California Apparel News

At the Fall installment of the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo (ASR), held Feb. 2–4 at the Long Beach [Calif.] Convention Center, buyers were on the hunt for new resources and fresh apparel to fill bare shelves.

Show organizers did not have final attendance numbers, according to Josh Woodbury, spokesperson for ASR, a division of Roswell, Ga.-based VNU Expositions. However, traffic dipped on Feb. 3, when people cleared out to watch the Super Bowl.

The show drew buyers from specialty stores, surf and skate shops and chain stores, including Sport Chalet, Hot Topic and Nordstrom.

The already declining economy that was effectively stalled by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted many buyers to cut back on projected orders last fall to focus on moving in-store merchandise. But both reps and buyers at ASR said that retailers are beginning to restock their stores.

“In bad times, people get rid of lines that don’t sell and instead look for newness and direction,” said John Voisinet, vice president of sales and marketing for 3-month-old Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based Gypsy Clothing. “We had a better surprise reaction-wise than we could have expected in our wildest dreams. We’ve got a story to tell with our line and, so far, the response has been great.”

Sales were also strong for more established lines, including Irvine, Calif.-based Billabong, which reported that stores had been filling their shelves for immediate deliveries, and Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based Vans, which saw a substantial rise in shoe orders.

“Orders are significantly up at this event, particularly in the skate line,” said Chris Strain, vice president of marketing for Vans. “We’re seeing accounts put in orders for eight to 15 shoe styles compared to two to three in past years.”

One complaint voiced amid the general satisfaction with the quantity of orders placed was regarding the timing of the show, which, according to Nilofar King, national sales manager for Irvine-based Sugar, doesn’t allow much time to prepare for the Summer showing of his label’s line. The Fall show is only six weeks before the newly formed back-to-school show.

Last year, ASR announced plans for a third show in California to coincide with the back-to-school market. The show, set for March 19–20, will be held at the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort in Huntington Beach.

“September is our strongest ASR show, where I have appointments on the hour every hour,” said King. “They need to either have [the Fall show] before [the current dates] or afterward.”

King was not the only exhibitor to lodge that complaint, and according to Woodbury, the Fall show will be changing dates, beginning with the 2003 show.

“The time slot that we’re in right now doesn’t address Summer buying needs as much as an earlier time would,” said Woodbury, who noted that next year’s show in Long Beach will be held Jan. 23–25.

Woodbury also reported that as of 2004, the Fall show will be held in San Diego instead of Long Beach.

Scott Kaufman, owner and general manager of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Porn Star, reported that buyers were looking through the line for items they could order over the next couple of weeks.

“I think a lot of people were scared to buy over the last six months because of what was going on,” said Kaufman. “Most people that are coming now are looking for as-ready goods. I’m getting a lot of those requests, because people’s stores are empty.”

Two lines able to report specific progress were Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Lucy Love, which began the show with 50 appointments but showed to 80 accounts, and Gypsy, which projected opening 50 to 70 accounts by show’s end, a feat Gypsy’s Voisinet called “unbelievable.”

“Unless you’re an established business like Quiksilver, you couldn’t write that many orders in one show,” said Voisinet.

New Breed Girl Clothing and Miken Clothing, both based in Los Angeles, also reported brisk business during the show.

“It’s been great,” said Dayla Deasis, Miken’s marketing team manager. “There’s a lot of consistent business and the show seems really focused. We also opened a lot of new accounts.”

Part of the strength of ASR is the resilience of youth culture and the apparel that surrounds it, which the trade show projected, according to Woodbury.

“From exhibitor feedback, we were right in thinking that the youth culture was less affected by [the economy and the events of Sept. 11],” he said. “Where other industries have seen the lull hurt them, the youth marketplace was strong.”

Suzanne Moore, owner of Psyko Skate in Mariposa, Calif., reported that she wasn’t scaling back her buying, due to the fact that young consumers have not been scaling back their spending.

“I know kids won’t stop spending in a recession,” said Moore. “They may change what they buy, like, I’m noticing a trend for plain T-shirts—not so logo-driven—but kids are still going to skate and wear the clothes they want.”

Moore said that as a small store proprietor she was looking for vendors who were willing to negotiate.

“I placed orders with Alstyle [Apparel]—they have shirts at great prices—and they were willing to let me buy a dozen in different colors rather than a dozen in pink, which wouldn’t go over in my small town,” she said.

Rus Guild, a buyer for Long Beach, Calif.-based Mr. Raggs, was on the hunt for summer skate, motocross and surf items, including boardshorts with flares and skulls and striped polo shirts.

His biggest seller to date, he said, is the Fox Racing Inc. line, along with Independent Truck Co., DC Shoes Inc., Spitfire and Hurley.

“Fox is really on fire—anything with a Fox head on it sells,” said Guild, who noted that long-sleeve T-shirts, color-block shirts and jackets are among the items selling. “A lot of the skate brands that focus on hard goods, wheels and bearings are really popular.”

For first-time attendees Cyd Jouny and Frederic Coupet, buyers with the Marseille, France-based boutique Alibi, the show offered a world of newness.

“It’s very rich, full of creativity and there are lots of ways people are expressing themselves here in the States,” Coupet said. “A good product will sell in France as long as it has reality, quality and creativity.”

The two were on a scouting mission, looking for high-fashion, well-made shoes, glasses and other sporting accessories to complement the range of designer clothes carried at Alibi, including lines Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian La Croix and Helmut Lang. Spandex-woven Flexfit hats were among the key items they planned to buy, with plans to spend around $50,000 in orders.

“There’s a big trend in France to mix styles,” said Coupet, wearing a three-piece suit and Merrell sneakers.

Sophie Chea, designer and owner of Happy Six, a new store opening in Los Angeles, said she appreciated the youthful direction of clothing at ASR.

“They have younger, more fun items here,” said Chea, who purchased screen-printed T-shirts from New Breed Girl and denim skirts from Lucy Love. “MAGIC [International in Las Vegas] is more conservative.”

The conservative approach of MAGIC, however, is appealing to lines such as Lucy Love, which will begin exhibiting at the show seeking “a more professional setting” and a “broader audience.” The junior line will also continue to show at ASR.

Several exhibitors said they see specific purposes for showing at both ASR and MAGIC. Most noted strong attendance at ASR from specialty stores, while MAGIC tends to draw the big department stores and retail chains.

“At ASR, we do a lot of our surf business with surf shops and gift shops,” said Sugar’s King. “At MAGIC, we see all of our majors.”

In contrast, Billabong, which limits its distribution to specialty and surf shops, skips MAGIC altogether. Other lines, including Dawls, will travel to meet with the majors in Las Vegas during MAGIC but will not be exhibiting at the show.

Sachin Batra, senior vice president of New York-based Knight Apparel Corp., new licensee for Hang Ten juniors and men’s denim, said that the majors come to ASR to preview lines but place their orders at MAGIC.

“For MAGIC, we’re looking for the department stores and all the bigger chains,” said Sachin. “We had the chains walk in [at ASR], but everybody pushes you off until MAGIC. They’re not writing here.”

Still, some exhibitors said they preferred the action sports focus of ASR and similar trade shows.

“There have been some issues with how they [MAGIC] look at action sports, and [the category] definitely needs to be separated from the pack,” said Piney Kahn, public relations director for Lake Forest, Calif.-based Etnies, which only shows at ASR and Surf Expo in Orlando, Fla. “We’ve looked into it, but it’s such a big show that we’ll get swallowed. There’s no way to delineate ourselves. ASR is our most important show.”