California Apparel News

Buyers, surfers and skaters descended upon San Diego for the double whammy of the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo Sept. 7-9 at the San Diego Convention Center and the Agenda trade show Sept. 7-8 at the San Diego Concourse. With 7,000 buyers roaming the aisles at ASR and an expanded exhibitor list at Agenda, show organizers declared the Spring 2008 shows a success.

“Reaction has been very positive,” said Andy Tompkins, ASR’s director. “We haven’t had this many buyers at the show in a long time, and I think it’s a good reflection of how strong our industry is. Despite all the economic indicators, our retailers— especially our Southern California stores—reported strong sales this summer.”

Aaron Levant, Agenda's founder and president, said the September show marked a real milestone for the boutique streetwear show. “It was our best September show ever—and September is historically a hard month for us because we’re coming off of the Las Vegas and New York shows,” he said. “Oftentimes buyers have already eaten up their budget by the time they get to us. So to have them here writing paper is great.”

At ASR, approximately 20,000 attendees scoped out 750 brands. The show, which grew from last September, greeted buyers with a newly merchandised layout. Now with greater definition between the swimwear, surf, skate, motocross, streetwear and hardgoods categories, ASR aimed to be more user-friendly. “We tried to organize all the categories, from emerging brands to swim and lifestyle apparel, to help buyers find product quickly,” explained Tompkins.

Adding a new flavor to the mix were a series of ultimate-fighting and mixed martial arts–related brands, including Throwdown Industries , Tapout Clothing and No Tap Fight Gear, which sought to use ASR as a launching point into core and specialty boutiques. “Our industry doesn’t have a show equivalent to this, and ASR is a good place to reach this kind of buyer,” said Brandon Zundel, owner of Throwdown, a Las Vegas–based hardgoods company that debuted a new line of T-shirts by Compton, Calif.-based B&H Co. Not everyone saw the correlation between the surf/skate crowd and the cage fight scene, however, and reps for several core brands wondered if the latest addition to ASR didn’t dilute the show’s appeal for key buyers. “It’s a new thing to have those sort of brands at ASR, and we’re definitely not aggressively pursuing by any means that category,” Tompkins said. “Some buyers were glad to have it here. We’ll see what happens. It’s definitely not a perfect fit.”

Regardless, fashion was the focus on ASR’s show floor. On the heels of Quiksilver announcing a new young contemporary women’s line targeting fashionable 20-somethings, plenty of surf and skate brands highlighted fashion for Spring 2008.

“We’re entering a fashion cycle,” said Marisa Dietrich, Roxy's West Coast sales rep for sportswear and kids. “Right now our business is dress-driven, and we’ve significantly grown the number of dresses in the line.” Sundresses in woven and knit fabrications and a variety of silhouettes, from mini-dresses to maxi dresses, are key to Roxy’s Spring 2008 offerings. Veering away from the more-youthful low-rise, flare jeans of past seasons, the brand also offered trouser-cut and wide-leg denim in dark washes. Boutique bags, a new category for the brand, featured handbags with higher price points and designer-inspired styling.

Los Angeles-based Elwood relaunched after a year-and-a-half-long hiatus with a contemporary collection packed with fashion-forward touches. Men got minimalist shorts with slash pockets, tailored trousers and jeans with classic styling and a hidden, built-in bottle opener. Women got a capsule collection of layering pieces, woven dresses and slick denim.

Matix came to market with White Label, a new collection of more high-end designs for men and women with higher price points. Shift dresses, organic denim, selvage denim, patchwork shorts and specialty woven shirts pack the capsule collection. Insight, which made waves at the contemporary Project Global Trade Show in Las Vegas in August, showed '80s-inspired pop-art fashions that appealed to specialty shops and boutique buyers. Rusty came to the show with a fashion-forward collection, which included neon brights, acid-wash miniskirts and quirky T-shirt graphics that were more club kid than surf rat.

Still, while many brands pushed fashion, others chose to focus less on fashion and more on lifestyle. “The industry needs to get closer to our roots,” said Jessica Rush of Ezekiel. “There are plenty of other resources for young contemporary and highend fashion. We are surf and skate; that’s why people come to our industry.” Rush, who said Ezekiel does follow trends and offers a few key fashion pieces, said surf and skate staples such as fleece pieces and shorts are perennial bestsellers. “Right now dresses are going bananas because it is the hot thing, but our fleece and shorts are always super-strong,” she said. “Our girl comes to us for what she can’t find at Forever 21 or H&M, and that's authentic surf-lifestyle clothes.”

Agenda sees growth spurt

For the first time since it moved to the Concourse, Agenda has grown beyond the ballroom. “Now, we’ve got 40 brands showing upstairs.” The addition brings the show’s total exhibitors to more than 200. “We’ve outdone ourselves,” Levant reported.

With the longer exhibitor list, the show’s focus has shifted from emerging and underground T-shirt brands to more collection-driven streetwear lines. There are still plenty of T-shirts to be had, but now more-established lines and traditional tradeshow booths pepper the show floor. “We’re changing to accommodate the needs of our bigger customers. We’re stepping out of our original format, and I think that’s a good thing,” Levant added.

With brands such as Obey, Paul Frank Industries, FiveFour, We Are the Superlative Conspiracy (WESC), FreshJive, Stuuml;ssy, Adidas, DC, English Laundry and Kill City showing alongside Orisue, Dukrl, Altamont and Boxfresh, the exhibitor mix has come a long way from the show’s underdog beginnings. “It’s taken a long time to get the more serious brands to the show. We had to build a reputation, and we’re finally at a point where people take us seriously,” Levant said. In future editions, buyers will continue to see smaller T-shirt brands replaced with more established and up-and-coming brands, he said.

Traffic at the show was steady for the two days, and exhibitors reported varying degrees of success. Jim Shubin of WESC, which brought a large booth to the show and kept it packed, said the caliber of buyer at Agenda and the lower cost of the show is what keeps the brand coming back with a bigger presence every season. “If I could do both Agenda and ASR, I would. But Agenda has been great to us, and we love it here. It is easy to do business,” he said.

Michael Warren of Los Angeles–based FiveFour, which showed a sophisticated line of streetwear, said the 5-year-old line has grown with the show. “We started out like a lot of the brands you see here, but every season we push to be more mature,” Warren said. Showing coated-fleece jackets, modified trench coats and peacoats, and super-clean denim for more than $100 wholesale, FiveFour’s price points are well beyond the average T-shirt, but buyers at the show haven’t batted an eye, he said.

Altamont, which brought selvage denim and a “death hula”–themed collection of skateinspired streetwear to the show, got plenty of attention for its more high-end fashion but covered its bases by also offering a more pared-down version for price-conscious buyers.

Boxfresh took a similar approach to its fashion, offering LTD, a more high-end version of its line, which got more play at the show despite the higher price point, said rep Gabe Dedios.

Next season, buyers and brands will find Agenda even more changed. “We’re switching to a pre-fabricated booth system,” Levant said. “Up until now, it has been OK to just have racks and tables and chairs, but the step up in exhibitors and collection means we need a more refined look and space.”