Boutique Fräsh Show

A streetwear/skate tradeshow is like this: Brands & distribution companies from Scandinavia and all over the World gather in one place to showcase their collections for future seasons and stores attend to make their orders for the year. Jonas Wiehager started this show when he was just a kid in his early 40s. The first Boutique Fräsh Show tradeshow in downtown STHLM, was just about 15 brands or so.

Over the years, Boutique Fräsh Show blossomed, growing in size, but more importantly, respect and reputation. It’s not easy to put on a good tradeshow. You have to be aware of keeping all these brands (who consider themselves the best, and deserving as much) happy. You have to find a venue to work with, money to back it, and you have to win over the favor of exhibitors and buyers alike… That’s not even something you can buy, you have to put in your dues and earn it.

Boutique Fräsh Show did it. And I think much of their success can be attributed to working with the right brands in their roster. Not the largest brands, or best-selling, most popular, or attractive. Just the brands that hold some type of legitimacy in our world and the ones who are consistently offering good product. The problem we’ve had over the years with the big shows is that in the end, they really couldn’t care less about us, the little guy. They have more “important” clients to deal with, mega-corporations hiding behind a guise of hip apparel, who can offer all kinds of financial returns for convenient booth placement. In bigger tradeshows’ eyes, we don’t have much to offer, both money and image-wise.

…And that’s where they go wrong.

Boutique Fräsh Show understands to build and maintain a successful tradeshow, you don’t need to work with the biggest, famous, richest brands.. you need to work with the RIGHT brands. I ran into The Good Doctor from WeSC today and we both agreed that what makes Boutique Fräsh Show work is that it’s still so raw and level… literally, figuratively, on our level. And in that way, Boutique Fräsh Show stays relevant.

If you’ve been reading between the lines, this isn’t just about Boutique Fräsh Show and tradeshow politics. It’s about how crucial it is to heed the little guy, respect him, and take care of him. Because one day, that guy’ll grow up to be the BIG guy, and he’ll remember exactly how you kept score.

Text found on the internet & rewritten to suit this purpose.