California Apparel News

First there was Miami Beach, then New York, and now Los Angeles.

Urban Expositions, the Atlanta-based trade show organizer that puts together Material World, is eyeing Los Angeles as its next new venue for an annual show that would give textile manufacturers, technology experts and overseas factories a place to showcase their businesses.

“We have been extremely intrigued with the Los Angeles market for a long, long time and have tried many different ways to be there,” said Tim von Gal, executive vice president of Urban Expositions.

Sources close to the trade show industry said that Urban Expositions tried to buy the Los Angeles International Textile Show but were turned down by the show’s organizers, the California Market Center.

John Kim, general manager at the CMC, acknowledged that Material World has wanted to come to Los Angeles for some time and was intrigued with the mammoth complex of showrooms that make up the three buildings in the CMC. But he wouldn’t confirm whether Urban Expositions made an outright offer to buy the L.A. International Textile Show.

“With the previous ownership [Hertz Investments], they had some conversations, and we have received some calls from them to introduce themselves,” he said, adding that Urban Expositions has never made an outright offer.

Material World’s entry into the Los Angeles market could provide competition for the twice-yearly Los Angeles International Textile Show when the new show moves into town as early as 2007 but no later than 2008.

Urban Expositions is hunting for locales and could end up at the Los Angeles Convention Center, blocks away from downtown L.A.’s Fashion District.

“We are currently looking for dates and opportunities with the intention of being there,” von Gal said. “We are hoping a good opportunity is presented to us.”

Material World is a relatively new trade show that started up when the first exhibition took place at the Miami Beach Convention Center in September 2000. It is a three-part concept. The annual Miami Beach show, which this year is scheduled for April 4–6, provides an exposition space for fabric and trim suppliers, another section for technology companies that cater to apparel companies, and a sourcing area dedicated to foreign manufacturers.

In Miami Beach, most of the foreign factories are from Central America, which has benefited from various trade agreements that allow their locally made apparel to enter the United States free of duties and quotas if they are made from U.S. cotton or fabric.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association, a trade group representing hundreds of U.S. manufacturers, is also a sponsor, organizing seminars on various topics.

Material World expanded to New York in September 2005 when the International Fashion Fabric Exhibition (IFFE), which had been held for years at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, suddenly folded. Urban Expositions was offered the opportunity to take over the textile show’s lease at the New York exhibition hall.

“We had to turn that around in five months,” von Gal recalled. “No trade show company wants to work that quickly. But it was a window of opportunity.”

Material World in New York received mediocre reviews from attendees, who acknowledged that Urban Expositions did a fair job given the short notice to prepare a big show. But the company is determined that by 2008 the New York version of Material World will be held twice a year, von Gal said.

Cost conscious

Organizers of the L.A. International Textile Show were cautiously optimistic that the entry of Material World into Los Angeles wouldn’t take a big chunk of their business, particularly if it were held in the summer. Currently, the L.A. textile show, which was launched in 1993, is typically held the last weeks of April and October. It has grown steadily to encompass about 350 exhibitors. The upcoming Material World in Miami Beach will have 400 exhibitors.

“I don’t think that many people will go over [to Material World],” said Hal Kaltman, president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles and owner of Hal Kaltman Textiles.

Kaltman pointed out that many textile exhibitors are very price conscious, so any new textile trade show would have to charge reasonable prices for booths to be successful.

“Why would people not show in the L.A. textile show where we have reasonable prices and go into the L.A. Convention Center where you can’t get a light bulb without going through the union?” Kaltman asked.

A standard 10-foot-by-10-foot booth at the L.A. International Textile Show costs $1,560 plus a $75 security fee. At Miami Beach’s Material World, the same size booth costs between $3,375 and $3,750.

Tech, timing and the bottom line

Material World is, however, one of the few fabric shows that has a technology component to it, giving manufacturers a chance to catch up on the latest software and CAD/CAM features increasingly needed as apparel designers source their goods overseas.

Technology firms such as New Generation Computing, Lectra and Gerber Technology are perennial visitors to Material World.

Material World in L.A. would also have a sourcing section that would encompass countries from Latin America and Asia.

Many local textile companies said they would be interested in a Los Angeles version of Material World as long as it is not held at the same time as the L.A. International Textile Show.

“The problem with shows is that if they conflict with each other, you are not going to get buyers going to both,” said Bernie Gardner, chief executive officer of Los Angeles–based Impala Industries International, which specializes in Lycra and spandex fabrics for the swimwear and activewear industries. Impala has been a consistent participant in both Material World and the L.A. textile show.

“If the timing were in July, I would imagine Material World would get a [good] turnout. It wouldn’t be a problem if they kept the [booth] prices down and dirty,” Gardner added.

Rob Davis, chief executive officer of AVID Ink., a sublimation printer based in Corona, Calif., has also been a loyal exhibitor at Material World and the L.A. textile show.

“The textile show is making strides, gathering more attendance over the past two years,” Davis said. But he said he would be interested in seeing Material World come to Los Angeles if it could attract some good West Coast buyers and manufacturers who often don’t attend the Miami Beach and New York shows.

Again, cost was an important factor. Davis said he wasn’t attending the upcoming Material World in Miami Beach because of the $5,000 to $8,000 cost to have a booth and a sales representative at the show.

But April Booth, national sales representative for Eclat Textile Co. Ltd., based in Taipei, Taiwan, said she is skipping this year’s L.A. textile show and working out of her permanent showroom at the CMC. She consistently shows at the Miami Beach run of Material World, which she praised for its marketing efforts.

“We have done more business in Miami than at the L.A. show,” she said.