California Apparel News

It started out as a forum for the refused.

About 33 streetwear brands that felt ignored by established trade events gathered Jan. 23, 2003, to try to hustle some business at the first Agenda show, held in a now-defunct Thai restaurant in Long Beach, Calif.

On Jan. 4, Agenda will return to Long Beach. But it will be celebrating its 10-year-anniversary show in the sprawling Long Beach Convention Center. More than 500 brands will exhibit at Agenda, which is now acknowledged by retailers as the dominant trade show for the lucrative niche of streetwear, surf, skate and new fashion.

“It is the most important streetwear show in America,” said Greg Selkoe, founder of Karmaloop, an estimated $200 million streetwear e-commerce emporium headquartered in Boston. “It’s not the only one that matters, but it is the most important,” he said.

Despite his show’s prominence, Agenda President Aaron Levant continues to play the role of the scrappy underdog. Apart from a $3,000 investment to get the show going in 2003, Agenda has no angel investors and no debt, and the biannual show has no plans for a quick expansion, said Levant, who was kicked out of high school before he started Agenda as an 18-year-old.

Organizers host smaller Agenda shows in New York and Tokyo, and the company is planning more incremental growth, most likely internationally—perhaps in Brazil, France and China. But expansion won’t start for a few years, until the right local partners are found, Levant said.

After a decade of growing in a fickle business, Agenda is still considered a breath of fresh air, said Don Juncal, president of leading streetwear and fashion label Obey Clothing and one of Agenda’s biggest vendors.

“Previous to Agenda, trade shows were fragmented, and some shows like [now-defunct Action Sports Retailer] were, frankly, stale. Agenda was able to blend the genres together in an unforced manner and brought back the feel that brands are in this business together as opposed to competing with one another,” Juncal said.

Along with the unique camaraderie of the streetwear and the action-sports world, Agenda might be the trade show to do business on the West Coast, said Bod Boyle, president of Dwindle Distribution, a skateboard-manufacturing company based in El Segundo, Calif.

“Last year, there were options,” Boyle said in an August 2011 interview with California Apparel News. “[Now,] if you want to meet people from a company, you have to come to Agenda.”

Running an independent trade show does not make a company unique. The fashion market hosts a number of thriving independent operations that run popular trade shows such as Capsule, Designers and Agents and Miami SwimShow.

Among the things that make Agenda different is that the show has enjoyed consistent growth, even through the Great Recession, and it survived a rivalry with a more powerful, better-funded competitor, ASR.

But the space remains competitive. This year, Agenda acquired a new rival on the West Coast when GLM Events, producers of Surf Expo in Orlando, Fla., debuted Launch LA, a swim, surf and skate show held in July at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.

Roots in California

Levant started his career as a disciplinary problem. After more than one year of getting on the nerves of administrators and teachers at Agoura High School, which is a 20-minute drive from Malibu, Calif., he ran afoul of the school’s zero-tolerance policy in 1999. He was kicked out after being in possession of alcohol at a homecoming school dance, he said.

A strict boarding school in rural northern California did not work either. Levant ran away from the school, and his parents took him in again at their home in Agoura Hills. With almost no educational or employment prospects, about the only venue open to him was building his own business.

He tried to launch a few entertainment-style businesses, including a graffiti-arts website, but had little success. In 2001, he found himself doing graphics for streetwear label Grn Apple Tree in downtown Los Angeles.

It was a tough time for the now-defunct Grn Apple Tree, where Levant served as an intern. Luis Antonio Pulido, the owner, had fired all of his other workers. Pulido was looking for a way to put his streetwear label on retailers’ radar screens.

“We wanted to make a bigger noise,” Pulido said. “We weren’t happy with ASR. They called us ghetto because we weren’t surf, skate or bikini.”

Japanese retailers came to the first Agenda, and the vendors were open to doing another one.

Agenda found an audience with streetwear vendors who felt ignored by established trade shows. But no one else was impressed. “They didn’t take us that seriously,” Levant said.

“Maybe it was because of our age. And we weren’t one of the bros—the Orange County [Calif.] surf and skate guys.”

But while Agenda’s phone calls to established brands went unanswered, consumers’ tastes were changing. Strict separation of clothing categories such as surf and fashion was being ignored by consumers who wanted to mix and experiment with styles. This new wave of consumers demanded that retailers and vendors support their interests or risk losing their business.

Agenda was exhibiting the new fashion edge of skate and hip-hop brands that were steadily gaining acceptance and even popularity. The same time, established ASR began looking for ways to justify the massive sprawl of its trade show in the San Diego Convention Center.

Agenda acted as ASR’s satellite show from 2003 to 2009. After Agenda scored some early victories by claiming the Nike SB footwear label as a vendor, a rivalry began, and some at Agenda complained of dirty tricks. Fire marshals would show up at the trade show after receiving complaints that Agenda did not have the proper permits. Agenda management had to leave the show floor to go to San Diego’s City Hall to explain they had the right permits. In 2009, union picketers protested at the loading docks at the San Diego Concourse, a well-known non-union hall. Vendors couldn’t set up for a half day of a two-day show because of the picketing.

The rivalry with ASR only ended after a coup for Agenda. In July 2009, the trade show developed a partnership with the US Open of Surfing, and it moved up to Huntington Beach, Calif., where the US Open of Surfing takes place.

It was like doing business at the World Series of surfing. It was instant credibility for Agenda. For the first time, the major surf and skate brands—such as Volcom, Hurley and Vans—signed up to exhibit at the show. Some of the independent vendors complained, but the big labels attracted more established retailers.

ASR shuttered in 2010. Some reasons given for Nielsen Expositions, ASR’s parent company, closing the event included retailer attendance plummeting because of the recession as well as frustration with the show’s long reputation as a place to party, not to do business.

But the Huntington Beach move brought big problems. With 7,000 attendees, there were not enough hotel rooms or parking spaces. In 2011, Agenda lost money by spending $500,000 to build a big-tented trade area to make extra space in Huntington Beach. The next year, Agenda moved to Long Beach, where it spread out in the Long Beach Convention Center, which once housed ASR’s January shows.

Even in the larger venue, Agenda maintains the house rules it has had in place since its beginning. More than 90 percent of the show’s booths exhibit in a 10-by-10 or 10-by-20 booth. The booths offer no more space than racks of samples and some brand art. Trade show rules demand that its vendors not behave as if they were exhibiting at ASR. Vendors play no music and don’t hand out any stickers or freebies or use scantily clad models to draw crowds to their booths. A trade show community spirit is built when Agenda collaborates with vendors to make a baseball cap for the show. Brands design hats bearing the moniker “Agenda.” They have sold on eBay ranging from $80 to $120.

Levant said the show continues to inspire him. “When I started, I had no idea what I was doing. I just went for it,” he said. “I met so many amazing people—entrepreneurs who had the balls to start companies with something they love. It is inspiring, and it inspires me to push and do more.” λ