Everyone knows that you can't do a full day at a trade show on an empty stomach. Only thing I'm eating in NYC for breakfast is bagels and breakfast burritos.
Tradeshow season means that at many of them you're likely to be in the company of some likeminded folk who work for similar brands. Some of these people are the competition, but mainly I find that they're brothers in arms. Like Justus for example. He's the sales director for Official Crown of Laurel, a headwear brand that are currently smashing it in the states, and after spending time with him at Bright in Berlin and hanging out again in NYC it's clear that he's one of the good ones.
Out of nowhere this dude showed up with a limited New Era that was made for their Stratford store opening (Where we're based) - how good is that? He lives in NYC now and is spreading the good East London word out there.
We were stoked that Dennis Todisco from Diamond Supply Co. came by to check out the booth. It was awesome to meet him and it's great to see both him and Diamond doing so well.
Vanessa runs the upcoming womenswear programme at Agenda, but in the absence of such at the New York show, she was just hanging out and helping out at the show. First rule of tradeshows - always make friends with one of the crew.
I maybe should have come back and taken a photo of this when it was done but I honestly forgot. Seems to be taking shape at this point though? I also forgot to get the name of the artist but is anyone really bothered? Thought not.
Wait, we're doing quilted snapbacks in 4 colours for Autumn / Winter 2013? Yes, yes we are. Is any other brand doing that? No they are not. Fuck with us.
Everything in the picture will be out before 2013 is up, with the majority of it dropping in just over a month.
Tradeshows are great but I was excited to get over to the Diamond X Been Trill launch afterwards to catch up with Nigel and Harrison. You might recognise Nigel Sylvester (left) from being a pro BMXer for Nike, G-Shock and Gatorade. Or maybe from this video he just put out with French Montana that has literally been picked up by every blog ever.
On the right is Harrison Boyce, founder of Defgrip and creator of many things, including most of Nigel's Gatorade videos, as well as all the photos that were decorating the party venue; the Pac Sun pop-up on Broadway.
UK brand Hype were also doing the show and it was cool to catch up with Vin from the brand at the party after. No matter what your opinion is on Hype the dudes behind it are good dudes and it was a pleasure catching up with them.
Man of the hour Nick Diamond (Diamond Supply Co.) was at the event. Diamond has blown up recently and it's all because of this dude. When building the brand, much like with us at King, he has personally worked in every area of the business. As a result, he still oversees every single thing that Diamond put out, from the tiniest detail to the bigger picture stuff. Plus he's a nice guy to boot.
I still don't really understand what BEEN TRILL actually do, but they're launching out collabs left right and centre and since their leader Virgil is Kanye's 'advisor' then they must be cool..... right?