I apologize in advance for the length of this blog entry but I got a little more in-depth with the trip than I originally planned to. SO… what I did to make it easier to read is break it down into sections. This way you can skim to read what your most interested in instead of having to read the whole blog at once.

1. Preparation
2. Vintage in Vegas
3. The Booths and Celebs
4. Streetwear at Magic
5. International Sourcing at Magic
6. After The Show / Night Life In Vegas
7. Lion Habitat at MGM
8. Productive Time Spent
9. Recap of Trip

Enjoy!

PREPARATION:

This year we had the chance to finally hit Vegas and the International Magic apparel tradeshow. Here’s a glimpse into what happened over our 4 days of travels and networking…

Both Eric and myself decided that this year we were going as interactive spectators rather than exhibitors since it was our first trip to Magic. I think overall we both agreed it made for a good learning experience and we had the chance to see what its all about so when we do go and exhibit the preparations will be much less intense and more successful than having gone into it blindly.

VINTAGE IN VEGAS:

My wife and I hit Vegas a day before Eric and his wife came down. We arrived the day Magic kicked off. After checking into one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever stayed in (the MGM Grand) my wife and I dropped our bags at the service desk and explored the place. I snagged a few pictures from 3sixteen’s blog to show you what it looks like - hopefully they won’t mind. After a quick bite at the MGM’s pricey cafe ($40 for a cheese burger, chicken fingers and 2 cokes, ouch!) we hit our room and then the monorail over to the convention center.

If you’ve never been to Magic before you really don’t know what to expect. I probably seen enough by checking out blogs from last years show on other brands sites and watching the webisodes of the co-produced MTV/Pepsi Fashion: The Look Right Now series to know what to expect. Pretty much was expecting celebrities, crowds, and lots of trendy dressed buyers and designers walking the floors where anything goes as label reps do just about anything to draw attention to their booths. Well, yea it was pretty much what I expected it to be. On top of that a few things I wasn’t expecting.

I’ve been to tradeshows before as the Art Director for a pretty prominent company but they were definitely suite dress code and business oriented. Magic is like a big party atmosphere and like nothing I’ve been to before. There is people walking around the massive convention center drinking beer and mixed drinks, girls with painted on clothes (painted naked bodies to look like they were wearing outfits with certain parts cleverly covered). Just loads of models and interesting characters handing out flyers trying to get people to come into whatever booth they were representing. The loud atmosphere took some getting used to but after a few days you pretty much just get numb to it.

THE BOOTHS AND CELEBS:

The Phat Farm booth was cool. They had live models acting like mannequins standing on pedestals just outside the booths. Every minute or so they change positions and as I was walking by one for the first time they kinda startled me. I didn’t realize it was actually people standing there. Pretty good idea and it made me look that’s for sure.

The day we got there LL Cool J was outside his booth for his line Todd Smith Collection. There was a nice line around the booth for autograph hounds and cameras from the show press trying to catch a glimpse. Kinda funny but walking by the both a group formed on the side where two hood rappers were freestyle battling in front of a camera crew. The security guards outside the show didn’t quite know what to think about it. If your not familiar with the hip-hop culture you would have thought they were about to throw down. Just down the isle a spray painted booth covered in graffiti was showcasing their loud kicks as some of the emcees stood inside freestyling to onlookers and passers by. I had to laugh it was a pretty ghetto steelo… but apparently it was affective. I seen some people going in and out of their spot.

Other celebrities we spotted were: Paris Hilton, Beyonce, Paul Wall, Several UFC fighters and ring girls, Alyssa Milano, Eve, Reverend Run’s daughters Vanessa and Angela showing off their line Pastry, and a few others I can’t seem to remember off the top of my head.

Some of the booths at Magic are straight up amazing. The Sean John booth for example took the store within a store approach. This massive 3 story high booth was enclosed in glass and even had a fireplace inside. Racks all around the space made this booth look from the outside like an upscale New York boutique. Looking in from the outside like a fishbowl you could see what was going down inside. Stair cases in the booth lead you up to a second floor where some garments were concealed behind a wall.

Several of the booths at Magic including Todd Smith, Akademiks, Sean John, Pastry (Rev Run’s daughters line), Ed Hardy, L-R-G and others all had their booths blocked off with tables and behind closed doors where sexy attendants were more than willing to let you step inside to view their designers collections… IF you had the proper identification of a buyer and an appointment to talk to one of their reps. Needless to say other designers like us were not so welcome to browse. haha! No steeling ideas I guess. Like we would have done that anyway… but it’s all good. I get their approach. Adds a level of suspense to intrigue buyers to come by.

STREETWEAR AT MAGIC:

The streetwear section was really where I got the most out of the show. Aside from being excited to see first hand all the upcoming styles from some of my favorite brands that I personally wear (aside from Vintage that is) I got a chance to meet with the designers and talk shop. Jeff from Exact Science was cool enough to let us come check out their upcoming line and I’m definitely looking forward to picking some of it up later this season. Among some of the best stuff we seen was upcoming releases from Upper Playground, Tank Theory, Soul Monkey, big shout out to Andrew from 3sixteen who we finally got to meet face to face, and a few others. Also I want to thank Fernando of Ghetto Rock who was exhibiting for their first time and took a few minutes to share his insight and advice on exhibiting.

Over in streetwear we bumped into Mos Def who was coming through to perform at the Mountain Dew location. There’s some clips up on YouTube from his appearance. That was off the hook! Directly across from where he appeared there was a two man crew screen printing tee’s on the spot. My wife was captivated watching them having never really seen someone screen printing tee’s before. That was cool to have the chance to show her first hand.

