shopping. What I actually remember from this day is the warmth of the sun on my skin, the pleasantly meaningless talking to some of my course mates and the tastiest Leberkaes I have ever had in my life.

 

 

5 a.m. the following morning. Not quite awake, no breakfast either, but rather a long bus journey to Nuremberg. My eyes are closing, as I am desperately trying to make myself nibble on a chocolate biscuit. The moment my eyes first really opened that day was when I saw the Adidas bus waiting to take us to Adidas headquarters – a big, black, mighty monster.

However powerful the bus might have looked, it was certainly nothing compared to the massive Adidas buildings – masses of glass and moving screens. I couldn’t help but make a comparison between the faces of the people working in Adidas and those of the ones I first saw at ISPO. Unlike the latter, the first were bright and smiley, fresh and welcoming. Whether because most of them were interns or newly hired, or because of the spacious, airy work environment, the faces I saw I wanted to talk to, and I knew they felt at least partially as I did then – as a part of something big, not just big, but bigger than ever expected. The whole experience opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed – a world where you are not solely encouraged to do work, but to do it in the best possible way, and, most importantly, thereby, to enjoy it.

This, I would say, was one of the most influential experiences in my life, as it has not only allowed me to closely observe and get involved in the industry, but also because it got me loving the feeling of it all. I have no clue if this was the initial purpose of the trip, to be honest, but it definitely was for me and this is how I am going to remember it and refer to it.