TRADE SHOW
Sourcing at MAGIC Focuses on USA Products
If you thought the Sourcing at MAGIC show couldn’t get any bigger, it did—by 10 percent over last year, said Bob Berg, director of international business for the show.
Approximately 1,500 booths with 1,100 companies stretched out under the bright lights of the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Some 70 percent of those exhibitors were from China, with a large portion being taken up by footwear makers.
This year’s Sourcing at MAGIC focus was on “Made in the USA,” which had about 40 companies showing their goods. They ranged from fabric and button makers to apparel makers.
Front and center at the entryway was Two-One-Two New York, a family-owned sweater manufacturer with headquarters in New York and a factory in Glendale, N.Y., 20 minutes outside Manhattan.
With its prime trade-show location, the sales team was attracting a lot of curious retailers who didn’t know there was a big New York sweater operation that could keep wholesale prices to $7 to $14. The factory has 100 knitting machines.
The company’s forte is private label, with a lot of business being done with big retailers and chain stores. “Our ace in the hole is speed to market,” said Marisa Fumei-South, the company’s president. “Everybody from major retailers and new startups to online brands has been by. We’ve even seen some manufacturers who want to layer on a domestic arm.”
While the sweater booth was hopping, things were a little slower for John Beig, who represents Nature USA, which does T-shirts, sweatshirts, fashion wear, casual wear and sportswear jackets—many of which are sold at marathon runs.
This was Beig’s first time at the sourcing event. “The show has been okay, nothing special,” he said on the second day of the show. “There are a lot of start-up businesses that have been by, and I was hoping for more big guns.”
This was the third sourcing show for Tushar Puja, the head designer for Tushar Handwork Co. in Jaipur, India. He was showing a colorful collection of tops and dresses that had tie-dyed and acid-washed treatments and lots of macramé details around the neckline.
With an average wholesale price of $10, he was getting visits from retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Anthropoligie, who appreciated his creative boho looks. Overall, however, he thought traffic was down from the last two times he had attended the show.
