In Blog 104 I talked about how to execute events properly. In this blog I want to talk about My Favorite NYC Ffany Trip.

Kaaren And I went to the Ffany (Fashion Footwear Association of New York) Trip in NYC in December. December has always been my favorite time to attend this show. The weather is cold but not too cold.  Christmas decorations are out, the ice skaters seem magical and you have the tree lighting. On top of that the windows at Bergdorf’s are incredible.

Buyers from around the company would attend this show. It was neat to meet the people you talk on the phone with and also see familiar faces. We would usually have a Buyers dinner which was also fun. The day would entail appointments with the vendor reps pretty much 1 per hour. The showrooms were all over so you would have to make sure you accounted for travel time. Sometimes traffic would be so bad I’d walk to the appointments if the distance wasn’t too far.

Showrooms

We would see the brands in their showrooms, negotiate better terms and discounts and view the line. I would take notes on the line sheet and actually place the orders when I would get back home.

In this particular show Platforms were the trend. I went to a booth that had incredibly high Platforms, some were heeled and others were wedges. I asked the guy if people actually could walk in them. He laughed and said that these were really for display purposes, so I bought a few pairs for each store in our region.

Walking and singing

The next night I ran into Rob and we had a few beers together (A few too many) and we walked back to our hotels singing “Frosty the snowman” at the top of our lungs while it was snowing. It was really funny and quite silly. It was good to catch up with him.

When I would get back to California, I would take all my line sheets home and layout the deliveries on the floor to visually see the flow of merchandise. Then I’d write PO’s during the weekend. Some of the items had fast approaching due dates so to get the discount I had to write them quick.

I always like to go to the shows and see the new styles and catch up with old friends. It’s a great part of the job.This was my favorite NYC Ffany trip. Of course in my career there have been many more memorable trips but at this time in my career it was the one to beat.