(8/8) ComplexCon (FIN)
My year of convention-going ended with an invite to an event I never thought I'd go to: ComplexCon, 'the youth culture media company', in Long Beach, in late November.
I wasn't planning on going, nor was it even a possibility in my mind. No chance I was spending whatever it was to get through those doors just to walk around and spend more money on more shit I didn't need. And I absolutely was not setting up a table there...I heard tables at this event were in the *multiple thousands of dollars* (I heard that one of the bigger tables was in the half-a-million-dollars range simply for the setup), so I moved on from that idea even before thinking it could have been a possibility. But, logic be damned - I got a call from a good friend who got a couple of free tickets and asked if I wanted to go with him. Sure. After working out the logistics, I bought myself a plane ticket, handpacked about 100 *promo* packs of cards to hand out and got ready for the event (which means I agonized over which shoes to bring). I was gonna fly down Saturday morning, spend the night, then fly back Sunday evening.
Getting there wasn't bad - I hopped on a plane from Northern California and performed my favorite plane-boarding ritual: looking at each and every person on the plane to determine who might or might not be doing exactly what I was doing: would I see any of these people at ComplexCon? I didn't suspect I'd see any of them. As I always do, tho, I make note of those that sit in my aisle. I arrived in Southern California about 45 minutes later...caught an Uber to the hotel and met up with my dude Zak (from Sneaker Legal). I dropped off my bags and told him we absolutely needed to hit up Bruxie for breakfast. He was game. After two massive fried chicken and cheese waffles with coffee, we hopped in our rented Tesla and made our way to the coastline.
Upon arrival about an hour before the doors were set to open, we skipped the line and got our neato chipped wristbands.... And as soon as we stepped through the front door, I noticed a very recognizable moustache from across the room - Brendan Dunne was sitting there taking in the scene wearing some Haze Dunk Lows...I asked myself 'is now an appropriate time to hand him some of my sneaker cards?' and decided that it was just too early...I didn't want to appear too thirsty...I stepped to the side while my companion grabbed a coffee and then I saw JLP in shades and an LA Kings jersey (and some Cortiez 95's) walk up to Dunne and they had a moment. And then we walked into the events center.
As soon as we made it downstairs, we were greeted by one of those boston dynamics looking robo-dogs and the Nike x RTFKT installation, which had a *very* small line, so we hopped right in. Little did we know this 4 person line would eat up the precious 45-minutes we had BEFORE the doors were opened to the public...whatever. Walking through was cool, I saw Zaptio messing around in there and got a chance to hold onto those Cryptodunks (that I pre-ordered 13 pairs of LOL)...after the Cryptodunks, almost everything else was a blur. Just a blur of people trying to sell things and other people eager to buy them. I saw a handful of streetwear-famous people and linked with a number of people I had only had the priviledge of talking with on IG...folks like maydjahlook, brkicks, jrwideman, 23penny, sneakherd, m.tomamichael, vandythepink, whojungwoo and a few others...
Beyond the folks I *wanted* to meet, there were quite a few other celebrities walking around…I remember seeing Russell Westbrook, Kid Cudi, Dipset, and Westside Gunn walking around…not exactly folks that I have much of a connection to, but interesting to see them in their element.
Being that my goal was to give promo packs to anyone I recognized - I handed out around 80 or 90 packs (out of 100). I got my chance to give Brendan Dunne & Matt Welty some packs a bit later on during that first day while I was chatting with M. Toma and 23Penny - M. Toma snapped the pic:
At the end of the first day, we had a dinner with the staff of eBay and that group parties like they don’t have kids (I was more than happy to go back to the hotel to crash early).
By the second day, I was already burnt out on the scene. I had one more dude to meet up with - my dude Moshie from Jacks Surfboards out there in Laguna Beach - we were set to meet at "Bored N Hungry” but they were closed for whatever reason. We drove over to the convention center and did a couple of laps together - Moshie introduced me to Dre from Project Blitz…and…throughout the second day I handed out a few more packs. Pretty sure I gave some to dontchargeabul , davidfilar , vivelache and a few others…I was out of packs when I saw bimmawilliams in the airport. I’m not sure the promo packs had their intended effect, but I got them out nonetheless…
As far as ‘lessons learned’ from these conventions…this is where I have trouble summarizing…I saw this tweet shortly after my convention season and I think this summarizes it pretty well:
FIN.
This was actually a dope read, glad you had fun. I wouldn’t’ve bought anything because everything is overpriced and underwhelming. Lol!