Action sports brands are seeking alternatives for showing their new collections after the closing of ASR Marketplace, the 29-year-old semiannual San Diego trade expo dedicated to their industry.
The options include Outdoor Retailer, an activewear-focused show in Salt Lake City that, like ASR, is owned by Nielsen Expositions, as well as opening showrooms in Los Angeles and exhibiting at MAGIC and CurveNV in Las Vegas.
The potential moves reflect the evolution of the action sports industry, which is rooted in surf, skate, snowboarding and motocross. The retail base has broadened as the labels and the lifestyle they promote grow in popularity and the women’s lines integrate more fashion to appeal to savvy teen girls.
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The recession — and the sluggish recovery — hurt some core board sports retailers and blunted ASR’s importance. With the majority of the action sports companies requiring long lead times to manufacture their products in foreign factories, ASR’s dates in September became a point of contention because many vendors had August deadlines. There were also complaints that ASR had become more of a marketing show with exhibitors writing fewer orders.
“We certainly have seen ASR shift a bit in importance due to the buying calendars, the competing shows, and, most importantly, the economy,” said Kevin Bailey, president of Vans, the skate brand owned by VF Corp. “The retailers and brands were being forced to find ways to stretch themselves financially, reduce traveling [for] buying teams or make hard choices to not attend shows. There certainly were some people that specifically came to ASR, but many were attending multiple shows.”
The U.S. trade shows in which Vans has participated include Agenda in Huntington Beach, Calif., SurfExpo in Orlando, Fla., Crossroads in Carlsbad, Calif., and SnowSports Industries America in Denver. Although Vans didn’t exhibit in MAGIC, it has shown its lines informally out of hotel rooms to accommodate a few retail accounts that specifically attend the Las Vegas shows. The brand also recently expanded and redesigned its New York showroom and meets with key retailers at its headquarters in Cypress, Calif. Its sales team also goes on the road to meet buyers at their stores.
“We are constantly evaluating how we participate at the key shows, particularly as the brand continues to grow,” Bailey said.
Toby Bost, chief executive officer of La Jolla Group, the Irvine, Calif.-based owner of O’Neill, Rusty, Lost, Metal Mulisha and True Love False Idols, is also evaluating a variety of trade shows. “ASR provided good face time with our partners to plan and strategize, but hadn’t driven orders for us in a few years,” he said.
“In addition to SurfExpo and Agenda, as well as MAGIC’s S.L.A.T.E., which we participated in last year with some of our brands, we’ll be looking to increase our presence at Miami Swim, Outdoor Retailer and potentially other shows throughout 2011,” he said.
Ezekiel, which had exhibited at ASR since the Irvine, Calif.-based label was founded in 1992, is restarting the conversation about opening showrooms in Los Angeles and New York, said Jessica Rush, brand manager and international sales director for Ezekiel’s juniors business. The earliest showroom launch would be next year. Insight, the Australian-based surf brand, said it will continue showing at Agenda and Project in Las Vegas. It’s also considering the Class trade show in Los Angeles.
Trade show organizers are lobbying to attract the action sports brands.
Chris DeMoulin, president of MAGIC International, said that during the last six months the Las Vegas trade fair has been reaching out to action sports brands that haven’t exhibited at MAGIC in years with hopes of luring them. After ASR’s closing, MAGIC plans to roll out a new format at next February’s edition, where action sports companies “can feel at home and network,” DeMoulin said.
CurveNV, the Las Vegas show run by New York’s Curvexpo, is trying to attract more surf retailers to check out exhibiting swim brands such as Despi, L Space, Poko Pano and Vitamin A. The surf retailers who have shopped at CurveNV before include North Shore Swimwear, Cocoa Beach Surf and Pebbles Swimwear.
Agenda, the Los Angeles-based trade show that stole some of ASR’s thunder with a smaller, invitation-only show in Huntington Beach, Calif., is doubling the size of its January edition with a new location in Anaheim. Launching a subshow called Agenda Snow for snowboarding apparel and equipment, Agenda said it expects to increase the number of exhibitors to 250 from 200. Agenda will be held Jan. 6-7, overlapping with SurfExpo in Miami. Aaron Levant, president of Agenda, said he plans to run Agenda as he as in the past.
“We’re not going to embrace the influx of brands [from ASR] that don’t necessarily fit with what we’re doing,” he said.
Class, a Los Angeles-based trade show that produced three versions in San Diego called Class@ASR under a licensing deal with ASR, is open to hosting the same brands that had exhibited at Class@ASR at its new Los Angeles location. At Siren Studios in Hollywood, Class has space for at least 50 new exhibitors, show founder Jason Bates said. Counting previous attendees such as Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Barneys New York, Atrium, American Rag and Blue Bee, Class targets department stores and better boutiques, which may not be the right audience for some of the core action sports companies.
“We want to invite those core board sports people down and take a look,” Bates said. “They need to change, too, if they want to succeed.”
The Board Retailers Association, a nonprofit trade group representing almost 3,000 action sports stores, said it is working with the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association, which represents surf companies, and the International Association of Skateboard Companies, a skateboarding trade group, to continue the research they’ve been conducting for the past 18 months to launch a new platform for brands and retailers on the West Coast.
That new expo would be welcome by Tom O’Hara, owner of Gone Bananas Beachwear in San Diego, who has attended ASR for some 20 years.
“Everybody has always thought of California as the beach and surf headquarters and now there is not a decent show in the state of California,” O’Hara said. “In order to do swimwear business, you got to go to Miami [for Miami Swim Show]….It is kind of really sad for the West Coast.”