Trade Show Shopping is “Survival of the Fastest!”

I always feel like I should wear my Saucony‘s when I shop a major market.  Finding the newest, hottest designer first is “survival of the fastest”.
With so many trade shows scheduled during market week, it’s hard to cover them all. Even if you do there’s no guarantee that your competitor won’t beat you to the next “hot” thing first.  How to make sure you’re the fastest?  Here’s some training tips:

1.  Train your eye first.

• Fashion is visual. Flip through all the fashion publications you can for color and trends.  Be sure to include foreign publications. Tear out pages with looks and trends that are fresh. Put them in a folder for reference. Keep a list of new brands that look promising.

• Visit all the online sites that track trends.  Some of my favorites are WhoWhatWear Daily, The Cut,  Style Bakery, In Style, Style Observer.  The list is endless so limit it or you’ll waste too much time.

• Visit stores, all kinds of stores and look at window displays, color, texture, details, shapes.  Keep looking until you really see all the nuances.  You’re building muscle memory so you can just instinctively respond to ideas in market.

2.  Devise a  “game day strategy”.

• Map out all the shows and the new lines you want to see.
• Map out all established vendors you must see.
• Pack all critical data –  OTB’s, size outs, styleouts, PO logs, PO’s
• Pack  your camera and chargers.

3.  Warm up day one.

• Scout new designers first.  Cruise the show aisles quickly looking for fresh, new ideas and trend right merchandise. It should jump out at you. Snap a picture, make note of the booth number, category, delivery dates and any other pertinent information and move on. Keep those Saucony‘s moving!

• Cover all the shows.  Sounds aggressive and impossible but “no pain, no gain”.   I remember a little line called “Juicy Couture” (this was before they became a big line).  I was a new buyer and wanted to be efficient.  I didn’t understand the law of “survival of the fastest”.  My competitor did.  She scoped out all the shows on day one and earmarked the new designers.  Many years later that competitor was still riding the “Juicy” wave.  And I was sitting that one out “on the beach”.

• Work the hot ones.  New ideas are harder and harder to find so don’t let them slip away.

4.  Full throttle day two.

• Adjust your game plan to your sharper eye.  With the fresh sensibility of the new lines in focus, edit your established lines with surgical precision.

Happy hunting!