The King Pins - History

Why Kingpins?

In order to best answer why we began Kingpins you must understand my historical relationship with textile industry tradeshows.

The pioneer and still champion of all textile shows is Messe Frankfurt. Proudly they claim to have celebrated their 768th year anniversary in 2008. In textiles they produce and run a litany of shows including Texworld in France and the USA. They created Intertextile in Beijing, and Interstoff Russia. They deal in volume and are proud to have staged 113 shows last year, which in total contained 64,000 exhibitors and 3.6 million attendants. They are the world's first and largest trade fair exhibitor and have their own exhibition grounds.

I attended my first textile fair (Interstoff) in Frankfurt in late November 1977. The show was the only textile fair of note at the time and massive in scale. People from all over the world flocked to Frankfurt to see this show where all textile manufacturers from Europe displayed their products. That meant cotton producers, worsted, woolen, silk, etc.
I was 23. I found the environment cold, stark. I worked in an exhibitor's booth, but I felt mercenary and excessively detached from normal life. The chairs where I sat all day were uncomfortable, the acoustics horrendous. There was no music, or proper food. The show was basically being run within an airport type atmosphere, zillions of attendees running and roaming around like lost travelers. I never felt in any meeting that anyone was paying attention to anything specific.

Premiere Vision (PV) started over 30 years ago with 15 weavers from Lyon. PV have become the major competitor to Messe's textile shows running two exhibitions in France under the Premiere Visions brand and two in the USA called European Preview. By 1980, Premiere Vision's mandate changed to allow not only weavers from France to exhibit but invited all Western European textile vendors to display their products... and I was at the first exhibition.

PV exploited Interstoff's major vulnerabilities and went on to become a much more attractive textile show for both customers and exhibitors. There were two key advantages to PV. Firstly, the show was a full month earlier than Interstoff and the global textile industry needed to see products earlier and earlier. Interstoff, due to size, could not change the dates of their shows. Secondly, Paris was a much preferable city for visitors and exhibitors to reside. Subsequently, Premiere Vision won the textile fair battle against Interstoff and virtually put Interstoff Frankfurt out of the premium textile show business in the following years. Messe fought back with Texworld, which is reasonably successful and shows at the same time as Premiere Visions.

While PV was a much preferable show to Interstoff and the environment was much better, generally brighter with better quality food, the bloated size of the show remained painful to me. Over the next 20 years as an exhibitor I grew to detest all large trade fairs for many reasons. My major complaint was that a show that charged an entry fee encouraged "anyone" and "everyone" to visit the show. Subsequently the booth where I worked was open grounds for clients who had no intention to buy from us, or unbelievably available even to competitors of ours allowing them to come in and browse. It always seemed absurd and peculiar to me that I would have to show my collection of new, proprietary products to these kinds of non-clients, or that our general product range was available to anyone to see.

Plus, I was always perplexed how Premiere Vision or any large fair could allow non-credible exhibitors to display products. It seemed to me PV management did not vet or evaluate exhibitors seriously. Booths near our booth, which looked more or less like our booths housed what, seemed like competitors but were actually companies that either did not have a mill at all or were often financially unstable or ill equipped to be serious suppliers to anyone. Yet there they stood, as bonafide competitors, validated by the fact they were in PV.

Thirdly, like Interstoff the airport atmosphere caused by the sheer massive number of exhibitors gave one the sense of being an ant in a colony of ants. Who really enjoyed being at Premiere Vision? Exhibitors hated it and I am sure clients found it arduous to navigate and painfully impersonal.

Lastly and importantly the show was too far from the city which meant coming and going to PV was an insufferable journey. I can remember too well the lines in the rain or the cold, waiting for a train at 6:30 pm, back to Paris, stuffed full of people, where one's arm holding a rail lay millimeters from someone else’s face. I used to close my eyes on these trips back to Paris and question why a textile fair had to be this way. Taxis were no better. Sometimes the ride back to the city could take an hour or more as Parisian traffic like any large city was commonly locked in a standstill.

I needed to stop participating in what I felt had become a waste of time (I would see my best customers in their offices anyway) and resources for my company.

Our first Kingpins were on July 14th and 15th, 2004. It was carved from all the things I had learned to dislike about the textile shows I had attended in Europe for the previous 27 years... I had gone to 54 shows overseas and Kingpins was our company's way to stop the insanity. There has never any doubt in my mind that shows serve an important function.

Here are the major features of Kingpins:

1. Specialization
our show is about casual wear. We desire to attract buyers who produce or market sportswear, be it jeans or any casual apparel.

Specializing makes the show not just about textiles but a global supply chain. Our first Kingpins had hardware people attend, a laundry attends and today the same exists including chemical companies and fiber companies who have new, innovative products. Kingpins will always specialize in the casual area and seek to invite global players, leaders in their fields so that anyone who produces a casual wear garment will find innovation at our show. That’s a value for our customers.

