California Apparel News

Urban Suburban, a young men’s and juniors urban apparel and footwear show held at the California Market Center (CMC), opened to focused buyers and exhibitor growth for its Spring 2003 installment.

The show, which ran Sept. 30–Oct. 2, added more urban apparel exhibitors as well as additional shoe resources.

According to Karen Mamont, director of merchandising and public relations for the CMC, Urban Suburban has become the “largest, most legitimate urban show in Los Angeles.” She added, “The show features all the key urban lines and buyers are happy to have them available here in one location.”

A number of new lines were present at the show, according to Mamont, including Domepiece, Pepe Jeans, K.A. Kitties, Fender and Davinci, K-Swiss and Mad Soul. Among the buyers were Fred Segal Burtons, Bernini, Eurostar, Mensland, Metropolis, Reflex, Focus, Sportsmart and City Life.

Mamont said that attendance for the event couldn’t be compared to that for last year’s installment, because this is the first time the CMC required buyers to register for the show.

“We registered the buyers this year to have a better database of the target customer and to market the show to that customer. That was a big addition,” she said.

Buyers attending the show were focused on resources that they regularly do business with, placing orders for immediate and Spring fashions, as well as adding new lines found at the show.

Ali Hussein of El Centro, Calif.-based Sports Image regularly attends Urban Suburban but was placing heavier orders than normal after missing the MAGIC International show in Las Vegas in August.

“If I go to Vegas, I don’t always come here, but since I missed MAGIC, I came here to get everything I needed,” said Hussein. “We usually make appointments, but this time we decided to come in and walk through, because we knew what we were going to buy.”

Hussein was reordering from established relationships and adding new shoe resources.

“We carry most of the labels here, including Echo, Phat Farm and Johnny Blaze,” said Hussein. “Now we’ll add Johnny Blaze shoes.”

Hussein met with Carl Copeland for Johnny Blaze shoes and also placed orders for the new Johnny Blaze hooded sweat shirts, made at a thicker-than-usual depth, with a lower- than-usual wholesale price of $35, according to Copeland.

Copeland said that Johnny Blaze is able to manufacture the thick tops at such a low price because it has its own factory in Taiwan. He also reported doing brisk business at the show with established clients.

“It started off slow, but by the second day, I had eight to 10 orders,” said Copeland. “For this show, we’re mostly getting people who know us. Apparently the merchandise is doing OK in their stores, because they are reordering.”

Copeland reported taking some orders for immediates but mostly orders for the Spring 2003 season. Other exhibitors, including Urban Apparel Association’s West Moore, were moving a majority of immediate items, such as men’s leather jackets from Outkast and Azzure leather for men and women.

“Every year, I do leather, especially women’s leather,” said Moore. “I just added Outkast and I’ve had sales take off with some of the big buyers. I had a number of people in here and we took some good orders.”

Several exhibitors saw Urban Suburban as a valuable show for establishing new launches or resources new to the West Coast.

Scott McCrorie brought Pony branded apparel to the show, along with Russell Simmons’ new hat venture, Domepiece.

“We already got some orders on those,” said McCrorie, who reported that most of his business during the first two days of the show was for the hats.

Kiki Peterson of New York-based women’s urban apparel line K.A. Kitties came to the show to get exposure for the line in the market and make key contacts for its flowered denim and tops. Peterson said that the line is now in its second season of business and has been moving well on the East Coast.

“This was our first time coming out to L.A., and people kept telling us that we needed to get out here,” said Peterson. “We’re expanding outside of the East Coast, and this show has been a lot of help. Traffic is slow, but our neighbors have been helping us out, telling us where we should be and where we should go.”

Another company out of New York called Unique Sports Generation was showing velour, cotton and terry cloth NBA-branded athletic suits wholesaling at $100 per fulllength set and $60 for short sets.

“We wrote big numbers at MAGIC and it’s really big on the East Coast, so I’m introducing it to the West Coast,” said Rhonda Ray, the West Coast rep for the line. “Since the Lakers are a championship team, we have a lot of their gear, but the Clippers sets are our No. 1 sellers.”

Ray said that while the orders were light, the show served as a solid introductory forum.

“I’m slow for this show, but we got quite a few people walking through checking it out,” she said. “Our price points are high, but we use top-of-the-line velour and [the suits] are made well.”

Unique Sports Generation will also be garnering veteran ballplayers’ signatures and placing them inside of the label on its apparel for Spring items including short sets and jersey outfits.

Jeff Murrell, the West Coast rep for the Technics branded line of apparel, showed at the last Urban Suburban in March. He exhibited again at the latest show, in part to introduce buyers to his soon-to-open new showroom in the newly renovated Gerry Building across the street from the CMC.

“Since I haven’t had a showroom for the past six months, I thought it would be good to get out and see what stores are doing business,” said Murrell. “The traffic has been minimal but better than the last show. There are more people walking and people are writing.”

Murrell said that Urban Suburban is a good source for small boutiques that deal with smaller quantities of six to 12 units. He also said that he decided to do the show at the last minute and did not make appointments.

“You definitely have to have appointments to get anywhere in this show,” he noted.

For the next installment of Urban Suburban, the CMC plans to get more aggressive in the planning of the event.

“We’re having a meeting next week with all the reps on the urban floor to discuss how to make the show better next February,” said Mamont.