The AGENDA of streetwear.
Aaron of AGENDA pencilled us into his weekly planner to chop it up about the ins and outs of building brands and tradeshows.
I have been doing Agenda now for almost 5 years as a trade show BUT for about a year prior to that I was doing Agenda as an art & music event for the public. The thing that made me want to start Agenda was that ASR (Action Sports Retailers Trade Show) was soo bad. I was showing at ASR for about 3 years with different brands that I was involved in pre Agenda (GrnAppleTree, Leche, Matador, Gat...) and the show always sucked and it was way too expensive. So, from the bad ASR experiences and seeing what was going on with these small shows popping up like TBC, Pool & Margin we decided to launch Agenda into a trade show to compete with ASR.
To tell you the truth I didn't even start Agenda or come up with the name. My old partner Luis Jr from Gat/GrnAppletree started Agenda in the early 90’s when I was still in elementary school and it was a series of one night art shows with live music and free beer in Los Angeles. It was original called “Agenda, Art/Music/Beer” in about 2001-2002 I was working at Gat as a graphic designer and Luis decided to bring back the name Agenda to do some more Art shows at our factory in LA. We did about 3-4 art shows and then I came up with the idea of rolling it out into a trade show and we launched “Agenda, Art/Music/fashion” in January 2003 in Long Beach California.
Everything was a struggle, now that I think about it there was nothing easy about it. I was only 18 years old when I started Agenda so I was just learning to shave, let alone run a tradeshow that had an international clientele. Getting the brands to take us seriously, finding a good location, getting my hands on buyers lists, getting people to listen to an 18 year old kid, dealing with ASR trying to fuck up our permits... The list goes on and on, it was very difficult to say the least. One time the fire marshal showed up to the 1st show in San Diego on the morning of the show and asked me to see out Trade show permit, I replied “I didn't know we had to have one” long story short we almost got shut down before the show even started.
Agenda is set apart in a big way by our understanding of the market and our close relationships with retailers and brands. I have been working in Streetwear in one way or another before Streetwear and sneakers had a resurgence into the US market. Right now it’s a big trend to be in this market BUT in 2003 there was no US market for these kind of brands except for Japan. Agenda has done over 22 trade shows world wide in the past 5 years and we are only getting bigger and stronger, in some ways I feel that we are just getting started or just hitting our stride. Some shows like Project or Pool got too big too fast and they lost the original luster and appeal of being there, Agenda has has very slow steady growth and that’s a very important thing for long term branding. And as for as the NEW shows popping up in the last year or so I’m not so sure there is a need for them, when we started Agenda there was a void in the market and the big shows didn't have focused sections for Street and now people are starting these shows just because it seems like a good way to make money, Agenda has lasted so long because there was a reason and a need for out service at the time. Now shows like Magic have Streetwear sections that are amazing and there is no reason to leave and go to another show.
Coming to Agenda as a brand is very easy and stress free, there is little to no setup involved, all you really need is your samples, everything else is provided for you.. And the most important thing is its Cheap in comparison to other shows in Vegas or NYC or even San Diego.. We have kept the Exhibitor cost very low because that was one of the main reasons that we started the show.
Coming as a buyer is very stress free as well, we take a no haste approach to the whole process. At Agenda there is no pre registration, no badges, no cost to enter as a buyer, no tax ID number needed and no copies of P.O.’s needed by the show to enter, all you need is your business card and that’s it. You get free drinks all day and you get your biz done and you get out... Maybe you check out some of the live art displays and check out one of our night time Concerts/party's and then you get the hell out of San Diego, most people just drive home...
It really depends on what your goal is as a brand. I really think its good to build hype and get into the right accounts direct for a few seasons and then go to a show. That way people will know who the hell you are when you are at the show and there will be some kind of demand for your products. If your goal is just to do business with whoever first season and become the next Fubu (if you are lucky) then sure start going to shows before you have any idea of how the market works. Shows can be very expensive so I think that money could be spent else where in the beginning stages of a brand.
The same way we say the void in the ASR market, we say that same void in the NYC show circuit, TBC was dying, Project was too expensive and did not offer a good representation of the Street brands and the Collective was some suite ‘n tie BS, so we decided to jump in. the reason for calling it Stitch and not Agenda was because we were doing 8 Agendas a year at that time 2 in San Diego, 2 in Los Angeles, 2 in Tokyo & 2 in Osaka... So we felt that we were over saturated in the market and people would just say “Not another Agenda” so we picked Stitch and we even got a space in the same building as Project. The show went amazing and we planned to go back BUT then pool announced that they were doing NYC so we wanted to wait and let them fail before we returned. We are planning on doing Stitch again in summer 2008 in NYC.
Stitch was a bit more selective than Agenda and had more of an up scale feel to it. Agenda has a very graffiti/street art feel and stitch is more minimal soho loft feel.
