A Day in New York: Liberty Fairs

As a Design & Merchandising student at Drexel, I have been given amazing opportunities to go places and see things that I never thought would be possible. One of these things was attending the Liberty Fairs trade show in New York with my Retail Principles class.

My day started out with a 2-hour bus ride into the city and a quick stop at Starbucks for some breakfast. Once I arrived at the trade show, I was in awe. There were hundreds of people and brands from all over the world gathered in one place to show off their most recent merchandise! (Some of the lines there hadn’t even been shown to the public yet!) A few of the brands I saw were Asics, Timberland, TOMS and United by Blue (an environmentally conscious brand located in Philadelphia).

Once I arrived at the trade show, I was in awe.

I spoke with a few representatives from Ariat and the representative for the Australian brand OneTeaspoon. It was a cool experience to meet people from around the world and learn more about the brands that I was interested in. Since I am studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia in the summer and fall, I was hoping to learn as much as I could. And although I was not trying to find a co-op or internship there, I do know a few people in my class did get contact information to potentially set up a co-op in the future!

I would say it was the perfect day; however, I accidentally got on the wrong bus on my way home and almost ended up in Washington D.C – and in the process lost my only phone charger, which I needed because my phone was dead. So, if you can take anything away from this article you should take my advice and always carry a portable charger wherever you go and never get on a bus before asking where it's headed!