Founder’s Letter: Apart But Still Together

A letter from Kingpins founder Andrew Olah

For more than 15 years, our primary business has been producing events. Like many of you, our business was unexpectedly put on hold with the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was a difficult decision, but we realized we had to cancel our shows for the first half of the year to protect the health of our co-workers, exhibitors and attendees. 

Our first reaction was to grieve for the lost opportunities for us all and to worry about getting our business and yours back on track. We got our team together — virtually, of course — and talked. We talked about the cancellation. And we talked about how sad it was that we could not bring everyone together at a central event and that our exhibitors could not show their collections and that our attendees could not come and mingle and work as they always have in the past.

It was Vivian Wang, Kingpins Managing Director, who first raised the possibility of hosting an online event. 

“That’s it,” I thought.  “An online event to get everyone together — in spirit.” 

Everyone on the team got excited by the idea. And we decided to not just do something online but to make it a project we adore and could be proud of.To our pleasant surprise, our exhibitors supported the idea in a huge way. And Kingpins online became Kingpins24 with programming shared around the clock during our two-day event. 

Even more gratifying was the response from the international denim community, who joined us online for the live feed, presentations, webinars and seminars.

Everyone keeps saying we are in this together. That has always been the philosophy at Kingpins. Together we will find the path forward. Kingpins24 is that first step.