MadGods

On the way to the airport….

Man, it’s been over a decade that  i’ve been doing the tradeshow thing- either selling or buying clothes in Las Vegas. And really, i’m still a young buck when you really get to talking with some of the industry folks you may run into out there. Most people never realize the work that goes on in the world just so you can get dressed in the morning. The tradeshows for clothing are traditionally the 2nd or 3rd largest by attendance in Vegas all year, and almost universally regarded as the best tippers. It’s always an amazing cultural blend of art, music, citizenships, commerce and of course styles. At some point the things that actually make Vegas what it is sort of pale in comparison to the knowledge and experience that one can gain by attending these things- if you pay attention. And i’m not just talking about the parties. Parties which are usually more affordable (they are free with open bars) than the usual Vegas fare and attended by actually really cool people. And by cool I mean they actually play a large part in deciding and creating what is cool. Cool is a business these days and this is one its coolest events.  Although most things that happen in Vegas not only stay in Vegas, they end up buried in the desert somewhere, i think this set of pictures will entertain without getting anyone in too much trouble. MadGods don’t blow up spots.

This is East Austin, Texas from our plane. I would approximate our position as being over   Airport Blvd. near MLK looking southwest towards Westlake. Just out of view in the lower left hand corner would be our little workshop, where we toiled through a record breaking 70 days of 100+ degree weather so we could produce some new joints to take to market and let the world ponder if they were ready for what we got.

This is White Sands,  New Mexico. From the ground it’s a little more impressive. You should go there sometime, walk until you don’t see any more human footprints, lay on a sand dune and wait for a sonic boom from one of the stealth fighter jets that are based nearby. Just don’t forget how to get back to your car.

This is the view from our room. The economic woes that have  beset the world suck, but they sure do make the lines in Vegas a lot shorter. They also seem to help increase the customer service and value of things. Yay recession!

Getting around was so cheap and easy this time around we actually managed to get everything set up with time to spare. I swear that’s never happened before. Special shout out goes to the lovely Ashley Finn, our contact at POOL, who took care of us and kept her cool despite the 120 degree temperatures inside the convention center during set up, and the 220 degree tempers that resulted from it. I’d love to show you a picture of her but she stayed so busy making sure everything was good that we never got to have our kodak moment. Hopefully she’ll be around next season.

With the time we had to spare we walked the shops and found a rare bookstore of all things. I chose this pic because of its casino theme but really I should have posted the $11,000 first edition of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”. Or the first edition copy of “Cat in the Hat” or “Lord Of the Rings” or “Lord of the Flies” for that matter.

Fuck it, here it is…

Decided to go Italian for dinner.

Day One. This is our booth designation. 1111 is an auspicious number for MadGods. It’s the birthdate of the guy who got me into this whole business, as well as the the address of the place where we learned screen-printing and produced our first tee’s. 11th street and 11th avenue Oakland, California. Wessside.

I think we got the booth of a line who couldn’t be in attendance for personal reasons. That would be Imaginary Foundation. One of my favorite t-shirts brands ever. As a result we got really good positioning.

Like being across from the American Apparel booth, where the models will try on their new cuts for you. I got our Intern Andrew a copy of StreetJack (fallen waay off- btw) as a gift for his efforts in making this trip happen. I got this pink top for our other intern Mia.

These are some of our first day customers. Izumi from Topwin and cohorts.

This is Klaleh from High Maintenance Boutique in my original hometown of Hampton, VA. Love that name, btw.

This is Jeff and Christi of Downstair’s Mens store and Jewel Magazine back in Austin. Jeff’s birthday usually happens when we’re all in Vegas. Historically this results in notching up the level of the party, sometimes at a point when it doesn’t even seem possible. TOUCHDOWWWWN! Anyway, we happened to be staying in the same hotel so we caught a ride over to the HardRock to have a bday dinner  and check out some parties. The Pool Tradeshow and Stussy were both throwing their parties there. The Stussy party had too many doods with New Era’s on, staring  at each others feet  wondering “where’d you get those?” so we went to the POOL party which was actually at the pool.

Ignore the guy with the weird pompadour there. Now that I pointed him out he’s probably all you can see. Sorry.

Someone told me that was Lady GaGa. I have no idea. The only picture I ever saw of Lady GaGa she had her head buried in some other girls vag. Really this pic looks like the other girl.

