ASR Looks for the Next Wave With Gold Box
The Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo, the biannual surf-and-skate industry trade show, will debut a mini-show dedicated to small clothing labels pioneering the next wave in activewear.
The mini-show, called Gold Box Mission, will launch at the Sept. 9–11 run of ASR at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. It is the first mini-show produced by ASR, said Show Director Kevin Flanagan.
“We’re looking two steps ahead,” Flanagan said. “We asked, ’What are some new and important brands out there that we can present to the retailers?’”
ASR managers started working on the show more than six months ago. They specifically looked for 10 brands to show their wares in the mini-show’s spare 6-by-4-foot booths, which will be located on a raised circular platform in the north side of the convention center.
Brands such as Long Beach, Calif.–based Cardboard Robot paid $950 for booth space, compared with the $2,400 that larger, more established companies paid for a 10-by-10-foot ASR booth. According to Rob Dubar, chief executive officer of Cardboard Robot, exhibiting at the well-established ASR will not pay off with a bumper crop of new sales; it will pay off with greater exposure from the estimated 7,000 buyers and 500 reporters browsing at the show. “We don’t rely on trade shows for sales as much as we rely on our reps going on the road,” he said.
Cardboard Robot previously exhibited at Agenda, a satellite show of ASR that specializes in new streetwear lines that show crossover potential with the surf-and-skate crowd. Dubar said his company will take space at both shows, although Cardboard Robot had not signed a contract to show at Agenda as of press time.
Flanagan stressed that Gold Box Mission is not meant to compete against the growing Agenda show, which is scheduled to begin on the same day and run through Sept. 10.
Producing trade shows for new companies can be an unsteady business, according to Aaron Levant, president of Agenda.
“There are a growing number of independent companies out there,” Levant said. “But, it’s a constantly changing market. There’s a good 25 percent of these companies who will be here this season and out the next season.”
Other companies confirmed to exhibit at Gold Box Mission are Turkey of Laguna Beach, Calif.; Stalyon of Hollywood; Austus of Los Angeles; Unified of Irvine, Calif.; Aztec Rose of Redondo Beach, Calif.; Constance of Chicopee, Mass.; and Lifetime Clothing of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Gold Box Mission is just one way ASR managers are striving to make the show more attractive to retailers. The producers will increase the number of ASR fashion shows from two to four. They will also provide more entertainment at the convention center, including screenings of surf-and-skate videos and the “Game of Skate,” where amateurs will compete against professional skateboarders on a skate ramp. Professional seminars on issues concerning the activewear industry also will be scheduled.