That’s the million dollar question, some people are saying that this whole Fiberops/ Rockabilly/ hotrod thing is the next trend and some people say that the whole 80’s/ gay / pastel colored denim / pegleg / gonz is the other new trend, but I have no idea. I think that’s the whole market is going to clean up its design and stop being so Trend and soo Pop. The next trend is just branding and brand loyalty, before it was just about who could make the most neon all over print hoodie, and now I think that the consumer is a bit more informed on what's real and what's wack so they will just buy brands not items.
The number one thing I keep seeing is under funding and having no fucking idea of how to ship and produce the goods. Just because you have Photoshop and can look up a silk screener in the yellow pages doesn't mean you will make a million dollars in this business. There are so many things you need to do to become a brand: design, production, marketing, SALES!, shipping, getting paid and even if you do all of this decently there is no guarantee that the end consumer will buy your products when it hits the shelf. Plus there are over 1,000 Streetish brands out there trying to get at the same 3-4 hundred shops and everyone is biting each other doing the same shit so that makes it 10Times as hard when there are only a few original brands. Kids need to understand it can take up to 8-10 years to really get a brand popping, most people cant afford to do that or even have the patience.
When I first started in the industry hip hop was king and in some ways it is still is... The hip hop culture follows what ever is not meant for it, hip-hop heads want what ever is perceived to be luxury goods or hard to get. in the late Early 90’s it was Tommy & Polo and late 90’s it was Luis Vuitton and Gucci and last year it was Bape and BBC and now its 10DEEP and Crooks and who knows what's next but YES its so diverse now you have skate kids wearing street styles you have middle class white kids wearing street style in the suburbs and the “Streetwear” it self is going into 10 different directions... There are so many lines out there now and so many ways to see what they are doing IE: Hypebeast and 100 other pages like it, its almost impossible to keep track of where the market is going and all the new brands, I think I here about a new Street brand every day maybe even two. Everything is moving way too fast for me.
Stop now while you are ahead. Go get a job at some established brand and learn everything you can, run with that for as long as you can and then you should start your own shit with all the contacts and info you gained wail working at said brand, then start thinking about shows maybe...
tell a friend 2 tell a friend so we can BUILD!!!
How long have you been doing the Agenda show and what prompted you to start it?
I have been doing Agenda now for almost 5 years as a trade show BUT for about a year prior to that I was doing Agenda as an art & music event for the public. The thing that made me want to start Agenda was that ASR (Action Sports Retailers Trade Show) was soo bad. I was showing at ASR for about 3 years with different brands that I was involved in pre Agenda (GrnAppleTree, Leche, Matador, Gat...) and the show always sucked and it was way too expensive. So, from the bad ASR experiences and seeing what was going on with these small shows popping up like TBC, Pool & Margin we decided to launch Agenda into a trade show to compete with ASR.
Where did you get the name from?
To tell you the truth I didn't even start Agenda or come up with the name. My old partner Luis Jr from Gat/GrnAppletree started Agenda in the early 90’s when I was still in elementary school and it was a series of one night art shows with live music and free beer in Los Angeles. It was original called “Agenda, Art/Music/Beer” in about 2001-2002 I was working at Gat as a graphic designer and Luis decided to bring back the name Agenda to do some more Art shows at our factory in LA. We did about 3-4 art shows and then I came up with the idea of rolling it out into a trade show and we launched “Agenda, Art/Music/fashion” in January 2003 in Long Beach California.
What were some of the early struggles of starting Agenda?
Everything was a struggle, now that I think about it there was nothing easy about it. I was only 18 years old when I started Agenda so I was just learning to shave, let alone run a tradeshow that had an international clientele. Getting the brands to take us seriously, finding a good location, getting my hands on buyers lists, getting people to listen to an 18 year old kid, dealing with ASR trying to fuck up our permits... The list goes on and on, it was very difficult to say the least. One time the fire marshal showed up to the 1st show in San Diego on the morning of the show and asked me to see out Trade show permit, I replied “I didn't know we had to have one” long story short we almost got shut down before the show even started.
There are a couple other tradeshows that are tailored to the same customer base what do you think sets Agenda apart from the rest?
Agenda is set apart in a big way by our understanding of the market and our close relationships with retailers and brands. I have been working in Streetwear in one way or another before Streetwear and sneakers had a resurgence into the US market. Right now it’s a big trend to be in this market BUT in 2003 there was no US market for these kind of brands except for Japan. Agenda has done over 22 trade shows world wide in the past 5 years and we are only getting bigger and stronger, in some ways I feel that we are just getting started or just hitting our stride. Some shows like Project or Pool got too big too fast and they lost the original luster and appeal of being there, Agenda has has very slow steady growth and that’s a very important thing for long term branding. And as for as the NEW shows popping up in the last year or so I’m not so sure there is a need for them, when we started Agenda there was a void in the market and the big shows didn't have focused sections for Street and now people are starting these shows just because it seems like a good way to make money, Agenda has lasted so long because there was a reason and a need for out service at the time. Now shows like Magic have Streetwear sections that are amazing and there is no reason to leave and go to another show.
