LA Fitness Expo: Another One Under Our Belts

We recently returned from the biggest show that we have participated in, the LA Fitness Expo held at the end of January. Our goal for this show was to expose One Less Nemesis to a large group of people that are in our target market. We want OLN to be a brand people love and want to wear and that takes a lot of exposure. So off to LA we went and we were able to take some major leaps in the right direction (plus we got to drive the coolest, kick ass muscle car! I loved the Dodge Charger, doesn't it look like an OLN kind of car?)

First, we did in fact, build and create our biggest, coolest display yet of the shows we've done over the past year. It took us hours to get the carpet guys to get to our booth and then build the back wall structure completely wrong for 2/3 of it, finally figuring it out on the last tower ("um, these panels have a bunch of little squares and these have big ones....OH those are the sides and these are the bottoms, DAMNIT!") This day caused cuts, bruises, shaky hands and my favorite phrase from Ted, "zip tie the bitch." Of course he was referencing the tower we were building, not someone we held captive and tied to our booth. And in this case the bitch wasn't actually me. Promise.

We also got to meet everyone at Creation Entertainment and tour their office. These are some of the most awesome, entrepreneurial people you will ever hope to meet. We shipped a few things, including our very inexpensive but awesome looking banner there, to one of OLN's BFFs, Amy. Thank you, Amy! We saw Gary, Matt, Adam and the crew. Glendale was lovely.

We also went to the Target in Glendale. Our theory here (and we learned this from another vendor at one of Creation's Star Trek Conventions) was that it would be a lot cheaper to buy inexpensive display components at Target in the city of a convention (under $80) and let them be disposable rather than buy them and ship them all over (we estimated shipping at over $200.) So we went to perhaps the coolest Target I've ever been in. They literally have escalators for the carts. We were amazed (it doesn't take much.) We talked through our display and bought or organized all of the components. We had to ask 3 people to help us find zip ties...ahh, the glory of trade shows. We will always have zip ties in our bags now.

Finally it was show day. Thousands, literally thousands, of people came to the show the first day. A guy walked up to us the very second the show floor opened, told us he loved our tees and bought two immediately. Ted and I looked at each other and thought "here we go!!" We had a great booth, lots of really great feedback and we sold some shirts. Did we totally sell out of shirts like we had dreamed of? Unfortunately, no. Did thousands of people see our shirts and our brand who would have never seen it otherwise? Absolutely. Do we wish that we would experience a sold out, balls to the wall, oh my GOD we're going to run out event? Hell yes. But we have to be realistic. We really accomplished what we meant to accomplish and that was to further our brand. We absolutely believe 100% that this idea and this brand is going succeed. When people get it, they really dig it. And that's how we feel. So we dust off our jeans, take a few to regroup and hit it again with our next strategy because we just know it's going to happen. And by the way, Ted did seem to have some fun while he was there....