The family and I stopped by the PacSun Ballyhoo Saturday in Santa Monica.
The event was crammed with people, with long lines waiting to play games and work on DIY projects at brand tents, hear bands play and watch Tony Hawk and friends skate.
The two-day Ballyhoo is one way PacSun CEO Gary Schoenfeld is trying to have PacSun “own the summer.”
The teens were excited to interact with the brands, and long lines formed on the beach to get into the venue because officials only allowed 5,000 people in at a time. Some were even standing on cars in the parking lot trying to get a glimpse of what was happening inside.
The festival was free, but to get tickets, kids had to go to a PacSun store. There were 20,000 tickets available for the event.
I saw lots of media there, ranging from ESPN to WWD.
The brands got to be themselves – meaning, they got to present their own DNA, instead of being put in a PacSun box, which has so frequently been the case in the past.
As I walked through the venue, all I could think was, “Why hasn’t PacSun ever done something like this before?”
