California Apparel News

It’s no secret that in the past two years, trade shows have had a hard time attracting exhibitors and attendees because of the steep economic downturn.

But many people were shocked to hear that Material World, the textile and technology trade show held primarily in Miami Beach, Fla., was closing after 10 years. Its next show had been scheduled for April 20–22, 2010, at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

April Booth, national sales manager for Eclat Textile Co. in City of Industry, Calif., had already sent in her 50 percent deposit for the show, meeting the end-of-October deadline for booth reservations.

She has been attending the show for eight years and always did well with Eclat’s knitwear. “I am disappointed they are having trouble,” she said. “We had been going there since 2001 and had established a nice little knit business there.”

The show was organized by Urban Expositions, a company based outside of Atlanta in Kennisaw, Ga., that does primarily gift trade shows around the country. Lately, the textile trade show’s attendance had faltered.

“We looked at the last two shows [of Material World in Miami Beach] and they had declined a little bit,” said Tim von Gal, executive vice president of Urban Expositions. “We didn’t really feel we had enough commitment going forward for a critical mass of exhibitors to have a successful show.”

Material World was a unique combination of exhibitors who represented fabric providers as well as technology companies that produced software programs for the apparel and textile industries. In the beginning, it was held annually in Miami Beach.

Urban Expositions added a New York version of the show in 2005, which was held for four seasons at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center before closing in 2008. At one point, Material World was held twice a year in Miami Beach.

Its latest incarnation was a Los Angeles version of the show, which was held Sept. 30–Oct. 2 at the same time as the Los Angeles International Textile Show at the California Market Center. The simultaneous run of the two shows was billed as “Two shows. One location. Double the resources.”

But exhibitors at the Material World & Technology Solutions show in Los Angeles weren’t happy with the low attendance. Most of the booths were located in the building’s exhibit hall in the basement, which drew little traffic. “It was a very poor experience,” said Brian Meck, vice president of sales and marketing and co-owner of FesslerUSA, a vertical knit fabric and apparel operation based in Orwigsburg, Penn.

Meck had also participated three times in the Miami Beach show and found it never attracted the level of attendees he wanted to see. “It never had the quality level of traffic we needed to see to get a return on investment,” Meck said. “There are so many trade shows now that, in the current state of the economy, people are being very selective about which ones they attend. Miami Beach is out of the way, and there is not a lot of fashion business in that area anymore.”Los Angeles benefits

Trade shows across the land are having trouble keeping up their numbers. Attendance is down as companies economize and send fewer buyers out to shows. Also, companies have started to re-examine which trade shows they participate in or opt to market on the Internet.

According to George Van Horn, a senior analyst with IBISWorld, a large publisher of U.S. industry reports, the trade show business has been declining for the past two years. Trade show revenues in 2009 are predicted to decline at least 6.6 percent to $11.2 billion. In 2008, industry revenues were down a little more than 3 percent to $12 billion.

“Actually, 2009 is turning out to be much worse than optimists expected,” Van Horn said, noting that trade show revenues might be revised downward even more. The industry isn’t expected to start growing again until 2011, Van Horn said.

Ironically, as trade show revenues decline, competition in the textile trade arena is growing. GlobalTex, a new Los Angeles textile trade show organized by the Merchandise Center Management Co. in Dallas, owners of the Dallas Market Center, was launched early this year. At its second show, held Oct. 13–15, there were 125 booths, up slightly from the first show in April. At its next show, scheduled for March 2–4, show organizers hope to double the number of booths at the convention center and improve traffic. “Material World’s closing will open some doors for us,” admitted Bill Winsor, MCMC’s president and chief executive. “We will be doing more technology and other things.”

Winsor admitted that attendance was not huge in October, but he said the show is new and growing and did attract a targeted group of quality buyers.

Next year, GlobalTex will be held one week ahead of the Los Angeles International Textile Show, which changed its textile show dates from March 3–5 to March 9–11.

The Los Angeles International Textile Show has been up and running for more than 10 years and is well-attended. At its last show, held Sept. 30–Oct. 2, there were 300 booths, said Joanne Lee, senior vice president of CMC services.

Lee noted that Material World’s closing won’t affect the international textile show even if they did co-locate together. In fact, it might help with more exhibitors. “We are obviously moving up and growing,” she said. “We will still be working with the tech companies and machinery companies and the various international groups.”

But having two textile shows at almost the same time is taxing some vendors who must decide which Los Angeles show to attend. Some are opting for both.

Sandrine Bernard, the New York–based executive vice president of Solstiss/Bucol, a high-end French lace and fabric maker, did well last season by participating in both the Los Angeles International Textile Show and GlobalTex. But she believes both shows need to be improved with more marketing and reaching out to buyers in Canada and Latin America. “I will try to do both again next year,” she said. “I saw some interesting people at the L.A. textile show, and I saw different people at GlobalTex. I have to be sure not to miss anybody.”East Coast competition

Los Angeles is not the only area of the country where textile trade shows are expanding. On the East Coast, SPESA (Sewn Products and Equipment Suppliers of the Americas) is moving its show, which takes place every three years, to Atlanta. It will co-locate with TechTextil North America (high-performance technical fabrics) and ATME-I/Megatex (American Textile Machinery Exhibition International), which sells textile equipment.

New at the May 18–20 show is a “Supply Chain of the USA” pavilion organized by SEAMS, the national association for the sewn-products industry.

SPESA Managing Director Dave Gardner said he has been getting a flurry of phone calls ever since Material World decided on Oct. 27 to close down. “We were really surprised to hear that Material World was closing. They were such good friends and partners with us [in 2004 and 2007],” he said. “But for us, it was tough to attract people to Miami, so we decided we had to go to Atlanta.”