It’s trade show season. Ready to take the plunge?

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By Marcy Medina | for The SKUpe

South Florida is synonymous with swimwear and sun, and SwimShow Miami, held each summer, is the industry’s premier tradeshow for discovering and ordering the newest styles for the following resort and Spring seasons. Judy Stein, executive director of the Swimwear Association, has been running SwimShow since 1996. Here, she shares how she keeps North America’s longest-running swim and resortwear expo fresh after four decades and what retailers should know if attending for the first time. –Marcy Medina

How do you keep the show new and exciting for buyers?

We love seeing the buying patterns of our stores and the way they work with our exhibitors, and providing everyone with an assortment of iconic brands that have been with SwimShow for decades and new-to-market brands that target a mix of young and mature consumers. Both play an integral part in the ways we synergize with buyers. We're going on our fourth year of SwimLab, our incubator program with WGSN [a global trend forecasting service] that shines a light on four up-and-coming brands. This year, we're also partnering with Mana Fashion, a dynamic fashion community in South Florida; they’ve launched a showroom with a group of fantastic brands in the resort and swimwear categories.

How have the dates of the show and the swim market changed?

Last year, we moved SwimShow up by a month, but before that the show and entire market was held in July. We were hearing from buyers and brands that the mid-summer show didn't allow buyers the time to review the collections properly and barely gave the brands enough time to fulfill orders. The entire swim industry came together and moved the shows to June, a great example of the unity of our category.

We're also launching an October show called The Edit by SwimShow because we received strong interest from our exhibitors to launch a fall show in South Florida. While our summer event during Miami Swim Week typically highlights collections shipping for early resort and spring, we see an opportunity in October to cater to buyers seeking a broader range—including summer pieces and immediates. Introducing a new show is part of our ongoing commitment to support the industry and honor traditional retail models, which have recently been undervalued or disrupted. The reality is that consumers still crave the in-store experience, and we're here to help the industry evolve while staying rooted in what works.

What’s your advice for new retailers attending SwimShow?

Make appointments! The key to a successful show is planning ahead, taking your time to review the brands, reaching out and receiving their lookbooks, and allowing enough time to review as many collections as you can. If you don't have the time @SwimShow, on Instagram, gives a good synopsis of the brands and our blog SwimStories is a great resource. Lastly, I'd attend all of our events on the show floor. This year we're launching SwimTalks, a series of five panel discussions ranging in conversation from sustainable design by a group of Colombian brands, new-to-market brand trends by WGSN, the most-spoken two-lettered technology of the year, AI, along with a panel on brands designed in Miami and a great discussion on original prints by Longina Phillips. 

What have you heard from exhibitors and attendees about tariffs and how they are affecting business?

Another word of the year is tariffs, something that has kept all of our eyes peeled and ears open to see how brands and retailers will react. Luckily, we have seen significant workarounds from the majority of exhibitors manufacturing in nearby countries like Colombia, and of course a great assortment of brands that design and manufacture in the U.S. Brands are used to planning ahead and the fashion industry as a whole has been showing collections a season in advance for as long as I can remember. I do think retailers are paying close attention to where brands are manufacturing to reassure confidence in ship dates, but for now, we haven't seen it affect our exhibitors significantly.  

Above: The trade show scene at last year's SwimShow in Miami. (Courtesy) 

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The SKUpe is curated and written  by Marcy Medina and edited by Bianca Prieto