I am in Canada this week reporting on the KNOW?SHOW, an action sports trade show at the Vancouver Convention Center.
The bi-annual show had a steady stream of buyers all day Wednesday, the opening day of the show. The ambience was relaxed and inviting. It wasn’t packed, but booths always had a steady stream of buyers and talk was much more business than “bro talk” and hi-fives.
Ben Couves, Nick Brown and Perry Pugh started the Know?Show about five years ago to bring Western Canada’s top retailers together with the top action sports and lifestyle brands. Nick explained that before the Know?Show, there was really only one rep trade show held at hotel rooms that serviced the Western Canadian market.
The show had a closed format, which made it tough for smaller brands to get noticed because if you didn’t know a brand, you probably didn’t check out its hotel room. Plus, the rep show featured a diverse array of brands and goods from hockey sticks and fly fishing rods alongside action sports brands.
Nick, Perry and Ben are all sales reps who work with different action sports and lifestyle brands in Canada. They have all traveled to the states to go to ASR, Agenda, and SIA, and wanted a show that was similar but more rep-friendly just for Canada.
This is their 11th show. It’s mostly a winter show with a mix of snowboard, skate and fashion brands. There are more than 85 exhibitors showing more 300 brands (some distributors have multiple brands in one booth), with 1,000 or more retailers coming over the next three days.
The format of the show is very clean and open. All the booths have hard wall formats.
A few of the bigger brands have custom built booths, but nothing is over the top and all the booths look fairly similar. Nick explained they charge one price for a booth space and only slightly more for a space already with hard walls so all a rep has to do is come in and hang their line.
On page 2: how retailers respond to the show
The center of the show features a lounge with a Red Bull DJ who plays background music that’s not overty loud, so people can still hear themselves on the floor.
There are a variety of Christmas trees with wooden workstations and a bar made from recycled barn wood built to look like a cabin, also on the center of the floor.
There are a few visitors from the States, but most of the attendees are from Canada. For Canadian retailers, it’s an affordable way to see all the brands they need to.
“This show literally saves my ass,” said Don Chisholm, who owns the store Campus in Alberta.
“I’ve done ASR, SIA, Magic and more, and this is by far the best and most chill show, and now I don’t have to travel anymore.”
For U.S. brands attending on their own, this show has been effective for allowing them to target the Canadian market.
“With the death of SIA being in Vegas, all the Canadians come here,” said Erik Leines, who runs the San Clemente, Calif.-based snow brand Celtek.
“Canadians like to party, and Vegas was a good excuse to party. Now that (SIA) is in Denver, a lot of them aren’t going there,” he said. He added that he has back-to-back appointments all three days of the show.
For Canadian retailers — even those based in Vancouver, where many of the distributors are based — everyone I spoke with had great things to say about the show.
“I am biased because this is my hometown, but it’s so much better than all the other shows,” said ‘Pear’ who runs the Boardroom in Vancouver.
Pear said he still uses rep showrooms to see outerwear lines, but that all his softgoods buyers are at the show all day long.
He also said that the biggest difference between this show and shows like SIA, is that the brand selection is tighter and so much more manageable. “They trim the fat for Canada,” he said.
For Canadian distributors, like Garret “GMAN” Louie, who runs Timebomb Trading Inc. and distributes Sole Tech brands, RVCA, and LRG and others in Canada, this show is crucial for his business.
“We get all the buyers from small towns that can’t afford to go to U.S. all in one show and the guys putting the show together are reps so they get it,” he said.
“It’s just a chill show. It’s not a high five type of thing.”
