The winter edition of COMPLEXCON took place in Long Beach, Los Angeles at the weekend, hosted by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Pharrell Williams. Boasting over 230 stalls including shops, food vendors, and art stands, the conference also included live performances and talks throughout its duration, with guest appearances from Future, Rae Sremmurd, Action Bronson, Nas, Ronnie Fieg, Virgil Abloh, Don C, Jerry Lorenzo, Lewis Hamilton and many more.
CREATE // THE BRIEF
Catapult were engaged by Verdes – a leading innovations and marketing consultancy in NYC – to work with them to render, engineer + build PUMA’s exhibition booth as the centrepiece of their sponsorship of ComplexCon 2018.
EXPERIENCE //
Entering the main arena, visitors were greeted by the ‘PUMA Galleria’ with a full throwback to the 80’s. Inside, there were four different booths themed around the concept behind the RS-X collection. The Trophies Store had a custom Ferrari parked in front of a glowing sunset backdrop. The Track Store was essentially a CD shop with a live radio station booth. YesJulz set up her popular 1AM radio for a live broadcast with special guest artists Rapsody and G-Eazy, and they even hosted a freestyle session for pumped members of the public to get involved.
The RS-X Toys Shop offered a throwback to the ‘90s with a selection of retro games. And finally in The Tech Store there was a customisation masterclass held by legendary shoe customiser The Shoe Surgeon, as well as other famous customisers such as Alexander John and JBF Customs who were deconstructing shoes and tagging boxes.
Working with Verdes NYC, Catapult managed the technical production, production scheduling, staffing, lighting installation, stand build, and logistics for the live event, ensuring they created an interactive, immersive, and engaging experience for the PUMA campaign.
IMPACT //
2018 was the most successful ComplexCon for PUMA to-date. They sold out of all product, needed a queuing system installed both days from open to close due to the crowds of attendees wanting access to the booth and its activations, and generated more social traffic than the 2 previous years combined. PUMA are now looking at bringing this concept to life at other expos in the USA.