2. Invite only
No one can attend Kingpins unless they are invited. While it is possible someone can sneak in once, they cannot get in twice. We closely monitor who comes and who is invited and always will. Kingpins is a show about skilled vendors meeting actual buyers or genuinely potential buyers. We are less interested in the number of customers that attend Kingpins than we are in the quality of the customers. We want to bring our exhibitors the best customers possible for their products and help them get access to these customers. That’s a value for our vendors.

3. Vetting Exhibitors
the original name for the show was to be "Leaders" because we felt the show should bring together the best suppliers in our chosen specialized field. We liked the idea of having exhibitors who not only excel at what they do, but lead in their category of product. We wanted the best suppliers who love what they do, obsessed about their product and their industry. We did not want any vendor who is not a leader in their field and this policy will remain in place so that the clients who attend the show will appreciate the quality of products, the quality of people at Kingpins who display innovative products.

4. Atmosphere
Kingpins today is a show of 12-15 suppliers, and is always presented in a comfortable
setting. We treat all guests as if they were coming to our home. We absolutely believe that Kingpins must feel comfortable to exhibitors and customers. Unlike the other shows that charge for water or a sandwich we feed and serve everyone, which creates a kind peace and calmness to our exhibition. One night of each show we serve a large dinner where everyone has a chance to get together and talk over drinks (NOT CHARGED) and relax to music.

5. Future
We believe we are making great progress in the development of our Kingpins show. As can be seen in the PRESS section we have created a strong image and a respected following in the print media.

More importantly in the "Who Comes to Kingpins" section you can see who attends the show and the quality of visitor we attract to all the shows.

Kingpins will always be about casual wear. The show will always be about jeans, denim, garment dyeing, cotton and fibers. The show's long-term goal with regards to exhibitors is to attract the leaders in the global chain and from all parts of the world. With the linkage of the best global fiber producers, denim mills, the best piece dyed producers, the best chemical companies, industrial laundries, sewing factories, hardware companies and label manufacturers, we see the Kingpins future as taking a leadership role in the textile exhibition industry in the USA. Where else can clients meet so many competent industry leaders in one place?

Our future plans incorporate conferences or seminars where our exhibitors have a chance to spread their news and participate in dialogue about what we all spend our lives doing, which is creating products for the sportswear and jeans industry. We love working hard to continue to create the best environment for our industry from all sides of the business.


