The Zoptopz crew rolled into Las Vegas landing at the MAGIC Marketplace with huge expectations and once again, the legendary fashion trade show, did not disappoint. First of all you have to really take in the enormity of the event. Everyone in the fashion industry acroos the globe gathers at MAGIC to show their lines and get their names out there. Placed one next to another are some of the hottest emerging designers and some of the most elite brands in the business. Right at your finger tips, each of the brands are fighting for your attention… and that’s exactly why we came to MAGIC in the first place.

Rockin’ our latest Zoptopz gear we cruised through the Las Vegas Convention Center and Mandalay Bay for three straight days, just trying to take in the entire experience.  We were fortunate enough, during the day to meet up with labels like Billionaire Mafia, Yums, Flud Watches, Mavi Jeans, Flip the Bird, Likuid Nation, TapouT, you name it… The list goes on and on. The Zoptopz team was even able to snag a very humorous interview with TapouT founders Skyscrape and Punkass, as well as world renowned TapouT fighters, Donald Cerrone, Amir Saddolah and even former NFL star turned MMA fighter, Hershel Walker.  The great experience we had with TapouT was just one of the labels we were able to speak with that day. And even though the designers themselves could be called “competitors” the event was really more of a community effort – uniting the fashion world, for one week to show what everyone else has going on.

That community feeling was felt day and night, which seemed to run together without notice. Next thing you know we went from the busy floors of the Mandalay Bay to the bass pumping walls of Diddy’s new club Vanity. Everyone at Vanity knew one another from the day’s events which made the vibe that much more memorable. Now, being from the east coast, we see clubs all the time that rival those of anywhere else in the world, but Vanity was Diddy’s club and if you know Diddy, you know that he always does everything better than anyone else. I had no complaints there. Diddy, you sure do know how to party.

The next day of MAGIC was just like the one before – busy and successful. Doing interviews with stars like Baby Bash and Lana, the CEO of Billionaire Mafia, we were among the first to check out their latest gear for the season. Needless to say they had everybody taking notice. Camera in hand, we snapped interviews with Convertible Bertt, Flip The Bird, Likquid Nation and even New Era. Still, the Zoptopz crew didn’t stop there; we were able to hang with emerging hip/hop star Skewby, who loved the Zotopz hats so much, he rocked one right there!

Once again the hours turned fast and we found ourselves standing on the red carpet of the Billionaire Mafia’s late night party at Prive at Planet Hollywood. Man, did the stars come out this event! The cameras popped with flashes at celebrities like Jadakiss, Fabolous, Tionne Williams, The New Boyz and many others that were live for the event. The whirlwind night whipped us inside the club (VIP of course) for blazing performances from the above mentioned – each one making everyone in the club light up with energy that only Sin City can supply.

Sometime early that morning, we went to bed, but again were up too early for that day to even remember sleeping. We cleaned house again through the final hours of MAGIC before heading off to a personal tour of Zappos. Zappos, the online mega store that has become a world known brand and developed their own unique philosophy of customer service, allowed us to check out what makes this fine oiled machine run so well. Little did Zappos know but we had a surprise for them; carrying bags filled with Zoptopz hats, we tossed dozens of caps the very gracious Zappos employees. They all loved it! Random people were coming up to us saying, “Are you the ones with the cool hats?… Can I have one?” This put huge smiles on not only the team at Zappos but the Zoptopz gang as well because we love when people love what we’re doing.

Loving what we do at Zoptopz is what makes us work so well, just like the folks at Zappos. And so as I boarded my redeye back to Baltimore, the Vegas strip far behind me, I could not stop thinking about how much fun we had at MAGIC, all the great contacts we made and all the unique designers we were able to now call colleagues. I also couldn’t help smiling because MAGIC better make room for next year, because Zoptopz is coming back to town!