ComplexCon 2024 Steps Up For Las Vegas Debut
Happy Thanksgiving, all! I hope you enjoy some good food and time spent with your loved ones!
ComplexCon made its Las Vegas debut this year, leaving behind the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California, where it had staged the event since its debut in 2016. I’ve attended every single ComplexCon and while I think nothing will compare to the bright-eyed awesomeness of years one and two, there’s no denying that organizers stepped up their game this year and created an event that matched Las Vegas’ love of the new, bright and shiny. And it wasn’t just my opinion, everyone I spoke to was impressed and felt the event was an improvement on the prior year’s show in Long Beach.
Kudos to all organizers who brought the event to life because it was very clear that a lot of effort went into it. I should add that I know it wasn’t easy to make ComplexCon a reality in Las Vegas and that there was some trepidation on the part of the Las Vegas Convention Center about hosting a group that’s primarily young, male and often not white. The world may celebrate youth culture, but hosting them in real life is another matter.
As I speculated a few weeks ago, the event served as something of a coming out party for Nike, whose installations and collaborations dominated the event. While Nike had a large presence at ComplexCon’s first two events in 2016 and 2017, in subsequent years the brand chose to shift dollars to Travis Scott’s Astroworld event until its ill-fated demise in 2021. Covid then stymied everything and it didn’t help that Nike—which was seemingly booming in 2022 and 2023—was in reality lost at sea and beginning to unravel.
The event itself was curated by Travis Scott, whose section of the show was dubbed CactusCon. The brands that had booths in Scott’s cordoned off section tended to be more elevated and many of them like Vetements and Nicole McLaughlin were showing at the event for the first time.
One of the odder set ups was Rick Owens’ space. Set up to resemble a lounge, the space featured cozy couches filled with pillows on otherside of a DJ set up. Never once when I walked by did I ever see anyone doing or selling anything in the space. But oh well, Owen’s wife, the always wonderful Michèle Lamy, spent a good amount of time meandering through CactusCon on day one, sweetly taking a selfie with whomever asked.
One thing that came into clear focus for me was Scott’s power to pull a crowd. I always knew he was a massive artist but I had no idea how ardent his following was. His booth drew the event’s longest lines, where legions of young men waited in from 4-8 hours. Nike also sold co-branded Scott merch at a separate booth located outside of CactusCon, but its line wasn’t nearly as long.
So much for the rumors circulating before the event that the relationship between Nike and Scott had worn thin! Seven years into the partnership, Nike and Scott’s releases may not garner as much buzz as they once did, but the appetite for their collaborative product remains incredibly high.
If I have one question about the event, it’s who paid for what. Did Nike cover all or part of the cost of CactusCon or did Scott? Clearly, Scott cleaned up. There are people (who aren’t reliable sources) claiming he sold $25 million worth of merch at the event. Whatever amount he made, does ComplexCon earn a piece of the action? Left over product is now available to buy Scott’s store, while in the past as I recall product was hosted on ComplexCon’s store.
p.s. Last night, Scott just dropped a CJ1 T-REXX sneaker in dark mocha on his site, a $200 shoe that evaporated upon arrival. The shoe was dropped on SNKRS this morning and also immediately sold out.
Lil Yachty Rocks The Boat (Sorry, Couldn’t Resist!)
Nike and Lil Yachty joined forces on a booth featuring an Air Force 1 and a collection of t-shirts. The partnership was billed as Nike and the Concrete Boys, a rap collective formed by Yachty whose members are Yachty, Karrahbooo, Camo!, Dc2trill, and Draft Day.
Visitors to the display, which included a life-sized concrete truck, were provided a chance to win an Air Force 1 or t-shirt by choosing a brick from a wall and breaking it open to discover their prize. It was all very unique and interactive and a good reflection of what Nike is capable of creating when the team is given room to run. (Though I do think naming the effort “It’s Us” is way too similar to Kith’s “Just Us” tagline.)
Sneaker culture seemed generally unimpressed by the ho-hum nature of the Air Force 1, that is until the “Sneaker of the Year” panel, of which Yachty was a member. During the exchange, Yachty called out Bimma Williams, a content creator who was critical of the shoe. Williams happened to be in the audience and stood up during Yacthy’s critique of him. (You can find Williams’ critique and Yachty’s clapback here.)
To be honest, I thought Yatchy’s criticism of Williams was done intentionally to create more buzz around the shoe, but accourding to the Sneaky Leak Podcast (link to YouTube video here), Nike (allegedly) was freaked out about his behavior and pushed him to apologize. Adding support to their claims, Yatchy joined Williams on Instagram (above) a few days after the event where he described his reaction as “corny” and as coming from a place of “emotion.”
Whatever Yatchy’s intention, the shoe became the center of attention on social media in the days to follow his outburst. Many remained unimpressed by the simplicity of Yachty’s design choices, but others (like me) appreciated his pared-down approach, which makes sense for one of the culture’s most iconic shoes, whose affectionate nicknames are often centered around the fact that the shoe is white! On another note, I also think it’s good that Nike is making an effort to introduce the shoe to a new generation of consumers.
Whether all the buzz mattered, the shoe sold out instantly when it was launched on Yatchy’s ecommerce site a few days ago. The apparel, however, is sitting. Nike will launch the $130 shoe on SNKRS on December 2nd, so let’s see if its popularity holds up with a bigger number of pairs.
C.R.E.A.M….Truely!
While in Las Vegas, I popped over to DesignerCon (an annual convention featuring collectible toys) to see French artist Fafi’s booth where she was selling a Medicom Be@rbrick and her own vinyl toy (above). Being there was a reminder of how much Nike’s money was a game changer for ComplexCon. At DesignerCon, there were no 30-foot-high sculptures, no multi-room, massive installations, which in the case of Nike’s Air Max 1000 shoe, included a dozen or so real-life-slot machines.
Additional ComplexCon Images
Most of my original photography is placed behind a paywall.
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