So the party was fun but it was a long day and i’m not successful enough to tell someone else to get up and take my place in the morning so we decided to leave. Then we decided to go to a different party at TAO. By the time i got home I forgot most of the in between and stopped taking pictures. Except for this one of our hotel from the balcony at TAO. And these of  the aftermath.

Two things that are hard to find on the Vegas strip are :

1. Rolling papers

and

2. Lighters that aren’t stupid

Wessside!

Day 2 for many people is a day of dread. It consists of everything day one consists of but with a fierce headache, dehydration and a bit of nausea. But after a few years, you need that feeling to keep your edge. Nothing a nice big sale can’t help. Actually the turning point for the morning came after running into Jackie and Tommy from Zebra Club in Seattle. Really nice people. Better than advil.

How’d you like to wake up and see this at work? These are custom made ostrich leather Converse high-tops with some big ass feathers poppin off the side. The dood wearing them made them. His name is Joshua Blevins of LegalTenderSneakers.com  and he is Ku-uuunnnntry. In a good way. I love this job.

This is Nobi from Bamn! in Japan by way of Denver, Colorado. He’s a repeat customer and always comes and hangs out with us. He told us about a great party we missed at the Palms. I don’t know who was throwing it but it was suppose to have DJ AM (R.I.P.) Filling in was none other than DJ’s Jazzy Jeff and Mixmaster Mike. Fuuuuuuuck! That’s  2 of of my all time’s together!!!  FuckFuckFuck! Oh well.

The lovely ladies from Pin Up Couture stopped by. They had Masumi Max at their booth. I really don’t have the balls to ask Masumi Max to take a picture with me. Not in public any way.

Our neighbor at the show was Ha from FurFaceBoy based out of Dallas, Texas. This kid has got talent, an eye for detail and a dope pair of J’s. He also has first timer’s jitters, resulting in a desperate attempt to draw attention by disrobing. But really, what would get your attention between pantless FurFaceBoy on your left and, oh my! What’s this? All the American Apparel  girls lining up right in front of your booth to take some shots.

Don’t mind if I do. This really is a sweet gig sometimes. And this really is right in front of our booth. It’s Vegas- we play the hand we are dealt.

Myrah Oh flew in all the way from Jacksonville, Florida just to tatoo people for free at the Alternative Apparel booth.

After the overwhelming success that was day 2 we decided to treat ourselves to some of the American West Coast’s finest cultural offerings. With the help of our new friend Ha, we went to Undefeated, Stussy and In and Out.

“I’d like a double, double – animal style with fries well done, one pair of black and grey Jordan 1′s size 9 1/2 and a pair of Generic Surplus all black mid top’s size 11, with a stack of various Japanese fashion magazine’s on the side and do you mind if I take a pic of your 400% bearbrick custom airbrushed by Mister Cartoon? That’s it-for here, please.”

After that I don’t remember a whole lot except for being on hold with southwest airlines forever and then finally talking to the best customer service rep the world has ever known.

Well we did have this meal that included a sloppy joe made of braised short ribs a few hours after the double-double, animal style with fries well done had a chance to settle.

Day 3…Back to the office. This is Bobby Langley, head of merchandising for Warner Music UK. He’s actually mates with a favorite customer of ours, James from RAN in northern England, who could not attend this season. “Buy this RED NOSE” -it’s a football joke. as in soccer.

But seriously, James, if you’re reading this— “BUY THIS RED NOSE!”

The Kids from New Jap Swing wrote with us. Very cool folks. The most intersting guy in the group wouldn’t let me take his picture. Why would you dress that well and not document it?

Day 3 is slow and as a result I walk around a lot meeting people, sourcing and catching up with friends at their booths. This extremely photogenic couple is TinyPants and Jesse from Love Brigade. This almost as photogenic couple  are Love Brigade’s take on Chuck T’s.

Between Love Brigade’s and Skingraft’s (above) booths there seemed to be this contingency of really well tailored, highly stylized modern/vintage, somewhere between victorian and 40′s film noir- type of dress that is often described as steam punk. Apparently in Los Angeles goth kids decided to stop dressing ugly and start dressing fly. I’m not mad at them. Judging by her smile, this gal might not be quite the type you let step on your face with her boot heels in the name of sexual gratification but she looks like she could hide your gun for you and no one would ever find it. Assuming she likes you.

