Heard From The Show Floor
CLASS@ASR February 2010
What Retailers are Saying about CLASS@ASR:
So Kim, New York Buyer, Macy’s
“It was good to see the surf market converging with skate and punk. Everything was interchangeable with the ASR runway mixing and matching girly and edgy pieces. The versatility is there, a girl can make herself look as sweet or edgy as she’d like.”
Chris Rue, Surfindian
“This has been a really good show. I like how it’s separate shows, ASR, Class and Crossroads. I met with Wellen and some other different possible new brands for us. We are actually expanding our store and that is why I’m here. I want some new lines and new products. I’ve been looking for footwear as well and this show has been great for it.”
Rica Santo, H20 Republic Inc
“Class is the show we have been to so far. It is high-end streetwear, which is really good for us. We have talked with Creative Recreation shoes, which we loved.”
Duke Edukas, Owner, Surfside Sports and BRA West Coast Chairman (they had 5 people shopping the shows)
“We’re seeing our established brands, our men’s buyer is here and he’s booked throughout the day. We’re always looking for new brands and networking with other retailers and our vendors to hear the buzz on new brands at the show.
Our skate buyer could shop Crossroads and our men’s could see contemporary brands at Class@ASR and surf at ASR. We are previewing brands and making notes to finish writing next week in the store.”
What Brands are Saying about CLASS@ASR:
Dean Bradley, Atwater
“We have seen some really good retailers so far. We have definitely seen some key accounts and there has been a good mix of buyers including a lot of international buyers. We have seen a lot of people that are interested in our products and we have also got some attention because we recently won ‘Breakthrough Brand of the Year.’
Also, this time we participated in an art show that displayed featured artist’s work and we have really made a significant marketing push that has played out well for us. A lot of people have being coming up to us and saying that they have seen us at the art show and on the bags and both at ASR and Class@ASR.”
Debbie Martin, National Sales Manager- L*Space
“So far Class and ASR have been great. It was a little slow in the beginning because I think people started off at ASR and then slowly made their way to Class@ASR. But now that everyone is here they are super excited about our products and it has been amazing. The setup here is also great. We love how the look, shelves and whole esthetic are this show. I think the first Class show was kind of trial and error and it has improved tremendously, we are happy. The whole purpose is to get in new buyers and we have definitely seen that.”
Eric Ruhle, GM of WeSC
“We’ve had some great retailers. Sun Diego, a local shop, has been here with their whole team. We have been selling to them for a while and the owner hasn’t actually seen the full product selection in person until now. He’s been here for about 20 minutes. We have also seen Zumiez, which has been really great, they seemed to like our whole vibe and we have definitely closed a lot of deals. Class@ASR is really kickback and relaxed. We have been writing a lot of orders and it hasn’t been rushed. We have time to write the orders. This is definitely our strongest show so far.”
Derek Boucher, Director of Marketing for Vestal Watches
“The show has been awesome! We have been busy and with the launch of our new sunglass line, people keep coming up wanting to check it out. All of the marketing we have done for the show has definitely paid off. The show has been worthwhile, it’s been good exposure and we are happy with the response. “
Brad Collins, Brand Manager, Just a Cheap Shirt
“We’ve had a good show. The action sports industry is new for our brand, so it’s been interesting. We were here last fall and it has been good to break in to the market here at Class@ASR. We had lots of orders written here including Tyler’s and OB Surf. We introduced our women’s line to them. We’ve had new accounts and it’s been great.”
Peter Benedicto, Brand Architect for The Foundation, Incase and Native
“The response at Class has been great. We've opened new accounts, a lot of them international, and have been able to meet with many of our existing accounts to show off the latest from our brands.”
Dustin Odbert, Brand Manager for AMBSN
“We just saw some larger specialty retailers that we’d been reaching out to for awhile. We wrote paper with a couple existing and a couple new accounts. This show is something we want to continue to do. It’s a great working environment.”
Eric Thomas, VP of Sales, RVCA
“Specialty retailers need to look at new brands, here they can see them. The show is clean, simple and effective – we win.”
Brian Garofalow, Marketing Director, RVCA
“We had a killer holiday, our retailers nationwide did well and turned fall and holiday product, so everyone coming in is really positive. We’re seeing pretty significant increases in sales across the board.”
CLASS@ASR September 2009
What Retailers are Saying about CLASS@ASR:
“We’re Networking and putting our partnerships together. There is as good energy here as I’ve seen in a long time. Seems like a lot of business going on with orders being written. Class@ASR is a nice addition, it was so convenient to just cut through the wall and a whole different vibe. The lighting, comfort and layout is great.”
Ben Johnston, Buyer, Coastal Edge, Virginia
“We’re buying swim for spring and summer including writing orders with Billabong, LSpace, and Luli Fama. Class@ASR is very nice, a big change and the swim brands seem to love it.”
Tom O’Hara, Owner, Gone Bananas Beachwear, San Diego
“We checked out the Seventeen Magazine Runway to see where trends are going ahead of time, so we’re preparing our buys right. We’re also seeing new products like SUP that are rising in popularity and the reemergence of brands like Stussy over at CLAS@ASR.”
Eric Macias, Owner of ELM Shapes, Cibolo, TX
“It’s my first time in San Diego for ASR. I saw some nice, playful product. On the men’s side we saw some board shorts that we really liked. It’s nice to see everyone in one spot and some new brands too. I got a haircut at Class@ASR and picked up two new headphone brands Eye, Eye Eye and Eskuche.”
James Hammonds, Men’s Buyer at American Rag in Los Angeles
What Brands are Saying about CLASS@ASR:
“By exhibiting at both Class@ASR and ASR, we have a foot in both camps, sort of like our line. Atwater’s had a full appointment schedule at ASR and really good walk by traffic at Class@ASR.”
Dean Bradley, Co-Founder, Atwater
“This show was better than we expected. We got in some great face time with all the right retailers. Seeing everyone here is much easier than getting on a plane to visit 30-40 individual accounts. It’s even just a carbon footprint issue of everyone meeting in one place versus flying all over. Our Latin American rep was so busy throughout with accounts from Mexico, Central America and South America. Class@ASR was very cool, we showed Women’s and Limited there and has some great premium boutique traffic.”
Dave Rosenberger, VP National Sales Manager QS Young Men's and Wintersports at Quiksilver
“We didn’t know what to expect and this completely outweighed any expectations. The focus was on product, which we like. We opened 20 stores on the first day and accounts were writing paper.”
Jordan Percy, Raen, Designer
“We did a lot of business and launched our new cut and sew. Everyone who came to the booth was a quality, A-list buyer. We’ll definitely do the show again. A lot of the people, who didn’t hand paper in onsite, have promised it for Monday.”
Matt Jung, Wellen, Founder
“It’s our first time showing in San Diego and we created a lot of new buzz in the action sports market. There was good stop by traffic from all types of buyers – international, local San Diego, and some bigger shops like Sun Diego and Pac Sun. It was a really good mix!”
Sameer Walia, West Coast Rep for Goorin Brothers and Nooka
“We’re still showing the line a half hour before the show closes. The first two days we had two to three accounts at each work station, at all times. A lot of new accounts came by including three new Florida accounts we hadn’t seen at any other shows that opened with us here.”
Vanessa Chiu, Women’s National Sales, Insight
