California Apparel News

This was a big year for Swim Collective, the 4-year-old Southern California trade show. In January, the trade show launched a companion event, Active Collective, which featured activewear and athleisure lines showing alongside Swim Collective’s swimwear brands. In June, Active Collective was held as a stand-alone show with 140 booths showcasing fitness and athleisure brands such as Beyond Yoga, BG by Body Glove, Under Armour and Trina Turk Recreation.

There were more than 250 brands exhibiting at the August run of Swim Collective, where Executive Show Director Shannon Leggett added a premium beachwear section called Beach Collective to the show’s offerings. In 2016, Swim Collective and Active Collective will continue as stand-alone shows, but Leggett plans to expand all three concepts—Swim Collective, Beach Collective and Active Collective—into a weeklong swim and activewear event of back-to-back trade shows.

But as Leggett was building his swim and activewear projects, along came a new player in the Southern California swim scene. After two years in Miami held alongside longstanding swim events Miami SwimShow and Hammock (previously called Salon Allure), upscale swim show Cabana expanded to include a California show, which debuted in August. Cabana West’s dates ran concurrently with Swim Collective, but the two shows were held in separate Orange County beach cities. Buyers visiting both shows had a 10-mile drive to get from Swim Collective, held in Huntington Beach, Calif., to Cabana, held in Newport Beach, Calif.