ASR Announces Holiday Show
Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo plans to put a surf-and-skate twist on the Holiday season.
The trade show producer specializing in surf and skate apparel announced the debut of ASR Holiday, its first trade show for Holiday delivery. ASR also is ending its ASR Fall show for the Back-to-School market, folding the event into its annual ASR show in January, said Kevin Flanagan, the trade show’s director.
“We’re not trying to increase people’s costs by adding a trade show,” Flanagan said. “We feel we’re going to produce a cost-effective show for a season whose needs are not being met.”
ASR Holiday is scheduled for May 31–June 1 at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort in Newport Beach, Calif. Flanagan expects 117 vendors to exhibit at the show and 600 retailers to attend.
Exhibition fees will be similar to the Backto- School show. Vendors will be charged $1,825 for an 8-by-8-foot booth. Retailers will be admitted free of charge. The Holiday show also will share the low-key, businesslike spirit of the former Back-to-School show, Flanagan said.
“It’s going to be a focused, order-writing show. There will be a few promotions, such as athletes signing autographs,” Flanagan said. “We’re going to make a turnkey event where vendors can set up quickly, get their business done, and get in and out.”
ASR decided to pull the plug on the Backto- School show earlier this year because the producer believed most of the industry’s order writing for the season had shifted to January. The company also had been fielding requests for a Holiday show for the past couple of years, according to Flanagan. During mid- 2005, ASR surveyed 2,500 retailers about whether they’d support a Holiday show. More than 50 percent reported interest in doing business at the new trade show.
Cliff Haddadin, chief executive of Anaheim, Calif.–based retail chain Beach Bums, said he plans to go to ASR Holiday specifically because it emphasizes business, not pleasure.
“You can lose focus at ASR. There’s too much commotion,” Haddadin said. “The whole industry should be represented at the Holiday show. It will be better for us to make decisions.”
Beach Bums has three new stores. On Aug. 5 a store was opened at Crossings at Corona in Corona, Calif.; on Oct. 27 at Simi Valley Town Center, in Simi Valley, Calif.; and an opening is set for Thanksgiving week at the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside, Calif. —Andrew Asch
