ASR School Show Proves Quaint, But Will it Win Out?
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
Extract the flashy marketing booths, bikini babes and bottles of beer from an Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo and what do you get?
ASR’s new baby: Back2Skool, a boutique show held last week at the Waterfront Hilton Beach Resort in Huntington Beach.
The two-day gathering seemed to hark back to ASR’s roots, long before the Laguna Beach-based shows,produced by Chantilly, Va.-based VNU Expositions,drew thousands of scantily clad teens and companies spent big on trendy booths.
This show drew about 100 companies showing products in 117 no-frills booths to an invitation-only group of retailers, according to officials. About 400 buyers attended the show.
The scene, described as having a “grass-roots vibe,” was markedly different from the hoopla of ASR’s trademark shows in San Diego and Long Beach.
Exhibitors, including Orange County brands such as O’Neill, Lost Enterprises, Volcom and Rusty, welcomed the switch.
“I didn’t have to give out T-shirts to get someone in the booth,” said a half-joking Greg ‘G.T.’ Tomlinson, Southern California sales representive for Element and Von Zipper, both owned by Irvine-based Billabong USA. “People came here to do business. It was a really good time for the dime.”
Tomlinson said that if this fledgling show eventually takes on a big ASR show feel,where partying usually overtakes order writing,he would consider bowing out.
“If this show turns into that, it’ll turn me out,” he said. “I came here to do business. Back-to-school is a huge business opportunity for us.”
And Tomlinson wasn’t alone.
“Usually we have operation chaos (at ASR shows) but this is operation business,” said Darren Madrigal, sales representative for Costa Mesa-based Volcom. “I’ve had a couple of retailers that generally wouldn’t see me at tradeshows see me here. It saves me a couple of weeks on the road.”
Darin Dennee, publisher at ASR Trade Expo, called the show a success and has set dates for next year. He said exhibitors were “booked fully solid with appointments” for two days.
Plus, Dennee said that exhibitors get a major price break doing this event since they didn’t have to pay traditional tradeshow costs, such as union fees associated with setting up and tearing down booths. Companies at this show had tables, some posters and a few racks of clothes.
“This is a show focused on the lines themselves,” vs. tradeshow marketing, Dennee said.
He said there is a need to show back-to-school fall lines, a growing segment for surfwear makers. But cost-conscious companies didn’t want to pay big prices in light of the current economy. Exhibitors paid a $1,000 flat fee for a booth, Dennee said.
“Because everybody was limited in the same way to what they can do (with their booths) they don’t have the costs” usually associated with them, Dennee said.
ASR had some stiff competition with the launch of this show.
A week earlier Atlanta-based Surf Expo, produced by dmg world media, part of Britain’s Mail & General Trust PLC, held its first West Coast back-to-school show at the Anaheim Convention Center. The event was part of a new three-show, back-to-school series held in North Carolina, Maryland and California.
Surf Expo BTS West, which drew about 160 buyers, lured some of OC’s top retailers and surfwear makers, such as Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. and Billabong, which did not attend ASR’s Back2skool.
Some companies, such as Ocean Pacific and Rusty, both of Irvine, and Volcom, chose to attend both. And so did some buyers, such as Bob Abdel, buyer at Jack’s Surf Shop in Huntington Beach.
“I’ve been placing a lot of orders at both shows,” he said. “It saves me a lot of time.”
But the consensus was that the industry really only needs one show,and time will tell which one wins out.
“I prefer there be one show so we can focus all of our retailers,” which are now split, Tomlinson said. Ultimately, he said he just wants “an effective environment to see my stuff,” no matter the tradeshow producer.
Surf Expo has said it will continue hosting its BTS West show in Anaheim until 2004. ASR also plans to continue its show, with dates set for next March at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa, which is set to open in early 2003.
Dennee said that ultimately the industry will decide which show is here to stay.
“We think that (companies) will vote with their tradeshow dollars, and retailers with their attendance,” he said.
