Kingpins - a different kind of face-to-face marketing venue

July 22, 2009

Sue and I attended our first Kingpins show last week. It is a small privately owned show, not a trade show, more of an encounter. It is held twice a year in NY, twice in LA and twice in HK.

We counted 25 exhibitors. Three of our members – FesslerUSA; Denimatrix/PCCA; and Union Textil from the DR – exhibited. They tell us they got their money’s worth.

It was strictly enforced invitation-only so you had next to no students, start ups, kids screaming in strollers and bag ladies filling pockets with freebies. Every store and brand of jeans you might imagine made an appearance. The format is gourmet food all day long, small footprint for the show, located in a loft on 36th and 10th, with a blockbuster rooftop party at 6:30 until whenever.

The theme is jeans and t-shirts. The exhibitors were full package with tons of samples. And they were solidly in the ‘fashion’ space of the industry. It was a two day show. The second day was really slow because of hang over’s from the party at the end of the first day. Two day shows CAN work.

Fortunately, Kingpin’s was one black away from Javits, where the TexWorld show was on and many went to both. You could sure get in and out of Kingpin’s quickly.

Even though every customer was slowly walked around the show and told who was in each booth, no-one had nametags which actually forced quite a bit of interaction. I loved one moment when I saw someone Twit another booth that “Abercrombie & Fitch just walked into your booth”. Cool.

We spoke with the owner of Kingpin’s about an idea we have to promote the factories of the US, Mexico the Caribbean and CAFTA in this format and potentially at the same time as this event. There’s interest and we will let you know more.

It was an extremely pleasant experience, as focused and non-threatening as a show can get. Nothing beats a top designer with full responsibility coming in, sitting down and asking what is possible.