The JUZD booth was on the edge of the eco section in POOL Tradeshow. This was our first clothing tradeshow and I was very excited. I’ve done two shows and each was disappointing but the cost for this one was a lot more so I anticipated the results to be a lot better. I got a booth for my friend Cristofer Carrado right beside mine.

It was our first show together and we got a bad location. All the way near the back. Very little traffic, we were in a pond with little fishes. All the tees sell for $20-$30 retail. It wasn’t right for us. To make it worst, POOL was known for it’s eco section but this year MAGIC had it’s own eco section and stole a lot of the bigger eco brands. The people that did drop by were very impressed and we made a few good contacts and got a couple of leads. Stay tuned to find out what happens.

We did have a good time and met some interesting people. Couple of interesting brands I checked out was Pnatrul. This brand is by musician Peter A Witting, which pimped out his booth with his drum set. He tells me that he get musicians he travels with to wear his gear, including Tommy Lee.

Right across from us were Forrest + Fauna, a brother sister duo. They spent the most time setting up their booth of all the lines at Pool. It took them two months to make and several hours to put up and take down. Painted, cut, diagramed, each piece of reclaimed wood. It felt like a nice personal shack in there, it even comes with a mini fridge…filled with beer. And they also produced their own eco paint. That’s cool.

For any designers that are looking to do a show, they can check out Thread Show. Their concept is pretty cool; they’ll rent you half of the space for half of the price. Instead of $4000 for Pool, you’ll pay only $2000 and get your stuff in. But the section is smaller than a regular booth.

Free shirts and live screen printing from Alternative Apparel. Pick your size and the screen you want and it’s done. I got this last time I was at the show. The shirt feels amazing, very light weight and fits good but after a few washed it looks crusty.

Tag bag lady! These bags are made from license plates from Africa. Buy a bag change a village. The company making the bags employs local African workers so you’ll be directly helping them with each purchase.

Hard working Yvonne!