California Apparel News

WORD ON THE STREET: Rumors that the Project Global Trade Show will move from the Sands Expo back to the Mandalay Bay circulated througout the many trade shows in Las Vegas.

We’re just back from the apparel and sourcing trade shows in Las Vegas, and the rumor circulating the halls and aisles is that the Project Global Trade Show, which just relocated from the Mandalay Bay Convention Center to the Sands Expo Convention Center, is on the move again—back to Mandalay.

Even more surprising is the rumor that Project will take MAGIC with it—or part of MAGIC, possibly the men’s exhibitors.

Much of what we’ve heard is speculative—and the MAGIC and Project folks aren’t talking at all.

But here’s what we’ve found out so far:

Michael O’Keefe, a sales executive at the Las Vegas Convention Center, said that the MAGIC Marketplace is indeed planning to move Project from the Sands to the Mandalay for the next show in February.

One of Project’s exhibitors, Michael Geller, president of Paige Premium Denim in Los Angeles, confirmed the show would take place at the MandalayBay in February.

Rumors have been swirling that MAGIC would move part of its show, now at the Las Vegas Convention Center, to the Mandalay Bay to pair up with Project. Some expected it to be the menswear section, which has been shrinking in recent seasons. In response, MAGIC organizers have been parsing its menswear offerings into merchandised subcategories such as streetwear shows-in-shows S.L.A.T.E. and Premium at MAGIC, which include many exhibitors that previously showed at the now-vacant South Hall at the LVCC.

One apparel trade-show organizer, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had heard that MAGIC was moving at least its menswear portion to the Mandalay. “We’ve heard they are going to make an announcement on Tuesday [Sept. 8],” the trade-show organizer said.

O’Keefe at the convention center said the MAGIC Marketplace has been using less space for its mammoth event at the 2 million-square-foot convention center. For the last two shows—in August and February—it only occupied the North and Central Halls, which take up half the convention space the show used to occupy when it also filled the South Hall.

At Project’s current home at the Sands, there’s 655,000 square feet of exhibition space, including the trade-show areas in the adjacent Venetian Congress facility, according to the Sands site.

The MandalayBay, by comparison, has 1 million square feet of exhibition space, according to its Web site.

The rumors are surfacing just as designers, sales reps and retailers are returning from Las Vegas, where the trade-show landscape included 14 shows covering everything from men’s and women’s apparel to kids' clothing, accessories and sourcing resources. In addition to the MAGIC Marketplace and Project, concurrent trade shows included the Pooltradeshow, Capsule, Off-Price Specialist Show, Mrket, Accessories The Show, Moda Las Vegas, CurveNV, Women’s Wear in Nevada, ASAP Global Sourcing Show, Guild, ENK Vegas and the PGA Fall Expo.

For those of you just back from the shows—and those of you with your ear to the ground—let us know what you've heard.

Deborah Belgum contributed additional reporting for this story.