Bruce Schedler had obtained icon status in the menswear industry. He took a sleepy regional trade show and reinvented it into the must-visit twice-yearly shopping destination for moderate to upscale traditional specialty stores from across the U.S.
At the last show in February, Schedler quietly began telling retailers and exhibitors that he was planning to retire as vice president of apparel trade shows for the Chicago Merchandise Mart in March.
Although he will continue to act as an adviser to the show for the foreseeable future, Schedler has officially turned the reins over to two other veterans of the trade show: Danielle Owen, vice president of sales for the men’s and women’s shows, and Monique Kielar, vice president of marketing, apparel. Kielar has been with the Mart for more than 20 years and Owen for more than 15. As a result, the show hasn’t missed a beat, and Owen and Kielar managed to negotiate much-needed additional square footage at the mart for the chronically sold-out show.
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“We’ve been asking for more space in the building for four or five years and they finally heard us,” Owen said. “We truly need the extra space.”
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Retailers attending the spring market, which runs from Aug. 3-6, will find an additional 33,000 square feet on the fourth floor of the building. The Collective has traditionally been contained on the seventh floor.
As a result of the extra space, existing brands were able to spread out and 68 new brands have been added. They include Alps & Meters, Belstaff, Boglioli, Harris Wharf London, J. Lindeberg, Original Madras Trading Co., Parajumpers, Paul & Shark, Sand Copenhagen, Sunspel and more.
All told, just under 500 booths will be offered, representing more than 700 brands. Before, the show was limited to 429 booths.
“We took care of our current exhibitors who weren’t able to showcase their brands like they wanted and add new brands,” Owen said. The extra space allows vendors the opportunity to construct more-creative booths to enhance their presentation to buyers. “It’ll be more like shop-in-shops with mannequins, TVs and other experiences,” she said. Vendors will now be able to bring their full collections to the show and many are beefing up the number of sales reps they have on site to be able to service more stores.
The amenities that buyers have become accustomed to on the seventh floor will also be available on four. AlphaTauri Red Bull cocktails, a Piloti coffee bar, espresso martinis, a beermosa cocktail hour and High West cocktails will all be available to retailers. In addition, the traditional Sunday night kickoff party will now be housed on the fourth floor.
The space had formerly been offices so is “very raw,” Kielar said, affording vendors the opportunity to build out personalized booths on the floor.
“We’re just following the cues of our customers to give them what they need,” Kielar said.
Although he is technically no longer on staff, Schedler was an integral part of obtaining the extra space at the mart, they said, and will undoubtedly be in attendance during the show which will continue to offer extended hours. Starting in February, the Collective opened a half-day earlier, on Saturday afternoon rather than Sunday morning. The extension was such a hit that many retailers made appointments to start seeing vendors even before the doors officially opened. “It was a huge success — we registered 550 buyers on Saturday,” Kielar said. “We opened at 2:00, but they started showing up at 8:00. So we bumped it up to earlier this time.” The official opening for what is being billed as the “preview day” is now noon on Saturday.
While Schedler may no longer be involved in the day-to-day operation of the show, it’s clear to see that his successors have seamlessly followed in his footsteps.
“We don’t think we’re changing much,” Owen said. “We will continually aim to improve the experience, but our mission will stay the same: connecting buyers and sellers and providing an easy working environment. We help brands showcase their latest collections and enable buyers to view and place orders for the upcoming season.”
Kielar added: “We want to continue that cadence of success.”
While other competing trade shows have struggled to fill their floors since the pandemic broke out, Chicago has bucked the trend. Even with the additional square footage, there’s still a sizable waiting list of vendors seeking space. What sets Chicago apart is its upscale, curated mix of brands from the U.S. and Italy. The Italian Trade Agency brings 62 brands from that country to the show and a section is designated for them on the floor.
“A lot goes into who we accept,” Owen said, adding that “stores wanted more luxury brands.”
“And the retailers wanted newness, which for many years we were unable to offer them,” Kielar said of the new floor. “As Bruce always said, we never wanted to be the biggest show, we wanted to be the best show.”
One of their long-term goals is to secure even more square footage for the biannual event so they can offer even more new brands to retailers.
Although the Merchandise Mart, which opened in 1930, is the largest privately held commercial building in the U.S. with 4.2 million square feet over 25 stories, it is chronically squeezed. The building houses more than just apparel brands. It is home to companies in a wide variety of industries including Allstate, Medline Industries, Conagra Brands and Grainger and also boasts more than 250 design showrooms. The Art Deco-designed building was developed by Marshall Field & Co. as a central marketplace for retailers. After being used for government offices during the Great Depression, it was purchased by Joseph P. Kennedy in 1945 and returned to its original use. It was sold to its present owner, Vornado Realty Trust, in 1998.
So Owen and Kielar will keep the pressure on to obtain more space for the men’s show, as well as the nascent Women’s Collective and their popular bridal show. “There’s talk of us using the fourth floor for the bridal show in 2025,” Kielar said.