How would you define the Agenda experience for clothing company vs retailer?
Coming to Agenda as a brand is very easy and stress free, there is little to no setup involved, all you really need is your samples, everything else is provided for you.. And the most important thing is its Cheap in comparison to other shows in Vegas or NYC or even San Diego.. We have kept the Exhibitor cost very low because that was one of the main reasons that we started the show.
Coming as a buyer is very stress free as well, we take a no haste approach to the whole process. At Agenda there is no pre registration, no badges, no cost to enter as a buyer, no tax ID number needed and no copies of P.O.’s needed by the show to enter, all you need is your business card and that’s it. You get free drinks all day and you get your biz done and you get out... Maybe you check out some of the live art displays and check out one of our night time Concerts/party's and then you get the hell out of San Diego, most people just drive home...
Garmentos say that the shows of yesterday were really built for making sales vs today's that are more PR and party time. What is you feeling on that?
How important is it for a brand to have tradeshow representation?
It really depends on what your goal is as a brand. I really think its good to build hype and get into the right accounts direct for a few seasons and then go to a show. That way people will know who the hell you are when you are at the show and there will be some kind of demand for your products. If your goal is just to do business with whoever first season and become the next Fubu (if you are lucky) then sure start going to shows before you have any idea of how the market works. Shows can be very expensive so I think that money could be spent else where in the beginning stages of a brand.
What spawned Stitch (your other tradeshow), what is the status of it now and what is its future?
The same way we say the void in the ASR market, we say that same void in the NYC show circuit, TBC was dying, Project was too expensive and did not offer a good representation of the Street brands and the Collective was some suite ‘n tie BS, so we decided to jump in. the reason for calling it Stitch and not Agenda was because we were doing 8 Agendas a year at that time 2 in San Diego, 2 in Los Angeles, 2 in Tokyo & 2 in Osaka... So we felt that we were over saturated in the market and people would just say “Not another Agenda” so we picked Stitch and we even got a space in the same building as Project. The show went amazing and we planned to go back BUT then pool announced that they were doing NYC so we wanted to wait and let them fail before we returned. We are planning on doing Stitch again in summer 2008 in NYC.
How did Stitch differ from Agenda?
Stitch was a bit more selective than Agenda and had more of an up scale feel to it. Agenda has a very graffiti/street art feel and stitch is more minimal soho loft feel.
You have literally watched many brands grow out of their infancy and have watch the development of the youth culture market. What do you think is the next evolutionary step in design?
That’s the million dollar question, some people are saying that this whole Fiberops/ Rockabilly/ hotrod thing is the next trend and some people say that the whole 80’s/ gay / pastel colored denim / pegleg / gonz is the other new trend, but I have no idea. I think that’s the whole market is going to clean up its design and stop being so Trend and soo Pop. The next trend is just branding and brand loyalty, before it was just about who could make the most neon all over print hoodie, and now I think that the consumer is a bit more informed on what's real and what's wack so they will just buy brands not items.
What are some fatal flaws that you have witness brands make in there development?
The number one thing I keep seeing is under funding and having no fucking idea of how to ship and produce the goods. Just because you have Photoshop and can look up a silk screener in the yellow pages doesn't mean you will make a million dollars in this business. There are so many things you need to do to become a brand: design, production, marketing, SALES!, shipping, getting paid and even if you do all of this decently there is no guarantee that the end consumer will buy your products when it hits the shelf. Plus there are over 1,000 Streetish brands out there trying to get at the same 3-4 hundred shops and everyone is biting each other doing the same shit so that makes it 10Times as hard when there are only a few original brands. Kids need to understand it can take up to 8-10 years to really get a brand popping, most people cant afford to do that or even have the patience.
How have you seen the market change and do you think that it is becoming more diverse?
When I first started in the industry hip hop was king and in some ways it is still is... The hip hop culture follows what ever is not meant for it, hip-hop heads want what ever is perceived to be luxury goods or hard to get. in the late Early 90’s it was Tommy & Polo and late 90’s it was Luis Vuitton and Gucci and last year it was Bape and BBC and now its 10DEEP and Crooks and who knows what's next but YES its so diverse now you have skate kids wearing street styles you have middle class white kids wearing street style in the suburbs and the “Streetwear” it self is going into 10 different directions... There are so many lines out there now and so many ways to see what they are doing IE: Hypebeast and 100 other pages like it, its almost impossible to keep track of where the market is going and all the new brands, I think I here about a new Street brand every day maybe even two. Everything is moving way too fast for me.
Drop a jewel to the young start up brand on how to pick the right show for them?
Stop now while you are ahead. Go get a job at some established brand and learn everything you can, run with that for as long as you can and then you should start your own shit with all the contacts and info you gained wail working at said brand, then start thinking about shows maybe...
tell a friend 2 tell a friend so we can BUILD!!!
posted by PEL {www.pelnyc.com} at
12:58 PM
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