Inside a Craft Industry Trade Show

H+H Americas Day One

Trade shows are an opportunity for people that work in the same industry to come together to network and learn and ultimately build working relationships. Growing up with parents that owned their own wholesale jewelry business and that worked on the vendor side of trade shows, I grew up understanding how important these opportunities can be for the B2B (business to business) trade. Now as a retail shop owner, I appreciate this unique opportunity to be on the other side of the table as a shopper rather than a vendor.

H+H Americas is the sister show of one of the biggest craft trade shows in Europe - H+H Cologne. Organizers brought the show to the US four years ago and this is my third year in attendance. It has been fascinating to watch the show grow over the years and to go from a very yarn/knitting heavy show to a show that truly strives to cover the entire fiber arts industry from quilting to embroidery to cross stitch and punch needle and, of course, lots and lots of yarn related crafts. Personally, I’ve been excited to find more and more embroidery and hand stitching related vendors from all over the world every year. While I very much look forward to exploring the show floor and discovering new vendors, my favorite part of these shows is actually getting to meet vendors I’ve worked with over email for years in person and getting to catch up with old friends.

For the first time this year, I arrived in Chicago a day before the official start of the show so that I could attend Sample It. Since trade shows are mostly about establishing wholesale relationships, you do not often get the opportunity to buy individual items at the show to take home with you. So, many show organizers will build in a sample spree style event towards the beginning of the show to give participants the opportunity to purchase “cash & carry” items from participating vendors. Over 750 people pre-registered to attend this year’s Sample It event which was set to start at 7pm. We arrived at 6:30p and were easily somewhere near the 500th people in line to get in! Folks take these sample sprees seriously!

While the crowds were a bit overwhelming, I had a lot of fun wandering around the tables, saying hi to friends and getting a sneak peak of some of the new items they were bringing to this year’s show. I will be scheduling a Live video here on Substack next week once I am back home in Durham to share all of the fun kits, threads and tools I picked up at Sample It, so stay tuned for that. We left after an hour & a half, tired but excited to get back to our hotel room and dive into some of the kits we picked up.

Today was the official start of the show and I began my day with an appointment with the lovely folks at Fableism. I had the opportunity to preview new collections coming this fall including something brand new for them - a collection of Indian Block Print cottons. I wanted to order everything, but had to keep within the restraints of the amount of space I have at the shop. I look forward to adding a selection of these to the shop later in the year.

From there we proceeded to spend the next 7 hours exploring booths, chatting with reps and running into friends. From a new to me vendor that combines quilts with hand embroidery to a fabric company that I’ve admired for over 10 years, there was an over abundance to inspiration everywhere you looked and I want to order it all!

I try to limit myself from placing too many orders on the first day because after a couple of years I’ve learned that Day One can be a bit of sensory overload and if I am not careful I will end up over ordering. So, I took today to mostly learn about products, watch demonstrations and try my hand at using some new tools.

It is both a blessing and a curse to be a hand stitcher and a quilter and … because my interests are varied so I love to explore new mediums and techniques, but I tend to forget that there are only so many hours in a day and days in a year. (One of the best patterns I saw today said “Buying Cross Stitch Like I’m Immortal” - I felt seen.) The mushroom wall hanging above was in the Sue Spargo booth and I was immediately drawn to it. The photo does not do justice to the level of detail in this piece. I *wanted* to buy the kit and dive in and then I had to remind myself of the many other projects already started or waiting for my attention. I had the chance to chat with Sue as she graciously showed me around her booth. There is definitely more Sue Spargo in Snuggly Monkey’s future.

I wrapped up day one with another fabric appointment, this time with one of my Japanese fabric reps. Is there a better way to end a day than with Cat Sushi fabric? I am excited to head back tomorrow and make my way to the needle work section of booths and catch up with Modern Hoopla, mCreativej, Kiriki Press, Cosmo and more. So stay tuned for more updates from h+h Americas!