MRketLV Moving Up
Traffic was brisk at MRketLV, the menswear show held Aug. 16–18 at The Venetian.
Britton Jones, president and chief executive of Business Journals Inc., organizers of MRketLV, as well as Moda Las Vegas and Accessories The Show, said exhibitor registration grew 20 percent over last year’s show and buyer attendance was up 5 percent to 10 percent for the same period. About 70 percent of the stores attending the show were from the western half of the United States, and 12 percent of the buyers were from outside the United States.
Many exhibitors said they were pleased that the first two days were extremely busy, although traffic dwindled the third day.
“I felt the show was very strong,” said Mark Maley, vice president of sales for Carnoustie, a fine men’s sportswear line based in Irvine, Calif. “Normally you have one busy day, and the next it wanes. But the first two days were strong, and the third kind of tapered off,” Maley said. “There was a lot of foot traffic, and most of the booths I saw were quite busy. The people who were there were there to work and not just looking.”
Gary Wasserman, co-founder of a relatively new line of Peruvian-made luxury tees called Left Coast Tee, left the event in an upbeat mood. “It was an extremely good show for us,” said Wasserman, whose San Francisco–based line sells simple T-shirts that retail for $60 to $75. “There was more space this year, more brands at the show, and the feedback from the stores that visited our booth is that it is a very important show when it comes to better and luxury-type products.”
Ben Olia, chief executive of the menswear label Santorelli, based in Anaheim, Calif., has been attending the MRketLV show ever since it first opened in Las Vegas in February 2008. He felt the three-day event was well organized. “It was an excellent show,” he noted. “The first two days were very good, and the last day was pretty slow.”
He wrote orders with Nordstrom and saw several important customers.—Deborah Belgum
