Chicago’s Fulton Market Design Days, held June 9–11, 2025, offered a compelling counterpoint to the institutional behemoth of NeoCon. With more than 40 participating brands activating street-level showrooms, galleries and outdoor pop-ups across the Fulton Market District, the event transformed the neighborhood into a vibrant, walkable design festival, and a case study in what happens when you bring the showroom to the sidewalk.
The Street Is the Showroom
Unlike the vertical navigation of The Mart, Design Days sprawled horizontally. From OFS’s new hospitality-inspired showroom at 1115 W Fulton to Allermuir’s bright, tactile pop-up at 1032 W Fulton, brands created immersive experiences that blurred the line between retail, hospitality, and workspace. Interiors spilled onto sidewalks, visitors moved between events in clusters, and the city’s energy added unexpected dimension to the typical showroom walkthrough.
Activations like “Grinds + Grooves” offered DJs, coffee, and a communal vibe in the mornings, while “Hydration Stations” kept visitors refreshed with Garrett’s popcorn and cold brew. Ikea, Bentley, and Humanscale hosted social events that made networking feel less like work and more like a block party. Evening events had a distinctly un-corporate flavor: rooftops, courtyards and showrooms-turned-speakeasies became the backdrop for brand-hosted gatherings.
Experiential Standouts
MillerKnoll emerged this year as the undisputed anchor of Fulton Market Design Days. Occupying more than 45,000 square feet across multiple locations, including showrooms for Herman Miller, Knoll, Muuto, Hay, Geiger and Design Within Reach, the company used the event to consolidate its expansive brand ecosystem under one immersive urban campus. From the high-traffic Seating Lab at Herman Miller to the refined material displays at Maharam and Knoll Textiles and the North American debut of HAY’s furniture collections, MillerKnoll delivered both scale and storytelling. Its investment in multisensory installations, product launches, and designer-led talks not only attracted the largest crowds of the week, but also set the tone for what a flagship presence can look like in a decentralized event model.
MillerKnoll’s multipronged presence included Herman Miller’s Seating Lab, an interactive testing ground for its ergonomic chairs—Aeron ESD, Cosm, Embody, Mirra 2, and others—as well as the new Spout sit-to-stand table and a revamped Eames Molded Plastic Chair now made from 99% post-industrial recycled plastic.
Many brands used Design Days to launch major new products. OFS debuted its Obee Modular Lounge (praised for its sculptural curves and ergonomic comfort), Adler Private Office Collection, and ROOM acoustic pods. These pieces emphasized flexibility, wellness and a hospitality-driven aesthetic that feels well-suited for both office and hybrid environments. Visitors remarked on the sensorial experience — sitting, touching, walking around — being more memorable than traditional trade fair booths.
Carolina unveiled Offshore Lounge and the Mile Marker G2 system for healthcare spaces, offering modular furniture solutions aimed at calming patient spaces.
Kvadrat hosted a textile-forward activation featuring a forest-like landscape to explore the launch of TelaMia by Giulio Ridolfo alongside new offerings by Peter Saville, Note Design Studio, and Kapwani Kiwanga. Furthermore, Kvadrat Acoustics introduces three innovative acoustic solutions for ceilings and walls.
One of the most culturally vibrant activations came from Spain, where ten leading brands — Adex, Böln, Expormim, Gandia Blasco, iSiMAR, Kriskadecor, Point, Punt Mobles, RS Barcelona, and Sancal — joined forces under the banner of “Interiors from Spain” at 950 W Fulton. This debut collective pavilion brought Mediterranean sensibility and strong contract-market versatility to the forefront. RS Barcelona drew attention with its playful yet elegant ping pong and foosball tables, while Kriskadecor showcased dramatic custom aluminum chain curtains in vivid gradients. Gandia Blasco and Point focused on architectural outdoor furniture, sun loungers, modular sofas, and pergola-integrated seating, ideal for hospitality and luxury residential settings. Meanwhile, Punt and Sancal presented sculptural wood and upholstered pieces that balanced minimalism with expressive materiality. Attendees gravitated toward the pavilion not just for its design depth, but also for its wine tastings, tapas, and designer talks, making it one of the most convivial and well-trafficked locations of the week. In a district dominated by North American brands, this Spanish showcase was a timely reminder of European craftsmanship and storytelling.
Other notable participants included Interface, with its high-performance, sustainable flooring; Kimball International, showing adaptive workplace settings; and Coalesse & DesignTex, which presented textiles co-designed by Jean Nouvel in a gallery-like setting.
IKEA’s temporary showroom underscored accessibility, affordability, and design democracy, injecting an interesting contrast to luxury brands.
Arper exhibited a central display of Catifa Carta and Catifa (RE) 46, as well as several of their new outdoor collections on the patio during these days.
