California Apparel News

With screen-printing machines whirring and salespeople talking about the next big thing in T-shirts, the Imprinted Sportswear Show Long Beach ran Jan. 16–18 at the Long Beach Convention Center, located by one of America’s busiest ports, in Long Beach, Calif.

The annual show is devoted to one of America’s biggest apparel markets, the multi-billion-dollar T-shirts market, along with hoodies and athleticwear. The U.S. market for sweatshirts alone was $7.2 billion during the period from December 2013 to November 2014, according to market researchers The NPD Group Inc. The show included embellishments from screen-printed designs to embroidery and sublimation printing.

The trade show stretched out over 103,000 square feet of space at the sprawling Long Beach Convention Center, said Jeff Brown, the show director of ISS Long Beach. Booth space, which increased 10 percent over last year, was sold out, and 350 exhibitors displayed goods at the show, Brown said, adding that there were 100 new booths at the show. The Long Beach show is the biggest in the family of ISS shows, also held in Atlantic City, N.J.; Nashville, Tenn.; Orlando, Fla.; and Forth Worth, Texas.

Exhibiting were some of the high-marquee names in T-shirts and basics, including Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Delta Apparel. Also showing were well-known brands that put a fashion edge on T-shirts and basics, such as the Los Angeles–headquartered brands Bella + Canvas and American Apparel as well as Alternative Apparel, which maintains a design studio in downtown Los Angeles.

These vendors sell basics to manufacturers and occasionally to artisans who make new silhouettes from the basic tees. Technology vendors such as Murakami USA, headquartered in Monterrey Park, Calif.; Workhorse Products Inc.,based in Phoenix; and Epson alsodisplayed the latest in technology to put decorations on T-shirts and hoodies.

All of the vendors interviewed for this article estimated that attendee traffic increased. Mark S. Mertens of A4, an apparel company headquartered in Vernon, Calif., estimated that attendee traffic increased 30 percent over last year. Mertens said ISS is very important to his company, which makes clothing with an athletic, technical edge. However, like many trade shows, orders are typically made after the show. “It’s not a writing show,” Mertens said. “It is a meet-and-greet.”

For Kevin Kelly, chief executive officer of US Blanks, headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, ISS Long Beach is a crucial show for his business.

“It’s the best show of the year, as far as qualified clients,” Kelly said. “We see the greatest amount of T-shirt screenprinters and embellishment houses.”

Kelly estimated that his 10-by-20-foot booth enjoyed double the number of visits compared with last January. There were more attendees this year because the economy has been showing signs of improvement, Kelly said. Most of the visits were from companies headquartered in the Western U.S. However, the show also enjoyed international attendees, representing companies from Korea and Japan.

For Cassie Stanczyk, a sales rep for Bella + Canvas, ISS Long Beach has a special entrepreneurial edge, and many attendees represent start-up lines. “Everyone wants to come, touch and feel the product and see what is new,” she said.

Bella + Canvas introduced new fabrications such as a multi-colored speckled fabric for blank T-shirts available in different colorways. Other looks included an acid-wash shirt, which features a burnout look without the sheer details typical of other acid-wash styles. Another look was a slouchy shirt for women that would provide a fashionable silhouette but not be as form fitting.

At the show, US Blanks introduced its 100 percent recycled shirt, which Kelly said is the first shirt that he has come across that is entirely made out of recycled fabrics. Other recycled shirts blend fabric remnants and new cotton.

American Apparel displayed an “Ultra Wash” T-shirt, which is a sheer cotton jersey with a soft hand. Other looks were performance-inspired looks for women such as American Apparel’s “Motion Short” and its “Christie” bra.

Cygnus Apparel, headquartered in Commerce, Calif., showed T-shirts made out of ringspun cotton.

Independent Trading Co., headquartered in San Clemente, Calif., makes hoodies for many action-sports brands. For this edition of ISS, the company doubled the size of its booth to 40 by 60 feet. The company introduced a 50/50 cotton/poly pull-over, a “Baja” style hoodie that features a fat loop French terry and offers a “Mexican blanket vibe,” said Andrew “Franky” Lawson of Independent. While coaches’ jackets have been increasing in popularity at streetwear trade shows, Independent introduced a new look for the jacket by placing a hood with its version of the jacket.

Education played a big part at ISS Long Beach. The show hosted many seminars on subjects such as marketing, recycling, sales and technology. One of the speakers was Charlie Taublieb of Taublieb Consulting, headquartered outside of Denver. Taublieb typically speaks on screen-printing, and he said that the trend in screen-printing machines is that they are becoming bigger in order to handle more operations and there is an initiative for them to solely use inks that are deemed environmentally friendly.

These environmentally friendly inks react differently to machine operations such as heating, so engineers have been developing new versions of screen-printing machines to handle the environmentally friendly inks. Taublieb said that screen-printing machines could range in price from $50,000 to half a million dollars.

Next year’s ISS Long Beach is scheduled to run Jan. 22–24.