Here we go again - Magic Trade Show 2013

We're back at Magic Market Week in Vegas, it's our make-up show from our first attempt last August. You can read all about how that went down here. This time around, we'd like to think we're a bit more ready and realistic. We're hoping to make some great connections and get our shirts in front of the right people. We've already met I Am The Trend (and Storenvy) Adam Hendle, we're next to Mighty Fine's booth and we're feeling good about our set up.

This year, the Street and Slate shows were moved into the Project Show, renamed to Project MVMNT and melded into different neighborhoods. We were not sure how this would play out, but so far we feel like we've got pretty good placement and the show seems to have better flow and more professional atmosphere.

One thing we always hear from people walking by or even just people we pass in the aisle: "we love your shirts!" That's always so great to hear.

Check out our set up shots below. We'll update again with a post-show wrap up.

Magic or Bust? Both.

We had a spectacular looking booth at the August Magic Trade Show. I'm not afraid to admit that we felt our booth was effn awesome. We had catalogs, notebooks to hand out, a great display and even Peppermint Patties (Ted's favorite). Unfortunately, we did not stay for the whole show. To make a really long and painful story super short: we were not in the printed guide under our category and we were not placed well on the show floor. In fact, all of the independent t-shirt brands were about 7 aisles over. We were next to beanie babies and licensed sports apparel. So, we're going back in February. Crazy you say? Maybe. But the show organizers are working with us and we are not going to let an apparel trade show get us down. We will be successful and we are going to do what it takes to get there. In the meantime, enjoy some glimpses of the coolness that was OLN at our short show appearance. And remember, "Don't let the bastards get you down!"

-Shelley

Damn this looked good!

What would we do without 3M command hooks?

Just before I took this, the sportswear people in the next booth were staring at us and whispering "What are those t-shirt freaks doing here?" Then I gave her candy.

We attracted a lot of other vendors and shirt salesmen with our minty freshness

Now you know what my kitchen counters look like. Plus, cool notebooks.

Best thing about the show? The hoodies Ted got for us. I LOVE mine, thanks TT!

We were lookin' all professional-like, with our sewn in tags...

One Less Nemesis? WHO?

Jump in, the water's cool at POOL

It's been a couple of weeks since we've been back from going to the Sourcing and POOL trade shows in Las Vegas, as part of the overall MAGIC Apparel Show - time flies when you're workin' hard! I wanted to share why we went to this show and what we learned while there.

This year our goal is to expand our distribution. The best way to do that is to get in front of retail buyers. How do you get in front of them? Exhibit at the most influential show in the apparel industry! And as we expand our distribution, at some point we'll need to start having our shirts manufactured for us. That's where sourcing comes in.

A little eavesdropping goes a long way

Sourcing is a show for people like us, looking for international vendors who make high quality apparel that they will print and label for us. Now here's the truth: if you are pretty new to a business and are trying to figure out what you even need to know when going to something like this, you just have to listen to other guys who are drilling the vendors with questions. Sure, there is a bit of a communication gap with some of the vendors there, but there is certainly a common ground of expected questions. And by our oh-so-stealthy eavesdropping of a power buyer (or at least he talked like one), we found out how to sound saavy too. What's the production time? What are the terms? What are the minimums? We walked the entire show, every aisle and soaked it all in. We took catalogs, felt dozens of samples, saw very cool labeling and know that when we're ready to order 500 or more pieces, we've got a great cache of vendors that we can work with when we do land the big fish.

We can be this cool, right?

Speaking of big fish, POOL is undoubtedly the biggest fish for independent brands. I also think it's imperative for a brand to attend a show in advance to get a feel for how other vendors set up their booths and for the kinds of traffic and layout of the show. POOL is extremely visual. Three years ago when we were just starting out and we first went to POOL, we were in awe. We thought we were such small fish in a big, BIG pool (ha). We then set about building our brand through adding designs, promoting our online store and presence and attending a lot of fan conventions and events. What those events did for us is invaluable. We learned what designs to take (um, everything), how to display, sell and promote.

We see stickers in our future...

This time when we visited POOL, we looked around in excitement. THIS is where we need to be. (cue Rocky music in the background...) This is how we need to get our brand out there.While feeling reassured that our brand is completely unique, we also felt a kinship with the independent brands there.We're all in this, working hard to get some attention and for people to come to love our brands as much as we do.

$180k is a LOT OF T-SHIRTS

Listen, if someone can sell a $180,000 Swarovski crystal elephant, I know we can sell some $25 custom designed, super soft t-shirts to the right stores. After Vegas, we know that more than ever.