{"id":156,"date":"2025-01-07T11:39:48","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T19:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/complexcon-reports-20m-sales-record-attendance-from-las-vegas-debut\/"},"modified":"2025-01-16T22:43:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T06:43:45","slug":"complexcon-reports-20m-sales-record-attendance-from-las-vegas-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stand77.biz\/category\/casino-resorts\/complexcon-reports-20m-sales-record-attendance-from-las-vegas-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"ComplexCon Reports $20M Sales, Record Attendance From Las Vegas Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThe numbers are in on the first edition of ComplexCon Las Vegas<\/strong>, the festival dedicated to convergence culture that debuted in its new home in November 2024. Sixty thousand attendees visited the shoppable exhibition featuring music, fashion, art, food, innovation and sports collaborations. Over two days, sales totaled more than $20 million, marking record numbers for the event, which began in 2016 in Long Beach, Calif.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy all accounts, Las Vegas and ComplexCon are a perfect match. The 300-plus brands have an entire cityscape to activate collaborations, exclusive drops and live performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBy day, the hypebeasts dropped their paychecks on Takashi Murakami Ohana Hatake Full-Boom Slides, the Pac Sun x Yohji Yamamoto Wildside capsule, King Ice Pok\u00e9mon-embellished jewels and Travis Scott<\/a>\u2019s Nike Zoom Field Jaxx. They snapped pics with Dan Life\u2019s MVMT x Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 limited-edition timepiece and the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Chain. Cannabis brand STIIIZY popped up with a replica weed cultivation experience, and Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop poured out their new distilled gin, Still G.I.N.<\/p>\n

\n\tOutside the exhibition, Gunna<\/a> performed at Drai\u2019s wearing Adidas Originals Adizero Aruku sneakers; Juice WRLD<\/a>\u2019s team held a final album listening party and celebration for the late rapper\u2019s Fortnite Battle Royale, Chapter 2 Remix appearance at Zouk nightclub; and Jordan Brand created the Cactus Jack Outpost, an immersive experience that brought Scott\u2019s utopian vision to life and showcased his journey in creating the CJ1 T-Rexx shoe.<\/p>\n

\n\tNeil Wright<\/strong>, senior vp of experiential events at ComplexCon, attributes the success of the first Vegas outing to the expanded music component, including CactusCon, with the participation of Scott as artistic director.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMusic \u2014 even though it\u2019s always been a pillar of ComplexCon, it has never been more prominent, with Travis having his influence over the entire show,\u201d Wright says. \u201c[In the past], we\u2019ve had Pharrell, from a cultural perspective, help with the curatorial aspects, but the look, feel, and identity of each year, we\u2019ve always tapped a fine artist. Having Travis put his arms and his creative vision around it with his team was a major co-sign to get the music industry involved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tScott unveiled over 35 exclusive collaborations and installations with influential designers, artists, and brands in the CactusCon bazaar. In the Cactus Colosseum by Nike, he pushed soccer, sneakers, and community, celebrating the Nike Zoom Field Jaxx launch with the Secreto Maximus Tournament, a high-stakes private soccer match at the Cactus Colosseum featuring top athletes and showcasing a trophy case of his Nike collaborations. He closed the two-day festival with a performance on ComplexCon\u2019s Main Stage, bringing out WWE\u2019s \u201cTriple H\u201d as a surprise appearance to present him with the WWE Hardcore Championship belt. Amplifying his presence to a new demographic, he announced a Jan. 6 appearance on the first RAW on Netflix. <\/p>\n

