Of course the first order of business was heading to the three stripe booth, we were here for work after all. After cutting through the velvet ropes I found myself staring up at Pharrell, Chad and Shay. The adidas booth had soooo many assets in it. Travis Barker and his son came by, Asap, and (randomly) Ocho Cinco came by too. I didn't like how the booth only had retail and not as much interactive experience. They displayed franchises that exist, but I know there are a few new things that would have been perfect to premier here. Regardless, it stayed packed and people really loved it. It didn't look like anything else there. The only thing trendy was there was a Pusha T Bodega and I walked past maybe 3 or 4 other brand Bodegas (including the actual brand called Bodega.) Still the top booth there! Bonus points for ASAP shouting FUCK NIKE like 3 times.
We quickly got split up and roamed the floor for a few hours. Undefeated and Nike both had a lot of hype around their booths and drops. Nike had an interactive AF1 custom lab, the only complaint I heard was how long it took to wait and then custom. Puma had a booth that looked really cool but I didn't understand it. It wasn't clear if you could buy something or listen to a panel or what? I'm keeping an eyeout for them because they did paste up the collabs coming up including ones from Fubu, Mac and MCM. I need to get my hands on something MCM or Fubu. I don't even know how they pulled either of those but thats for the culture.
So many smaller brands also had really great buildouts. As this event gets more commercial I am interested to see how brands keep evolving their presentation. I mentioned a few times that I have gone to San Diego Comic Con like 4 times. The point of that is not the crowd, but the amount of money and amazing activations that are displayed then. What fandom likes is giveaways, raffles, exclusives and experience. If I had a brand my booth would not only look cool, but I would probably give away free stickers and pins, maybe shirts as like 4 hour drops first come first serve. You could buy things from me, but then I would showcase new product. Everyone is attendance is who I am hoping to buy from me, so why wouldn't I want a first read of some new shit? If I had assets, I'd say fuck the complexcon conversations and have a quick limited Q&A to the capacity fire marshall could allow in my booth. At comic con, even though there are coveted panels, WB and MTV always host their own panels in their booth. If I was lazy, I would just hire whoever puts together the Mr.Robot activations. If you want to talk about a limited experience that everyone will be talking about... That is it.
All conversations we wanted to see were full. We swung over to the First we Feast food arena. In coming to LA I HAD to get my hands on an ice cream Churro. Everyone was concerned with finding the Hennessy booth and all I wanted to do was get my salted caramel churro ice cream. It was amazing. I needed the sugar for the N.E.R.D. concert.
LETS JUST LAUGH ABOUT HOW I SNUCK INTO THE VIP SECTION.
Vip was the caged off section in the middle and front of the stage and I am short. I am like 5'2''. Its so annoying to go to concerts but I go to like 4 a year and put myself through this. Regardless, we walked in and I noticed a guard letting everyone in. I looked at my friends and I was like... I think we can go in there? They said, "No that VIP only!"I said, "Well, I'm just going to ask."
So I walked up.
Showed my wristband.
Didn't say anything.
And he said ok and I just kept it moving.
Everyone else followed suit and then there we were.
ALL OF US.
ALL 100 OF US THAT WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!
We made lifelong friendships and family in that section! The lookout game was so smooth, but from the top it had to be funny to see us shift around like a school of fish being attacked by killer whales. The crowd would randomly shift to the front, back, and side to side at the sign of any flashlight. Homeboy at the gate was exposed mad quick and probably fired. Guards tried to sweep like 6 times. We all had mad anxiety trying to duck the guards! I was pissed because without us, the section would have been hella empty. I could see if the section was at capacity but it was hella empty. We were all respectful and just wanted to have a good time. After all the anxiety NERD came out and basically had a listening party with an amazing dance crew. The theme of black lives matter was amazing, "Don't don't do it" was powerful. He did Lemon 5 times. The album features 3 stacks, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, and Rihanna to name a few. I got my life.
One of my friends from back home was like "girl you have been obsessed with them forever, since like middle school."Im 27 now. I find it kind of amazing that I get to experience this for work. I am really happy that this is authentically me. I have ran into a lot of people here, work, whatever that have no clue what the culture is, what this music, these brands are. I am thankful I am an authentic voice here because I really love everything. I am really glad to be that voice for people that actually live this shit, not a voice from people who still are trying to figure it out or have a point of view that isn't this.
OH Also, I saw Nick Wooster while walking in and I -almost fainted. Thats what kind of spurred me wanting to just take everything in and live in the moment. So thankful to experience this with some authentic people from the brand...and that was just day 1.
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