This is DJ Baby Chino. The world’s youngest DJ. He’s not even in preschool, yo. He can cut and scratch. He’s big on the west coast but he’s a little longhorn by birth, by blood and by choice. Well maybe not by choice. His dad went to Lanier and his mom went to Travis Highschool. And mark my words, here and now. DJ Baby Chino will be playing a MadGods event in Austin at some point in time, yet to be determined.  He has two watches on, dood. I was so lame at his age.

Amanda Gussman was in attendance helping out Home Grown Outfitter’s. She hung out with us for a while and explained how she was avoiding the sun so she wouldn’t get a bunch of oval tan marks all over her legs.

Bathroom break.

Homie from 2520 apparel in the smoking section where all the real networking happens- sort of like highschool.

Eventually FurFaceBoy’s charms won over the American Apparel girls hearts and they mobbed his booth and relieved him of promotional tee’s. In exchange he got the nice freebie photoshoot. Well worth the price of a booth.

FurFaceBoys perseverance is admirable. Being a ten year gap  in our experience he asked a lot of questions and claimed MadGods must be some real successful shit judging by our booth activity. I told him at the end of the day our booths are right next to each other so how well could we be doing? Then we both realized that we were across from the American Apparel booth and that dood is so fucking rich he can have sex with underage girls and get off scott free. So maybe Ha is right. We are doing pretty well.

This is Alicia, one of the AA girls hanging out at the booth.

This is Alicia’s leg.

So at the end of the third and final day we found ourselves with an extra night in Vegas we didn’t expect to have. My plan was to break everything down, head back to the hotel, repack everything for weight compliance, sort through all the orders, biz cards, notes and catalogs and hit the strip to check out some of the best shopping around. (it’s the apparel industry- it’s research- it’s a tax write off-it’s a really sweet job sometimes) And by best shopping around I don’t mean Louis Vuitton and Gucci at Cesar’s Forums. I mean Footlocker and H&M at the Miracle Mile. I need more H&M in my life but we don’t have one in Texas yet. So this is the rare opportunity to get european style at old navy prices. Also, the Footlocker there is something special. And although between Barney’s Coop, Undefeated , Streetwear at Magic and Footlocker there were so many pairs of dope Nike’s I could blog about- aren’t there enough blogs about Nike’s already? In the continuing theme of this blog entry- we pay homage to the original athletic sneaker brand with this series of shots of subdued colorway Chuck Taylor Converses at Footlocker, Las Vegas Strip.

When your hungarian waitress tells you that the congee is so good that all the Asians who actually like congee come here “just for the congee”- believe her.

So day three is really like the third part of day one when you calculate the lack of sleep. The mental task of having conversations with Japanese people all day, discussing such light weight topics as international customs and freight charges through an interpreter, combined with marathon walks and lots of free booze really can get you wound up. With the prospect of a totally catchable noon flight out, i tried to relax in the room and catch up on sleep, but with all tasks accomplished, the show over, my travel partner in fetal position on the bed in a coma-   I just couldn’t sleep. So I called Jeff and went out for a beverage.

This is my waitress, Princess Leia.

These are English birds.

I’d show you my pics of Jeff and Christi but I’m not for reasons all my own. I’m sure Jeff has some pics of me he has sense enough not to put on Facebook . haha-oh well.

These are everywhere on the strip.

On the way to the airport…

The Grand Canyon. On the way home.

As soon as I got home on Thursday, I knew I had to make it to support Randolph. I missed his last gallery opening at the Mexic Arte so I had to make the closing reception at the FAB gallery.  And then, in an effort to keep the dream alive just a little while longer, as well as decompress from my Vegas travels in a way that wouldn’t give me the bends, my homie Avi was promoting a show featuring a couple of old friends, Gift of Gab and Mr. Lif. I will post the pics of these events, as well as some features on our new designs, later in separate post.

But I will leave you with a shot of me on the next morning. The Friday before labour day is usually the kick-off to a bunch of sales. This year I would take the cash I didn’t spend on Nike’s in vegas, and instead enhance my book collections. Half-Price books was having 20% off, but first I would go to Austin Books for their 50-90% comic, tradepaperback, graphic novel sale.

This is for you, Ha. Thanks for the free tee’s and the ride back to the telly.

PAZZZZ