Humanscale officially launched its Diffrient Lounge Chair, marking their very first entry into the lounge seating category. This comes after the chair’s preview in April at Salone del Mobile in Milan. Designed by the legendary Niels Diffrient, often hailed as the “Father of Ergonomics,” this chair continues his mission for seating that adapts to the user, not the other way around. It blends elegance with ergonomic precision, offering a refined aesthetic while prioritizing comfort and adaptability.
Sandler Seating introduced a line of hospitality-driven outdoor and indoor furniture that emphasizes European craftsmanship and material resilience, including the Geofanti chair. Meanwhile, LOLL Contract continued to expand its influence in outdoor contract settings with bold color updates and expanded configurations of its Alfresco Lounge Series, designed for high-use commercial patios and rooftop environments. The brand’s use of recycled plastic materials further underlines its leadership in sustainable outdoor design. Allsteel’s Evo task chair, available in fresh bold colors, was a hit with many visitors.
Mohawk Group’s new showroom features a range of engaging experiences, including a Personal Studio: A cutting-edge space for experimentation and design exploration, equipped with the latest design technology and tools, and a Hospitality Zone: A welcoming space for events, meetings, entertainment, and relaxation, featuring a glam room. The company highlighted their new collection around the theme of “Shared Senses.”
What Worked—and What Didn’t
Fulton Market Design Days succeeded in creating an environment that was dynamic, engaging, and deeply human-scaled. The event’s walkable layout, combined with open-air lounges and street-level showrooms, fostered spontaneous exploration and a tangible sense of energy. Unlike traditional trade fair booths, most participants leaned into interactive formats, offering product demonstrations, wellness integrations and branded experiences that felt more like hospitality encounters than sales pitches. Perhaps most importantly, many showrooms functioned as storytelling platforms, using space to communicate themes of sustainability, hybrid work and emotional well-being. However, the event wasn’t without its friction points. A lack of cohesive wayfinding meant that visitors sometimes struggled to locate key activations. While many installations felt intentional and immersive, a few leaned too heavily on flash — like early-morning DJ booths that garnered mixed feedback. Accessibility also proved a challenge; limited shuttles, spotty ADA compliance, and the absence of centralized amenities made navigation difficult for some. Additionally, several attendees and press noted a surprising lack of pre-event communication and press materials from the Fulton Design Days organizers, which made it harder to understand the full scope of offerings in advance, and subsequently made it feel as if the whole event was geared to a much more local audience, rather than to architects and designer from outside of Chicago.
NeoCon 2025: Still the Giant
Despite the buzz surrounding Fulton Market, NeoCon at THE MART remains the gravitational center of commercial design. Its sheer scale — more than 450 exhibitors spread across 1.3 million square feet — allows for a comprehensive view of the contract market that no decentralized event can currently match. For major product launches, high-level business meetings, and cross-sector visibility, THE MART offers infrastructure and prestige that still matter to global manufacturers, procurement officers and corporate clients.
NeoCon also benefits from consistency and reliability. Attendees know how to navigate its vertical footprint, and brands rely on the built-in traffic flow of a centralized location. It’s a format designed for efficiency, particularly for firms seeking to compare multiple product lines or conduct back-to-back demos in a single afternoon. While Design Days thrives on serendipity, NeoCon delivers structure, and in a professional context where time is often limited, structure wins out.
Finally, NeoCon’s institutional weight cannot be underestimated. Many key manufacturers, including Haworth, Momentum Textiles, and Andreu World, continue to anchor, and even expand, their presence inside THE MART. That legacy ensures deep industry attendance, major media coverage, and a sense of legitimacy that still makes NeoCon the definitive place to launch new collections at scale. While Fulton Market offers freshness and intimacy, NeoCon remains the commercial design industry’s main stage.
Complementary or Competitive?
The conversation is no longer about one replacing the other. Fulton Market Design Days and NeoCon now function as complementary ecosystems. NeoCon delivers institutional reach, global attendance, and product depth. Fulton Market offers intimacy, cultural relevance and emerging brand energy. Our inside sources tell us that THE MART indeed made overtures to the furniture manufacturers at Fulton Market to have a presence at NeoCon, but they chose not to participate because of budgetary reasons.
Some exhibitors, such as Ultrafabrics played both sides, seeing the advantage of showing inside THE MART while opening their Fulton Market popup to foot traffic.
Architects and designers often split their time, spending structured hours at NeoCon and meandering afternoons in Fulton Market. Many reported that the contrast between the two helped reinforce each’s value: NeoCon is where deals happen; Fulton Market is perhaps where ideas emerge.
For Designers and Manufacturers: The Takeaway
Given its success, industry insiders expect Fulton Market Design Days to expand in 2026, with calls to have the event grow from three days to a week-long festival.
Bottom line: If NeoCon is the industry’s engine, then Fulton Market is its pulse — quick, creative, and catching momentum fast. Together, they offer a comprehensive view of where workplace design is headed: toward adaptability, narrative, and real human connection. But for all of this to succeed, Design Days will have to find better ways to work beyond the Fulton Market confines.