What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Case in point: our licensing pro Serena Soo recently returned from the SuperZoo pet industry and World Market furniture tradeshows in casino-ville… and she’s ready to dish on what see saw and what sparked buzz. Here are her highlights:
SuperZoo
- The two big trends at the Show: luxury products and advanced nutrition. We saw this last year, but it was all the more pronounced at this year's SuperZoo, with everything from designer pet bedding (because paw prints are sooooo 2008) to line after line of organic treats.
- We’re sad to say that the accessory pet movement continues. Nowhere was this more blatantly obvious than at the Bed Head / Tigi booth with its Pet Head fur dyes.
- Other inventive pet products that caught Serena’s eye:
- Fuzz-Butt’s Hugx pet feeding bowls (pictured above), which are uniquely angled so that pets’ tags won’t bump their bowls while eating and drinking--our dogs tell us this is really annoying.
- On the fashion front, Swarovski crystal hair clips, leashes, collars “looked more like jewelry than pet products,” Serena says. And hotbows’ pet hair clips were so chic they practically had Serena panting (ok, not really, but we couldn’t resist saying it anyway).
- Toys are always big for pets. Leader KONG this year introduced the very cool Zinger ring and launch stick. We think dogs will love how the ring rolls and hops, not unlike a rabbit, for hours of chasing and retrieving fun.
- BTW, good news for people with pet products: this show was packed with buyers looking for the latest & greatest for Fido, Fifi, Tweety, Nemo….
World Market
- This year’s Show, spread across 3 connected buildings and 5 million square feet of showroom space, was all about luxury (just like pets) and environmentally friendly materials.
- Sadly, distress in the housing market has cascaded down to the furniture industry—Serena saw this first-hand in several empty showrooms, and still others facing lots of buyers who were looking but unwilling to place orders.
- Despite the industry's difficulties, there were some clear standouts in the crowd:
- On the eco-friendly front, we saw showroom after showroom of bamboo and natural wood. But what really got us excited: Urbanwood’s wide range of cool new products using reclaimed wood
- Lighting was big. Serena suspects people are putting off big-ticket furniture purchases but using new lamps and light fixtures to provide short-term room updates. An example of one exhibitor who clearly "got" this: Uttermost with its collections of reasonably priced goods.
- Kids furnishings too were generating much attention. Levels of Discovery furniture, for example, put forth a collection of cute, fun items that caught many a buyer’s attention.