\n\tScott will use this \u201ctakeover\u201d formula when he plays Coachella in April with a Cactus Jack desert domination, sharing his universe with the festival audience in the desert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother major boon for ComplexCon Las Vegas was Nike\u2019s investment in music collaborations and product innovation. In addition to Scott, the sneaker giant partnered with Lil Yachty<\/a> and the Concrete Boys on the Nike Us Force 1. Nike also debuted the Air Max 1000, a new 3D-printed silhouette manufactured with Zellerfeld that reimagines the Air Max 1.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom a strictly square footage perspective, this was Nike\u2019s biggest impact on ComplexCon. They\u2019ve done so many things over the years that were cool at the moment but aged even better. In 2017, there was a fireside chat with Kendrick Lamar and Kobe Bryant, and they also brought Virgil Abloh to debut his collection that year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dc2trill,<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tDc2trill, Draft Day, Lil Yachty, and Camo! attend ComplexCon 2024 on November 17, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSara Jaye\/Getty Images for Complex<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t that long ago\u2014back in 2016\u2014that Wright remembers when ComplexCon was just a concept deck that he and founders Aaron Levant<\/strong> and Marc Ecko<\/strong> were pitching Nike.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a trade show. No, it\u2019s not a trade show. It\u2019s a music festival. No, it\u2019s not a music festival,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was difficult to convey what we were trying to build in year one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYear eight signified the complete vision, activated. The exhibition featured Capitol, Interscope and Def Jam booths peddling ephemera such as Ice Spice Chia Pets, vintage Tupac T-shirts and vinyl records. A Rick Owens-designed Cactus Jack recording studio was also on display.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou don\u2019t want the same type of artist merch that you can get anywhere. Rather than partnering on a sneaker drop, many of our brands collaborate with recording artists such as Ed Hardy and Ken Carson, as well as Siobhan Bell and B.B. Simon,\u201d Wright says. \u201cMusic collaborations have become just as important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tL.A.-based high-tech footwear brand FCTRY LAb debuted at ComplexCon with their viral Duck Boots in black and yellow created in collaboration with rapper NLE Choppa<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFCTRY LAb co-founder and creative director Omar Bailey<\/strong>, the former Head of the Yeezy-Adidas Innovation Lab, started the company two years ago (funded by a diverse group of venture capital firms, professional athletes and angel investors).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBailey aims to help rappers, actors, athletes, influencers or public figures design, develop and manufacture their own footwear outside the frame of major brands like Nike or Adidas. \u201cThere is a huge opportunity for artists who may not be on the big brands\u2019 radar, who have, who have the reach, the ability and the desire to want to launch their own shoes,\u201d he says. \u201cWe also want to create radical and interesting concepts and designs in a space that\u2019s been quite boring for the last 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"DJ<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tDJ EFN, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg speak onstage during ComplexCon 2024 on November 16, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBryan Steffy\/Getty Images for Complex<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAccording to FCTRY LAb, the formula works. The Yellow Boot was a significant unpaid, organic social media moment for the sneaker industry, accumulating 308 million views and 17 million+ instances of direct consumer engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the disruptors to the mainstream, brands such as WWE, which collaborated with Loiter; Tide, which sponsored ThriftCon; and Chips Ahoy, which partnered with Big Sean<\/a>, all flocked to participate. At that convergence, things get even more interesting for Wright, with ComplexCon acting like an internal agency to help them fit in. \u201cWe work very closely with a lot of the bigger, non endemic partners to make sure that when they do show up, they\u2019re showing up in a credible and an authentic way,\u201d he says. \u201cThey put effort into actually speaking the language of our audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCollaborating with WWE was a dream for fashion house Loiter, created by Isaac Metekingi<\/strong>. With a design ethos rooted in hip-hop and electronic music subcultures, Loiter, the in-house brand for Culture Kings, was inspired by the grunge-inspired graphics of WWE superstars, including Duane \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, The Undertaker, \u201cStone Cold\u201d Steve Austin and \u201cThe Big Red Monster\u201d Kane. Its booth featured the \u201cRaw is War\u201d entrance for photo ops.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey were a little bit skeptical when we presented the idea\u2014they had all their modern wrestlers. And I was like, I\u2019m gonna go way back, and after a while, they saw the vision,\u201d Metekingi says. \u201cFor a relatively unknown brand, we had an unbelievable presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tComplexCon aims to have an even bigger year in 2025, with artist Daniel Arsham<\/strong> serving as the global artistic director. The event will travel to Hong Kong from March 21-23, 2025 and return to Las Vegas on Oct. 25-26, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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