The Gather, a Boutique Trade Show, Growing in San Francisco
The Gather, a boutique trade show in San Francisco, started two years ago as a collective of just five local sales reps. Jennifer Zweig—the sales rep for Obey for Northern California, Arizona and Nevada—organizes the event and said she and fellow regional sales reps were looking to attain the efficiency—but not the environment—of a trade show.
The last show, held Jan. 25–26 at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco, had more than 35 brands, which exhibited in a 4,600-square-foot space Zweig described as a “communal showroom.” She continued, “We provide a relaxed atmosphere where [buyers] can preview lines and write orders without the stress and time pressures that usually result when attending the bigger shows.”
The event is held four times per year, and Zweig said the cost to exhibit breaks even with the overhead to run the show. The brands share a like-minded aesthetic, and many of them are in the skate and street lifestyle category. These brands include Obey, RVCA, Penguin, Howe, Lifetime, Tsubo, Huf, Element, Keds, Lucy Love, Nixon, InCase, Super and Palladium Boots.
Zweig said an additional benefit of the regional and specific show is that the brand reps can dedicate more-focused time to each retailer and build a deeper relationship with their employees, as well.
“Because it’s local, [retailers] can bring other buyers and employees of their store [and place a collective buy], whereas usually they aren’t going to fly out all their employees to a trade show,” Zweig said.
Some of the accounts from Northern and Central California included Azalea, Citizen, Therapy, Piperlime (http://piperlime.gap.com), Rabat, Shoe Biz, Convert, The Giant Peach (www.thegiantpeach.com), District, Lulu’s (www.lulus.com), Trucker, Good Stock and Artifacts.
Sara Mehlhaff, the Northern California sales rep for Nixon watches and headphones, was a first-time exhibitor at the most recent Gather. Mehlhaff met with both existing and potential new accounts. “We did have a number of urban accounts drop by that were interested in carrying Nixon or checking it out in general. [It was a] great way to expose Nixon to a more urban/boutique environment. I will definitely do the show in the future,” Mehlhaff said.—Rhea Cortado
