The Kingpins Concept is Simple

The denim industry is a low-key community built on heritage, passion, innovation and connection.

We launched our jeans supply chain show in 2004 in New York as a way to connect this denim industry. But we soon realized the denim community is even larger than we thought and we took our concept around the world.

We are committed to sharing ideas with the denim industry and inspiring each other to continually learn as much as we can. We strive to be productive and progressive members of the indigo community and are dedicated to bringing sustainability and best practices to our industry. 

Among our milestones: 

• We launched Global Denim Awards in 2014, sponsored by e3 Cotton, as a first-of-its-kind runway show and competition that aims to connect talent and industry to create a directional platform for the future of denim design, innovation, sustainability and craftsmanship.

• We introduced Kingpins Transformers in 2015. The series of summits is designed for members of the denim industry dedicated to making the jeans industry more environmentally viable, socially responsible and financially sound through education and discussion. In 2020, Transformers will become a stand-alone non-profit organization dedicated to taking denim into the future with a focus on sustainability, the environment and innovation. 

• In 2016, we launched the Kingpins China City Tour, a traveling denim sourcing show that stops in important but under-served denim cities in China. Within a year, the China City Tour nearly doubled in size and continues to grow each edition. In 2019 KP2C, a consumer-facing denim festival, debuted as part of China City Tour.

• Our in-house media division, Kingpins Media, has evolved into a boutique production company that serves suppliers, mills and companies in the denim industry looking for content developed by creatives that live, eat and breathe the denim industry. In 2020, we relaunched the Kingpins website as a media platform for the denim industry, with news, profiles, trend content and white papers that touch on all aspects of the denim supply chain. Along with the new website, we launched a newsletter program and podcast series to further connect with the denim community. 

Small can be good. We started that way. The denim community is connected, engaged and global. Today, Kingpins reach is bigger than ever. We have learned a lot along the way – but our core values and our intimate approach to the denim trade remain the same