THE INSIDE STORY OF THE CHAMPS TRADE SHOW

The organizer of the biggest smokeshop trade show tells us how it all started, why it’s successful and why you should be there


If you’re reading this magazine, then there’s a really good chance the CHAMPS trade show isn’t foreign to you.

It’s where wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers in the smoke shop world meet up twice a year -- well, three times now, but we’ll get to that. They congregate to discover new products, network, place orders and set new trends in the industry.

In short: It’s the event that fuels smoke shops all around the country.

The man in the middle of it all is Jeff Hirschfeld, the president of Gage Enterprises, who oversees the show. He’s watched it grow from he and his partners created out of necessity in 1999 to what is now considered the “premiere counterculture B2B expo.”

CHAMPS recently wrapped up the first of its two shows each year in Las Vegas -- and it was the biggest yet. There were 445 exhibitor booths, more than 36,000 products on display and about 5,000 retail store buyers in attendance.

Next up is CHAMPS East, an annual event that started last year in Atlantic City after demand beckoned the trade show to the other side of the country. This year’s is May 22-24. Then CHAMPS returns to Vegas Aug. 21-23.



“We’re constantly getting bigger and better, taking each show to another level,” Hirschfeld says.

For this piece, however, Hirschfeld took Erb Magazine back in time to tell us about the genesis and growth of CHAMPS -- all in his own words.

THE PRE-CHAMPS ERA
My two partners and I started Gage Waterpipes in 1997 with the goal of getting our merchandise in 5,000 retail stores. We attended trade shows in the tobacco and general merchandising arena.

Back in 1998, we at Gage Waterpipes, along with approximately 30 other businesses who usually participated in these events, were told that we wouldn’t be invited back to either show and that the management had deemed us “undesirable.” We felt rejected to say the least. We all had legitimate businesses. We had payroll, taxes, and bills to pay and yet there we were.

This meant we needed to again hit the road and go door-to-door, store to store or run our businesses out of the backs of our trucks, heading to just about anywhere we could sell our products -- including festival parking lots across the country just to stay afloat. We also tried placing magazine advertisements, but nobody would dare take them or didn’t run our ads.

NEED MEETS INSPIRATION
We were spinning our wheels. In one of my previous ventures, I had worked for a company that sold business machines. My job was to run the sales team that went to various shows across the country from the smallest business fairs in Fresno, Calif., to the granddaddy at the time, the Comdex Show in Las Vegas. I was always wondering what it would be like on the other side of the fence. In discussing this with one of my partners he said, “I used to run raves in San Francisco.” I giggled. I had never been to a rave before and I thought that comparing
business trade shows to a rave was quite a reach. Well, reach we did.

In February 1999, four months after being booted from the other trade shows, we held the first Contemporary Tobacco Accessories (CTA) show held at the Gold Coast Hotel in Las
Vegas with a grand total of 34 booths. After returning home our phones lit up. All the vendors were coming back that August and about 40 others were being added.

Over the next few years we grew rapidly to 250 booths and needed more and more space. With the growth came growing pains, especially the ongoing problem of finding a suitable venue
that would let us come year after year. We moved from hotel to hotel including Palace Station, Stardust, The Riviera and Mandalay Bay, but the main issue was that we were forced to
remain small. We began thinking that we could move to the Las Vegas Convention Center where all of us could do business in a professional and safe environment. But it wasn’t to be … not just yet.

A DARK TIME LEAD TO A REBIRTH
In 2003, as we in the industry call it “Black Monday” hit. You might remember when Tommy Chong went to jail, but this was just the tip of the iceberg. Many companies were hurt financially with heavy government regulations, red tape and various prosecutions. The industry was scared and on the run.

Unfortunately, “Black Monday” was only eight days before our show. A news conference called it “Operation Pipe Dreams” and broadcasts on the national news spoke about our convention in
Las Vegas where all these “bad” people were going to be.

Within two days we had over 165 cancellations, leaving us with only approximately 55 companies exhibiting. We had spent all our money to produce the show and now the business was broke. Even though many of our exhibitors understood the situation, they still expected or desired their money back. I was lucky enough to own a home at the time so after talking to my family, I mortgaged my house and refunded every exhibitor who requested it. Thankfully, many of the companies still on life support agreed to come to our next show.

In 2004, a new birth, CHAMPS Trade Show was formed with approximately 80 vendors in attendance. As CHAMPS, we made the major transformation into emphasizing our
commitment to American glass artists. In 2010, we moved to the Las Vegas Convention Center to provide a reliable venue where we can grow exponentially and allow us to work with established distributors and actively seek out new, exciting products. But our exciting growth didn’t stop there.

THE CHAMPS VISION
Our trademark is that CHAMPS is the “Premier Counterculture Business to Business Expo,” but really my belief and goal for CHAMPS is to have anything and everything that goes into a modern day 420/Smoke Shop.

The formula is simple but our goal is to first provide a safe and legal venue to showcase the largest and best wholesale, manufacturers and distributors for our industry. As a part of this
goal we also focus on giving smaller-sized companies or new products an opportunity to reach over 3,000 wholesale buyers.

THE GLASS GAMES
We created the CHAMPS Glass Games to have the greatest American glass artists and glassblowers display their wares and showcase their talents. We also offer them big
money prizes to help create maximum exposure for these artists.

Originally titled the “Flame-Off” and well known as one of the largest glass blowing competitions in the world, we wanted a different approach to a traditional flame-off event. Enter Matt White, the CHAMPS glass coordinator and a DFO winner. White raised the bar for the Glass Games by creating highly competitive events with truly exciting themes such as “Sound, Light and
Movement” for February 2012. Glass Game winners walked away with over $35,000 in cash prizes.

EVERYBODY’S INVITED. AND THEY COME!
Another component of the CHAMPS mission is inviting every retailer in our industry to attend whether by phone or other available methods -- which have changed through the years.
Our most recent show in February 2012 was by far our largest with 445 exhibitor booths, more than 36,000 products on display and approximately 5,000 retail store buyers in attendance. This
was by far our largest numbers ever. After a hard day’s work on the show floor, many of our exhibitors throw wild after-parties, which keeps the fun going till the wee hours of the night. It’s
an experience that I would like to invite all to try. On a rare occasion you may see me, but more than likely I will be in my own room soaking my feet and preparing for another long day.

Other show highlights include the CHAMPS Cash Giveaway that began at our 25th show in Las Vegas. This August we’ll be giving away $1,000 in CHAMPS Cash every hour to 27 lucky retail store buyers – that’s 27 winners and $27,000. Additionally, we are also able to leverage our large customer base to negotiate incredible room plus food deals available only
for CHAMPS attendees. We worked out contracts with hotels including the Hard Rock and The Tuscany Suites (the official CHAMPS headquarters) where we pre-buy 1,000 room nights at $38/night. We also started providing a free shuttle service running all three days of the show to improve the experience, plus save your hard earned dollars along the way.

EAST COAST EXPANSION
For many years our East Coast customers have been asking us to do a show on the east coast. So in 2011 we held our first CHAMPS East show with approximately 160 exhibitor booths and 1,000 retail store buyers. Our next event is scheduled for May 22-24 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

We have ramped up our advertising budget and hope to effectively increase our number. Not that we think Atlantic City can ever beat Las Vegas. And for those of you that know me, I have lived West Coast/California style for over 40 years, but I was born in Brooklyn, NY – as they say you can take the boy from Brooklyn, but…

FINAL WORDS
Hope to see you all in Atlantic City, May 22-24! If you can’t make it then we’ll see you in Las Vegas, Aug. 21-23, 2012.