AnsomMag.com |

With a shaky economy, exorbiant travel costs and arrival of a traditionally weaker (for the military surplus constituency) summer ASD/AMD Military Tactical Outdoor show, conditions were ripe for a less than satisfying show experience for industry suppliers and buyers.

“This ASD show wasn’t as strong as previous ones. Having the two shows (ASD and ANME) at separate times may have fragmented the buyers,” according to John Ottaviano of Rothco.

“The show was serviceable for us, but 2008 hasn’t been strong and traveling to shows has never been more expensive than it is right now. But we still believe that the ASD show is the best option for us at this time,” said Ottaviano.

Hy Slavin and Alpha Industries found themselves extremely disappointed with their show experience.

“Terrible. Probably the slowest show ever in terms of vendor participation and attendance. We wrote business, but many of the buyers we expected to see did not show up,” Slavin noted.

Slavin admitted that this show was somewhat of an aberration.

“The March 2008 show (held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center) was the best show we ever had, so we know that there is business to be found at the show,” Slavin said.

Visual Unrest, a t-shirt supplier that began its run at the ASD show as 7.62 Design many years ago, did not fare well at the ASD show for the first time according to owner Jeff Scholz.

“Certainly the economy didn’t help, but this was absolutely the worst ASD show we’ve ever attended. It was like a funeral for someone that nobody liked,” Scholz emphatically declared.

Scholz noted that due to the expansion of his product lines and the new lines’ appeal to non-army/navy markets, that the MAGIC show is becoming more lucrative to his company.

But the ASD show is still important to his core business, which adds to Scholz’s frustration with the current state of the show.

“It’s not like we’re leaving the show - it’s more like the show is leaving us,” Scholz explained.

Lou Moser of Cuppa used this show to test a theory; would his line of coffee mugs fare better at the Sands Expo Center than at his usual location in the Las Vegas Convention Center? Although Cuppa had done very well at the LVCC, Moser wanted to find more gift buyers. He hoped that his army/navy buyers would find him at the Sands anyway.

It was not to be.

“We wrote far fewer orders than we usually do at the LVCC. Our army/navy buyers either did not make it to Las Vegas or to the Sands,” Moser said.

Moser wrote mostly resort business at the Sands and he is not yet sure if he will return to the LVCC, tough it out at the Sands or even take space at both venues.

Danny Fox and Fox Outdoor Products was one of a handful of exhibitors at the ASD show to also exhibit at the Army Navy Military Expo later in the month.

Fox was not pleased with his ASD show results, even less so with the Expo (but that’s a story for another day).

“To attend a show and not even write enough business to cover the cost is not acceptable, and that’s what we encountered at the ASD show,” said Fox.

Fox, like other exhibitors, theorized that buyer attendance was suppressed by the poor economy and the siphoning effect of the ANM Expo. That the two competing military surplus themed shows did not run concurrently hurt both shows, Fox opined.

“When you factor in the difficult economy, buyers had to choose one show over the other,” Fox noted.

In summation, Fox observed that “ The ASD show was very poor, but I don’t blame show management. Let’s hope the fundamentals of the economy will have stabilized by the time of the next show,” he said.

Representing another longtime exhibiting firm, Jeff Daniel of Sturm European Military Surplus also expressed dissatisfaction with the ASD show.

“It was just okay, definitely not one of our best shows. We also exhibited at the Army Navy Military Expo, and our combined sales helped get us through. But traffic was very slow at both shows and there needs to be more,” Daniel stated.

Steve Adkisson of Major Surplus & Survival felt that they “survived” the ASD show. They also exhibited at the Expo in late August.

As for the ASD show, Adkisson noted that “traffic was super light, but those people that did come by did a good job of writing business with us.”

Adkisson still believes that the army/navy market cannot support two competing shows and would also like to see the industry somehow reunited in the Hilton ballroom, even if aligned with another show.

Sandra Lopez of cutlery supplier Joy Enterprises observed that the ASD show barely made the cut. “It was slow, but two or three accounts made it worthwhile. But we did much more last year,” she said.

The next ASD/AMD Military Tactical Outdoor show will take place March 15-18, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In summation, many disgruntled folks. But there will be better shows, when business conditions warrant more buyer optimism. We’ll look at the big trade show picture in the next issue. What’s your solution? We’d like to hear it.

For more picrtures from the ASD/AMD/MTO Trade Show, be sure to check them out here.

Next month, we’ll review the Army Navy Military Expo that took place within the Off Price Specialist Show on August 23-26.