TRADE SHOW
Pooltradeshow: New Location Divides Vendors
Pooltradeshow, the event for emerging brands at MAGIC Market Week, moved to the South Pacific Ballroom on the lower level of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, a floor below where Project, ENK Vegas, The Tents at Project and MAGIC Men’s all took place. Pooltradeshow’s vendors were divided on whether the new location was a good idea when the show ran Feb. 18–20.
Freddie Rojas, founder of the Rojas line, has been exhibiting at Pooltradeshow since its debut more than a decade ago. “All the traffic is upstairs,” Rojas said. He said retail traffic was slow, and he estimated that his sales might decline compared with the Pooltradeshow last February.
Maggie Kleinpeter, owner and creative director of the label Supermaggie, said traffic was somewhat slow, but orders placed at the show were bigger than the February 2013 Pooltradeshow. However, she said that a lot of retailers took notes during the show, and she expected that a lot of them would follow up in a couple of weeks.
