At the 105th edition of Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags, an immersive experience designed to showcase exhibitors’ products: a runway show entirely generated through artificial intelligence. The models are digital — the products remain real: shoes and bags you can see and touch at the fair.
Detroit, early 1980s. Three young men from the suburbs — Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson — begin sampling the sound of abandoned factories and looping it: techno is born. Forty years later, that same gesture returns — this time, on the runway.
At the first AI Runway Show at Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags — taking place during the 105th edition, from 13 to 16 June 2026 in Riva del Garda — mechanical arms, lasers, gears and conveyor belts are sampled and looped like a drum machine, creating an industrial soundtrack that runs throughout the show. Factory noise becomes a beat. Mechanical motion becomes rhythm. The factory becomes a runway. Technology, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are interpreted as tools to enhance human creativity, to amplify the strength of reality and of the products (shoes and bags) we choose, buy and wear every day.
The runway show is entirely generated using artificial intelligence. Three LED walls — fifteen metres wide and four metres high — project three different views of the same virtual runway, with close-up shots that keep the products firmly at the centre of the scene. The models are digital — young men and women, “perfect, invented, impossible” identities, created within an imaginary factory made of lasers, gears and robots. But creativity remains exactly where it belongs: in the selection of real shoes and bags — those presented by exhibitors for the upcoming S/S 2027 season — which visitors can physically experience throughout the exhibition halls. It remains in the materials, the stitching, the details that no algorithm can replicate.
«AI runway shows are a tool – says Alessandra Albarelli, General Manager of Riva del Garda Fierecongressi. – They allow us to present our exhibitors’ products in new and innovative ways, showcasing their ability to interpret both taste and market dynamics. Technology amplifies what already exists: the real quality of those who produce shoes and bags every day ».
There is no dystopian reading of AI here. And no cold, distant future. Artificial intelligence does not replace — it highlights and enhances ideas and products. It assigns to the digital world the perfection of atmosphere and staging, while returning to the physical world the value of uniqueness. Like Detroit techno: born from machines but shaped by those with the sensitivity to turn noise into music.
Once again, Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags look ahead, supporting the footwear and bags industry towards a future increasingly focused on craftsmanship and expertise.
FF
