California Apparel News

LAS VEGAS—Just when you thought MAGIC Marketplace could not get any larger, it has.

Not only were there more than 3,600 booths at the Aug. 29–Sept. 1 event, about a 10 percent increase from last year, but MAGIC’s organizers also acquired two competing satellite shows to add to the broad mix of apparel, accessories and fabric companies that show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Advanstar Communications Inc. announced Aug. 29 that it had bought the Project Global Trade Show, a 2-year-old trade show for premium contemporary clothes, and the Pool Trade Show—a 4-year-old trade show for fashion-forward designers of clothing, accessories and home items—for an undisclosed price.

The news dominated much of the buzz at the 72-year-old MAGIC, one of the world’s largest apparel trade shows. The event now engulfs 950,000 square feet.

Many among the more than 101,000 MAGIC attendees wondered if the two small trade shows will maintain their indie character, which has been a draw for specialty stores searching for trendy garments to appeal to young customers.

“If they lose their autonomy, there’s no reason to go to the show,” said Bob Abdel, a buyer and partner with Jack’s Surfboards in Huntington Beach, Calif. “I come to Pool to see something new and hardcore. I see major brands at MAGIC.”

Pool, which was held Aug. 29–31 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, will move to the Las Vegas Convention Center or an adjacent site, said Georgiann DeCenzo, vice president of marketing and communications for Advanstar, a $380 million company based in New York.

Project, which opened its first Las Vegas event in August 2004, will remain at The Venetian hotel and the Sands Expo & Convention Center, where other satellite trade shows—such as the Off-Price Specialist Show, the ASAP Global Sourcing Show and Accessories The Show—are held.

Both Ronda Walker, president and founder of Los Angeles–based Pool, and Sam Ben-Avraham, president and founder of New York–based Project, have signed three-year contracts with Advanstar and will maintain control of their shows, DeCenzo said.

Advanstar executives last year took a look at their company and decided to reorganize after showing steep net losses in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In May, the company sold 23 trade publications, 50 Web sites, 21 exhibitions and 25 conferences spanning travel, technology, beauty, home entertainment, finance and communications to the newly formed Questex Media Group for about $185 million in cash.

Advanstar now focuses on three main areas: fashion, power sports and life sciences. “We looked at the three markets remaining and what the best way was to serve the customers in those markets,” DeCenzo said.

DeCenzo noted that Advanstar examined the fashion arena and found there were two segments of the market that had growth potential. Those areas encompassed Pool and Project. “We could launch in those segments, or we could acquire. So we acquired,” she said.

Room to grow

Being absorbed by a big company gives the small indies the potential to grow. Ben- Avraham said he expects his concept and vision of the shows, held in New York and Las Vegas, to remain the same, including the ground rules. No booth can be higher than two stories, and vendors will not be able to blare music from their booths. Instead, one disk jockey will play music for the entire show.

But he will expand the concept to include other categories and products such as accessories, footwear and more lifestyle items. The recent August show was Project’s biggest, with 250 booths.

quot;They’re taking all of the headaches away: the printing, the insurance, dealing with production,” Ben-Avraham said. “I didn’t have time to do what I like to do. I need time to travel to find new brands.”

His New York show will move from two buildings, the Metropolitan Pavilion on 18th Street and the Lehigh Building on 26th Street, to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where he expects to have 400 vendors at the next event.

At Pool, started by Walker in 2001, there will be some changes. Kimberly Goodnight, a Pool spokesperson, said the price to participate in the show will go up at the next event, which will be held Feb. 21–24, 2006, at the next MAGIC. Currently, new vendors pay $3,000 per rail or rolling rack, which also gets them a table and two chairs. Returning vendors pay $2,500. She said new prices will be announced in the next six weeks.

At the recent MAGIC show, booth prices started at $4,850.

Darwin’s theory

For several years now, MAGIC has competed with the growing satellite shows that have popped up to fill a niche not addressed by the mammoth apparel event. To compete, MAGIC has often launched its own version of the satellite shows.

In February 2002, Frank Yuan started the ASAP Global Sourcing Show, a trade show for overseas clothing factories that wanted to make clothing for U.S. manufacturers and retailers. A few years later, MAGIC started up the Sourcing Zone, which now is about four times larger than Yuan’s show.

Yuan is holding steady. His August show had about 185 booths and 250 companies, about as many as had exhibited last year. But last February, there were only 110 booths.

Yuan said he was happy to hear that Project was staying at The Venetian, even though many of the attendees are not his customers. “I think we’ll continue to do what we do best and be the sourcing specialists,” he said, noting he may add sourcing regions to his show that are not included at MAGIC.

The heads of the various satellite shows sat down to dinner shortly after the August 2004 MAGIC show and talked about how they could better organize themselves to draw more customers. The result is that the International Swimwear/Activewear Market, held last summer at the Caesars Palace Special Events Center, moved in under the same roof as MAGIC Marketplace this August.

Yuan lost his exhibition space at the Las Vegas Hilton after WWDMAGIC scooped up the area for its accessories show. And WomensWear In Nevada, a strong show for misses and plus-size womenswear at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, is still prohibited by MAGIC Marketplace from having its shuttle buses stop at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

But the niche satellite shows— such as The Exclusive, a menswear show at the Mandalay Bay—expect to be stronger. Larry Hymes, The Exclusive’s producer, said Project’s and Pool’s acquisitions will make his the only remaining independent menswear show in Las Vegas.

“I think it’s great for companies like ours,” he said. “When big companies come in and buy out the smaller ones, the smaller ones lose some of their identity and exclusivity.”