Tesla Sportscars, Agave Denim—and Guacamole—at Mario's Seattle
Agave's Jeff Shafer at Mario's Seattle store
RIDGEFIELD, Wash.—I’m just back from the latest Agave Denim/Tesla Roadster Test Drive event, held at Mario’s Seattle store.
Ever since Agave teamed up with the luxury electric sportscar maker last year, I’ve been traveling the country attending similar events, which give people a chance to test drive a Tesla, check out the latest collection from Agave and meet the people behind the jeans and the cars. Agave team members Maria and Dave were there, as was Mario Bisio, Simon and Jake from Mario’s Portland store, and Jon Taylor from Tesla Seattle.
Based in San Carlos,Calif., Tesla Motors is looking to transform the image of the electric car. Tesla’s two-seat roadster gets 250 miles per one charge and can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds. Fuel costs are estimated to be 4 cents per mile. But at $109,000, the eco roadster is targeted at the luxury consumer. A $50,000 four-door sedan is in the works.
For the event at Mario’s iconic downtown Seattle store, the formula called for combining cool style and cutting-edge technology. Agave brought in an extended collection that included our new Silver contemporary, Gold selvage and Nectar women’s denim collections as well as leather and sweaters. Tesla provided a brand-new red $120,000 Tesla roadster from the new Seattle showroom, and local Mario’s customers came out in force.
With test drives for VIP customers from 9 a.m. until 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m., and test rides every 25 minutes in between, the event was quickly sold out!
All day long people were coming by and checking out the new car and buying jeans—and, most importantly, smiling and having a great time. There was tons of excitement!
When you plan an event like this there are often a number of things that can go wrong—usually with the weather. This time, weather wasn’t the problem—we had the perfect Pacific Northwest Indian summer day—warm and dry. But, as luck would have it, the week before our event, Tesla had sold out all three cars it had available in its Seattle showroom. As such, they had to have a new car “shipped overnight” from Palo Alto Calif., to Seattle in order to keep their commitment to having a car for the event. Apparently, Tesla’s owner, Elon Musk, is a man of his word! (I sure hope they didn’t use Agave’s FedEx account for payment...)
To add a little spice to the event, I made my famous guacamole using a secret recipe I crafted over the years while living in Santa Barbara. We also made and gave away limited-edition event T-shirts, aluminum water bottles, shot glasses and Tesla key chains in Mario’s’ killer gift bags.
The crew at Mario’s, Tesla and Agave did an amazing job getting the word out about the event, with an extensive e-mail campaign, Web postings and a cover page on Daily Candy Seattle. Thanks again to everyone (including Zoe, Dave, Simon, Collette, Jayme) for all your help and support in making this event a huge success.
The Tesla Roadster
Agave on display at Mario's
Agave jeans
The guacamole
Guest blogger Jeff Shafer is the designer and owner of premium-denim brand Agave Denimsmith, which was founded in Los Angeles and is now based in Ridgefield, Wash.
