California Apparel News

Action sports, streetwear and fashion brands shared the show floor at Agenda, which ran Aug. 18–20 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. The show mixed celebrity, fashion debuts and some labels experimenting with novel sales strategies.

Hip-hop star Soulja Boy browsed vendors’ booths at Agenda as did retailers such as e-commerce emporium Karmaloop, Canadian action-sports chain West 49, Sun Diego and the Los Angeles boutique Black Market.

Rocawear Blak made its debut at Agenda. The brand takes the inspirations of Rocawear, which was introduced by hip-hop star Jay-Z in 1999, and filters it through the sensibilities of the current era, said Daniel “Just C” Greenidge, the creative director of Rocawear Blak. Agenda was good for business, said Evelyn Choi, director of licensing for Iconix Brand Group, the New York company that owns Rocawear. “It was the first time that we showed it, and we were skeptical. But we wrote some business,” Choi said. “The show is the only space for young men’s retail.”

Staple, another New York brand, mounted a unique sales strategy at Agenda. Buyers were able to browse the brand’s Spring ’15 looks on tablets. But they could only order Fall and Holiday, said Nico Reyes of Staple. “Every time we break a new Spring line, a lot of people end up forgetting about Holiday,” Reyes said. “We wanted to make sure that we hit all of our targets for Holiday before we break Spring. People did write orders here.”

Traffic at the show was busy, said Erik Paulsen, president/founder of the Tavik lifestyle brand, headquartered in Irvine, Calif. The Las Vegas show especially served as a good opportunity to meet with overseas retailers. For domestic retailers, Paulsen estimated that 20 percent wrote orders for Immediate deliveries.