Two of the apparel industry’s biggest regional market centers, Dallas and Atlanta, are colliding over trade show schedules.
The fallout might have an impact on the other major markets in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Seeking to avoid schedule clashes, management from all the regional marts meet twice yearly in New York, but the most recent meeting in September did not resolve the issue created by the decision by FashionCenterDallas to begin shows on Sundays starting in January, rather than on Thursdays, as it has for more than a decade.
Dallas’ decision will have the most immediate effect in 2007 on its major rival, AmericasMart in Atlanta. Instead of the markets being separated by a week or more, as most have been in the past, the shows for June, August and October will end on Wednesday in Dallas and begin the next day in Atlanta. Since many manufacturers and reps attend both shows, the schedule will disrupt the shipment of samples and showroom setup time, and force some retail buyers and manufacturers to choose between the shows.
“Nobody wants to see conflicts or incomplete collections, and nobody wants to either end a show early or start a show late,” said Brad Hughes, principal of the Dallas bridge/contemporary sales firm Brad Hughes & Associates, which has 45 lines, 25 percent of which also show in Atlanta. Although Hughes supports the Dallas move, he added, “Everybody needs to be on the same date pattern. We don’t need a power struggle. The industry is tough enough without creating obstacles.”
Dallas, with 1 million square feet, 550 permanent showrooms and more than 500 temporary showrooms during major markets, announced in April that in response to customer demand it was moving markets to Sunday through Wednesday from Thursday through Monday.
“We’re sticking our neck out on this, taking the lead and giving retailers their weekends back,” said Cole Daugherty, vice president, communications, at the Dallas Market Center, parent of FashionCenterDallas. Dallas “isn’t taking a stand on how others should run their business,” he said.
For more than a decade, regional markets have held weekend shows, though opening days varied from Thursday (Atlanta and Dallas) to Saturday (Chicago) and Friday (Los Angeles). Each mart schedules five shows annually in the same two- or three-week periods during January/February, March/April, June, August and October.
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The show calendars are planned years in advance, taking into account the needs of customers to ship merchandise, other regional dates and the growing number of newer trade shows, including New York and Las Vegas events. They compete for hotel space with conventions and other events in their cities. Dallas decided to implement its switch on a fast turnaround.
In addition to Atlanta, Dallas also overlaps with Chicago in June, but that show is not a major conflict because June is traditionally smaller than the spring and fall markets in October and April, officials said. No logjams with L.A. shows occur next year, but future scheduling could put the Dallas opening on Sunday, when Los Angeles is in the midst of a show that ends on Tuesday.
Allen Sealove, president of the New York Fashion Council, a wholesalers’ organization, who is a mediator at the date committee meetings, said shorter three-day formats and three, rather than five, shows a year might help alleviate some scheduling pressure.
Sealove, also chief executive officer of Hayden/Victoria Royal in New York, applauded Dallas for “trying to shake things up by making a change,” but said he wasn’t surprised when the other markets did not embrace the decision.
“Los Angeles isn’t ready for it,” said Ed Mandelbaum, co-producer of the Designers & Agents trade show and a principal with the Intersection, a group of Los Angles apparel trade shows at The California Mart, The New Mart, The Cooper Building and The Gehry Building. “But we’re watching it and open to it in the future.”
DallasMarketCenter executives said their decision was in response to buyer demand. In fall 2005, an independent research firm, Rick Ruder and Associates, conducted an online survey of a random sample of 200 buyers who had attended a Dallas apparel market in the past two years. Eighty-three percent said they preferred weekday market dates that would free them to be in stores or at home over the weekends. Dallas officials said they talked up the positives of moving markets to weekdays with the other marts.
However, AmericasMart and the Chicago Apparel Center officials said they conducted their own buyer surveys in response to Dallas’ research and the findings suggested that there was little or no desire for a change.
“We haven’t heard buyers wanting to be home on weekends,” said Lawton Hall, senior vice president, apparel, at AmericasMart, which has 1.2 million square feet of leasable space, 11,000 lines, 480 permanent showrooms and more than 500 temporary exhibit booths.
“We’re not obstinate to change,” Hall said, adding that AmericasMart is conducting more surveys and research, which form the basis for its decisions. However, show dates are planned far in advance, and, if a switch were made, more than one year would be needed to juggle hotel and travel arrangements and other logistical issues, he added.
Susan McCullough, vice president, Chicago Apparel Center, which has 1.7 million square feet with 250 showrooms, and Stylemax, a 200,000-square-foot temporary show that runs four times yearly with around 4,000 lines, said the mart will maintain a Saturday-to-Tuesday schedule.
“We haven’t had buyers expressing desire to change, but our Saturday-Tuesday dates give them the option of weekend or weekdays anyway,” she said.
Peg Canter, former vice president of Apparel Temporaries at the DallasMarketCenter who was also general manager of AmericasMart Apparel, downplayed the importance of mart-sanctioned surveys because of limited responses. However, she agreed that specialty retailers are putting more value on weekends in stores or at home. “Retailers are different now than 20 years ago,” Canter said. “They don’t automatically accept working weekends and, especially the younger ones, want to spend more time at home with their families.”
Susan Lee, owner of a namesake Atlanta store, shops both the Dallas and Atlanta marts, but did not participate in a survey. She likes the Dallas move.
“Saturday to a retailer is like Sunday to a preacher,” she said. “You need to be in your store. I probably lose several thousand dollars when I have to go to market on Saturday, rather than selling to customers in the store. Dallas is actually considering the buyer.”
Marigail Mathis, who has an eponymous store in Florence, Ala., often shops both Dallas and Atlanta. While she never saw a survey, she said the Thursday-through-Sunday dates work well for her, mostly out of habit. She is comfortable leaving her store over the weekend, shopping market through Sunday and being back in the store on Monday.
“With the dates back to back, I won’t be able to shop both but will choose between the two,” she said, adding that Atlanta was her first choice.
“Our [Friday-to-Tuesday] Los Angeles markets are busy until the very last day,” said Lisa Youn, a sales representative for Showroom 903, a multiline contemporary firm with showrooms in Los Angeles and Dallas. “L.A. market is like a Coterie or a Project for us. It’s very, very important.” Youn said.
“If the calendar was back to back, with L.A. ending Tuesday and Dallas starting Wednesday, we’d probably have to front-load our appointments,” she added. “I almost don’t want to think about it because it stresses me out.”
Many manufacturers and sales reps, especially those with one sample line, said they might be forced to leave Dallas early, start Atlanta late or split the line and show incomplete product.
“The way the schedule is, I lose a whole day’s business on Thursday,” said Michelle Harrison, principal of her own multiline social occasion showroom in AmericasMart. “We need time to get samples shipped here from Dallas by Tuesday or Wednesday, to set up.”
Buyers may also have to make a choice.
Several sales reps and manufacturers characterized the standoff as a continuation of a power struggle between the two marts.
Dana Melton, principal, Lori Veith, a multiline accessories firm with showrooms in Dallas and Atlanta, likes the weekday idea, but wants both marts to avoid overlapping dates. “This is about common sense,” he said. “If we disrupt or split business, in the end, it’s the New York shows that will benefit.”
— With contributions from Holly Haber, Rusty Williamson and Marcy Medina