INTERNATIONAL SOURCING AT MAGIC:

Each day at Magic we pretty much made the most of our time talking with the factory reps down stairs in the sourcing section. Those not familiar with what that is… Magic has a whole section devoted to manufacturing sources from all around the world who show samples of their work and have reps on hand willing to talk to you about your sourcing needs. No party here. Its all about the business.

Browsing the sourcing floor is a little intimidating because there is a wealth of information and allot of the same types of factories. Making the distinctions between them you have to know what your doing. Luckily I have a very hands on approach to how we make our line so I know intricately every detail of our items to compare our current suppliers with those at the show. For nothing else we do this simply to make sure we’re on top of our game.

Among the manufactures there we seen several that have done work with brands such as: Addidas, Baby Phat, Ecko, Akademiks, L-R-G, Levis and more. There’s a weeks worth to look at and research just in the sourcing section alone. For example, dealing with different countries there is allot to know in regards to price points, cultural fabric making, and importation duty taxes. South Africa right now for example has duty free importation which means our government doesn’t want to charge importers fees for goods being made in that country. They do this because that countries economy needs rebuilding. Doing business in China on the other hand means you will have to pay a quota fee for importing goods until the legislation on that ends on December 31, 2008.

With India and China among others such as Peru, Pakistan, Hong Kong, etc… there is a hefty duty tax for importing goods. Its all part of the game and why you see bigger brands change factories almost ever season based on what the condition the U.S. dollar is in and how the trade legislation and duty situation looks at that given time. We’re more concerned with building long standing partnerships with our factories. Personally I think its a better business model and builds trust.

The real difference between all these factories is knowing their capabilities and understanding their policies and procedures and trying to find out if it will be a good fit for you. In our case our upcoming designs are very complex and require some special printing techniques that a straight 2-3 color standard hard plastisol printer with a manual press simply cannot handle. Evaluating factories is definitely a process but one I thoroughly enjoy because its always a learning experience that helps make our brand a better, more premium line of well thought out pieces with quality designs and the best in high end printing.

I have to say that I take allot of pride in the fact that Vintage Limited goes the extra mile in our quality from the fabrics to the printing all the way down to the cut and sew craftsmanship and packaging. Anything less than incredible and I couldn’t put it out on a showroom floor with our name on it. That’s just a fact.

AFTER THE SHOW / NIGHT LIFE IN VEGAS:

As much fun as the show was… hey… we were in Vegas baby! With our wives on Valentines day at that! So aside from all the business stuff we took the latter parts of the days and indulged in some of what the city had to offer. My wife and I hit the Cirque De Soule: KÀ show. All I have to say… Amazing! Lost a few bucks at the Casino’s… ok well I did… my wife actually won $26 off $1.25 bet. We hit the Rainforest Cafe for dinner one night as well. They have those back in Baltimore but this one was like everything else in Vegas, super-sized. Eric and his wife hit the strip for some sight seeing too. Here’s something to look at from the trip.

LION HABITAT AT MGM:

Ironically the MGM where my wife and I stayed has this amazing Lion habitat! Both Eric and Myself have this fascination with Lions (hence the Lion crest and ideology on some of our pieces). This was truly a great experience to be literally INCHES away from these remarkable animals! If you look at these pictures you can see the glass seamed only a few inches thick which you can press your hands against and just about feel the Lion on the other side.

The MGM does such a great job and this million dollar habitat is home to several Lions that they swap out through-out the day. Trainers are in with the Lions each day for 8 hours a day. Trainers sit there with the Lions so they are comfortable with having humans around them at all times. Pretty rare feat considering most Zoo’s have Lions caged in giant housing far far away from human smells and sounds. Even know you are seemingly inches away from them… at the Lion habitat the glass is sound proof and there is no outside smells inside to disturb the Lions.

I spent probably an hour just staring at the Lions and listening intently as the trainers talked. One point the trainer mentioned that I found pretty cool was that the Lions pick the trainers and not the other way around. If the wrong trainer entered with the wrong Lion they would be in some serious trouble and would probably get attacked. The Lions are very particular about who they let into their “pack” and once they bond with a trainer they see them as one of their own. How dope is that!?

PRODUCTIVE TIME SPENT:

Starbucks was pretty much the regular morning, mid day and evening spot for a pick me up. The 4 hour time difference really kicked in after a couple days. What would normally be 4 AM back in Baltimore or Atlanta was only midnight in Vegas. Not really a big deal for a night owl like myself who’s used to staying up til 2 or 3 but when we hit the bed at 2 AM Vegas time and it was 6 AM back home you could really feel it.

One of the best parts of the trip was Eric and I got some face to face time so we could go over the next level of designs for our upcoming season. Usually this is done over the phone or through emails back and fourth. There’s a lounge in the MGM that was hardly ever busy so here we are late one evening going over some stuff and working out the next phase of releases. If you look hard enough maybe you can sneak a peak preview of what’s to come.

RECAP OF TRIP:

Well Magic was a great experience. All of us took allot out of the show and we’re coming home with a clear perspective on what we need to achieve for the next go-round and for exhibiting. Still allot to be done so on the plane back I already started tabulating the list in my head. Excited from the high of being there and seeing how it all goes down we’re both ready to take Vintage Limited to the next level.

Keep your eyes posted to the blog and our website. Make sure you’re on our mailing list as well. We’re making some moves this year no doubt!

-Shaun