Playboy: ComplexCon
Lines are interesting phenomena. Whenever you see a queue, you always want to know what everyone is lining up for and why. It’s a question I found myself asking a lot during the four days I spent at ComplexCon, an event billed as “the future made physical”. Spread out over two weekends in July and November, the events featured performances by Schoolboy Q, Juice WRLD, Ella Mai, Anderson .Paak, Lil Kim, Rico Nasty and Kid Cudi. Before the performances, there were rushes for surprise sneaker releases that had hundreds of people sprinting through the corridors of McCormick Place in Chicago, and lines snaking (for what seemed like miles) around the Long Beach Convention Center for the chance to buy everything from vinyl sculptures to special edition hoodies. Oh, and live tapings of shows like Hot Ones and panel discussions on Generation Z and the future of streetwear. Were we at a music festival with a really good merch section? A fan convention with nice booths and performances? A trade show? A Ted Talk with insane promotional gear? In fact, even more than asking about the lines, I found myself asking, “Just what exactly is ComplexCon?”
That Depends on who you ask. For some it’s digital life reified. For others it’s a harbinger of the end of a subculture. A new demographic data collection point that will guide the future of retail. A hypebeast utopia. Rather than fully succumbing to subjecive analysis, I decided to look at the numbers. Over the courseof the four years Complex Media has put on the two-day-event, it has attracted upwards of 60,000 people a year with a spending average of $500 each. In 2017 it generated $20-25 million in retail sales while 2018 brought in $30 million. So whatever it is, ComplexCon is pulling in Millenials and GenZers and keeping their cash. Or bitcoin.
ComplexCon is an experience borne from its parent company’s primary cultural domains-fashion, music, food and internet culture. The event takes elements from music festivals, food truck rallies, trade shows and conventions, and blends them together into an image and fashion obsessed consumer bacchanal. Coalescing the digital lives of its attendees into a physical space for two days creates a lot of noise. But somehow, the cacophony generated by the confluence point of all these cultural streams isn’t too overwhelming. Or maybe it’s just overwhelming enough.
At the heart of ComplexCon is the Marketplace. It’s the first thing you encounter after walking past Murakami mascots and a giant illuminated logo. The labyrinth of booths feature some of the biggest names in the footwear and streetwear industries, with a few lesser known brands competing for attention. Most booths meticulously recreated particularly quotidian spaces, creating a retail experience which is based on tableaus from the collective shoppers’ lives. Bedrooms, porches, subway stops and basements are brought to life at ComplexCon so that consumers can do everything they usually do on their phones, in “real” life.
By creating an environment for participants to physically take part in activities that are usually performed within a digital space, Complex is able to make something perfunctory, like buying clothes, feel exhilarating. Traipsing through the marketplace felt like a frenetic refresh of the American mall. Complex has allowed the marketplace to become a haze of experiences that surround and accompany traditional retail transactions. Every panel of the structure forms the marketplace, which is designed to lead the passerby to pause and pose. There are innumerable backdrops and platforms deisgned for a quick pic. The ubiquitous lines provide atendees time to filter and captions their photos. In a way, ComplexCon has become the phsycial manifestation of the Instagram Feed.
In addition to all of the consistent lines at ComplexCon, there was also what can best be described as a hypebeast 5k. When Jerry Lorenzo’s brand Fear of God announced a surprise release available just outside the convention center in Chicago, a massive contingent of attendees sprinted en masse, as bemused and nonplussed security personnel watched on, out of the building and towards the drop. The marketplace allows brands like Fear of God to demonstrate, in a visceral manner, their ability to elicit a reaction from consumers not only within the streetwear community, but within the mainstream.
Joe Freshgoods has made such an impact with ComplexCon booths and other pop up concepts, that his client list has expanded to include Adidas, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Chicago Bears and McDonald’s. Chris Gibbs, a panelist and vendor, has guided Union LA from operating as a streetwear store, to one that seamlessly presents streetwear and high-end pieces (from the likes of Thom Browne and Marni) side by side. Melody Ehsani, one of the few women designers featured in the marketplace, had strong showings in both cities and is fresh off a Jordan collaboration.
Everyone keeps saying physical retail is dying, and that might be true, but not before ComplexCon cloned and genetically modified it into something completely different. The way the event has to blend the very traditional physical retail experience with its attendees’ very digital lives results in a lucrative and innovative new take on the experiential event concept. ComplexCon proves that people still definitively enjoy shopping in person. In fact, they’ll wait in line for it. Just make sure there’s good Wi-Fi.