	Why Kingpins? In order to best answer why we began Kingpins you must understand my historical relationship with textile industry tradeshows. The pioneer and still champion of all textile shows is Messe Frankfurt. Proudly they claim to have celebrated their 768th year anniversary in 2008. In textiles they produce and run a litany of shows including Texworld in France and the USA. They created Intertextile in Beijing, and Interstoff Russia. They deal in volume and are proud to have staged 113 shows last year, which in total contained 64,000 exhibitors and 3.6 million attendants. They are the world's first and largest trade fair exhibitor and have their own exhibition grounds. I attended my first textile fair (Interstoff) in Frankfurt in late November 1977. The show was the only textile fair of note at the time and massive in scale. People from all over the world flocked to Frankfurt to see this show where all textile manufacturers from Europe displayed their products. That meant cotton producers, worsted, woolen, silk, etc. I was 23. I found the environment cold, stark. I worked in an exhibitor's booth, but I felt mercenary and excessively detached from normal life. The chairs where I sat all day were uncomfortable, the acoustics horrendous. There was no music, or proper food. The show was basically being run within an airport type atmosphere, zillions of attendees running and roaming around like lost travelers. I never felt in any meeting that anyone was paying attention to anything specific. Premiere Vision (PV) started over 30 years ago with 15 weavers from Lyon. PV have become the major competitor to Messe's textile shows running two exhibitions in France under the Premiere Visions brand and two in the USA called European Preview. By 1980, Premiere Vision's mandate changed to allow not only weavers from France to exhibit but invited all Western European textile vendors to display their products... and I was at the first exhibition. PV exploited Interstoff's major vulnerabilities and went on to become a much more attractive textile show for both customers and exhibitors. There were two key advantages to PV. Firstly, the show was a full month earlier than Interstoff and the global textile industry needed to see products earlier and earlier. Interstoff, due to size, could not change the dates of their shows. Secondly, Paris was a much preferable city for visitors and exhibitors to reside. Subsequently, Premiere Vision won the textile fair battle against Interstoff and virtually put Interstoff Frankfurt out of the premium textile show business in the following years. Messe fought back with Texworld, which is reasonably successful and shows at the same time as Premiere Visions. While PV was a much preferable show to Interstoff and the environment was much better, generally brighter with better quality food, the bloated size of the show remained painful to me. Over the next 20 years as an exhibitor I grew to detest all large trade fairs for many reasons. My major complaint was that a show that charged an entry fee encouraged "anyone" and "everyone" to visit the show. Subsequently the booth where I worked was open grounds for clients who had no intention to buy from us, or unbelievably available even to competitors of ours allowing them to come in and browse. It always seemed absurd and peculiar to me that I would have to show my collection of new, proprietary products to these kinds of non-clients, or that our general product range was available to anyone to see. Plus, I was always perplexed how Premiere Vision or any large fair could allow non-credible exhibitors to display products. It seemed to me PV management did not vet or evaluate exhibitors seriously. Booths near our booth, which looked more or less like our booths housed what, seemed like competitors but were actually companies that either did not have a mill at all or were often financially unstable or ill equipped to be serious suppliers to anyone. Yet there they stood, as bonafide competitors, validated by the fact they were in PV. Thirdly, like Interstoff the airport atmosphere caused by the sheer massive number of exhibitors gave one the sense of being an ant in a colony of ants. Who really enjoyed being at Premiere Vision? Exhibitors hated it and I am sure clients found it arduous to navigate and painfully impersonal. Lastly and importantly the show was too far from the city which meant coming and going to PV was an insufferable journey. I can remember too well the lines in the rain or the cold, waiting for a train at 6:30 pm, back to Paris, stuffed full of people, where one's arm holding a rail lay millimeters from someone else’s face. I used to close my eyes on these trips back to Paris and question why a textile fair had to be this way. Taxis were no better. Sometimes the ride back to the city could take an hour or more as Parisian traffic like any large city was commonly locked in a standstill. I needed to stop participating in what I felt had become a waste of time (I would see my best customers in their offices anyway) and resources for my company. Our first Kingpins were on July 14th and 15th, 2004. It was carved from all the things I had learned to dislike about the textile shows I had attended in Europe for the previous 27 years... I had gone to 54 shows overseas and Kingpins was our company's way to stop the insanity. There has never any doubt in my mind that shows serve an important function. Here are the major features of Kingpins: 1. Specialization our show is about casual wear. We desire to attract buyers who produce or market sportswear, be it jeans or any casual apparel. Specializing makes the show not just about textiles but a global supply chain. Our first Kingpins had hardware people attend, a laundry attends and today the same exists including chemical companies and fiber companies who have new, innovative products. Kingpins will always specialize in the casual area and seek to invite global players, leaders in their fields so that anyone who produces a casual wear garment will find innovation at our show. That’s a value for our customers. 2. Invite only No one can attend Kingpins unless they are invited. While it is possible someone can sneak in once, they cannot get in twice. We closely monitor who comes and who is invited and always will. Kingpins is a show about skilled vendors meeting actual buyers or genuinely potential buyers. We are less interested in the number of customers that attend Kingpins than we are in the quality of the customers. We want to bring our exhibitors the best customers possible for their products and help them get access to these customers. That’s a value for our vendors. 3. Vetting Exhibitors the original name for the show was to be "Leaders" because we felt the show should bring together the best suppliers in our chosen specialized field. We liked the idea of having exhibitors who not only excel at what they do, but lead in their category of product. We wanted the best suppliers who love what they do, obsessed about their product and their industry. We did not want any vendor who is not a leader in their field and this policy will remain in place so that the clients who attend the show will appreciate the quality of products, the quality of people at Kingpins who display innovative products. 4. Atmosphere Kingpins today is a show of 12-15 suppliers, and is always presented in a comfortable setting. We treat all guests as if they were coming to our home. We absolutely believe that Kingpins must feel comfortable to exhibitors and customers. Unlike the other shows that charge for water or a sandwich we feed and serve everyone, which creates a kind peace and calmness to our exhibition. One night of each show we serve a large dinner where everyone has a chance to get together and talk over drinks (NOT CHARGED) and relax to music. 5. Future We believe we are making great progress in the development of our Kingpins show. As can be seen in the PRESS section we have created a strong image and a respected following in the print media. More importantly in the "Who Comes to Kingpins" section you can see who attends the show and the quality of visitor we attract to all the shows. Kingpins will always be about casual wear. The show will always be about jeans, denim, garment dyeing, cotton and fibers. The show's long-term goal with regards to exhibitors is to attract the leaders in the global chain and from all parts of the world. With the linkage of the best global fiber producers, denim mills, the best piece dyed producers, the best chemical companies, industrial laundries, sewing factories, hardware companies and label manufacturers, we see the Kingpins future as taking a leadership role in the textile exhibition industry in the USA. Where else can clients meet so many competent industry leaders in one place? Our future plans incorporate conferences or seminars where our exhibitors have a chance to spread their news and participate in dialogue about what we all spend our lives doing, which is creating products for the sportswear and jeans industry. We love working hard to continue to create the best environment for our industry from all sides of the business.