Twice a year the fashion/apparel world converges on Las Vegas for the Magic Tradeshow.  This was our 4th trip and each year we come away with a ton of strong contacts, new brands, and a bit of sleep deprivation from running around to meetings all day and partying it up all night.  This trip  started off a bit rough, we missed our morning flight so didn’t arrive until 1pm instead of 10am, and everything was taking forever, but we got out to the show and were able to catch up with the reps we had appointments with and didn’t leave the show till after 7.  Of the brands we met up with on Tues, Original Penguin looked really strong, Jedidiah was solid for fall and WeSC had a fresh fall collection. I was not blown away by Rocawear, but Artful Dodger (owned by Rocawear) had some dope stuff, and a new style direction with the brand. 555 Soul had a back to basics collection with 3-4 really classic 555 hoodies. Zoo York had a smaller collection from years past but lots of cool stuff, they look strong for Fall.  After the show we went to a suite that a bunch of small brands from LA setup to meetup with the guys from AKRA Clothing, they are a small t-shirt company that we met at both the SF Thread Show and Agenda.  Over the past month or so I have been talking with them about doing some hoodies and they are def into it.  We are hoping to get a limited exclusive on the hoodies to premier them to the world.  They have some cool designs and are super focused on great quality so I have no doubt the hoodies will be really fresh.

The 2nd day was much smoother, we met up with Tokidoki (picture to the right is Simone Legno, Founder of Tokidoki on right), they are growing like crazy and the brand is doing amazing stuff across all their product lines (toys, skate decks, clothing, bags, shoes, sunglasses and loads more).  Famous Stars had a huge presence with all their different brands (Rogue Status, Wild Ones, DTA), the meeting was rushed but Fall line looks dope on both mens and womens side.  We also met up with a small t-shirt brand that is similar to Tokidoki called The Public Zoo, they are launching their first hoodies in Fall and we might get to premier them, but either way they have dope stuff and solid price points.  Really cool people at the company as well. .

Saving the best for last we had great initial meetings with both Puma and Adidias, both were stoked on hp and look good for a fal 2010 launch.  Adidas is doing some great stuff and the sales rep we met with was brand new but came from the marketing team so he was super dialed into whats going on at the company and seemed like he could def get things done.  Overall it was really successful trip, maybe a bit too short but we got a ton of shit done and def good to just show up and network around.

Although last week’s episode didn’t contain as much excitement and intrigue as “The Substitute”, there were still plenty of great moments to keep viewers interested. The episode focused a great deal on Jack and his personality differences in the two universes. Off the island, we found that this version of Jack had a son and that the relationship with him was very similar to the one Jack had with his own father. Jack’s son doesn’t respond to him well nor does he seem all to excited to spend time with him as Jack struggles to find a connection. At the end of the episode Jack manages to establish a positive connection with his son by explaining that he’ll be proud of him no matter what, something Jack’s father seem to never tell him.

Back on the island, Jacob instructs Hurley to lead Jack  to a mysterious lighthouse that they never had seen before. During the journey we get to see the old school trek that we became so use to witnessing duringthe first season, especially when Jack and Hurley come across the caves where most of the passengers stayed early on in the series. This was the most interesting storyline of this episode because it appeared that we were approaching some answers to some of the mysteries involving Jacob and his selection of specific people on the island. Although there weren’t really answers provided, there was a new mystery introduced: the lighthouse has a mirror that can see specific points off the island. When the coordinates of the light house are turned to a specific number that corresponds to one of the characters, the mirror reflects a piece f their lives. Jack struggles with this concept because he feels like Jacob is taking his free will and he destroys the mirror. Oddly, Jacob doesn’t seem too upset with the destruction and has other plans in store.

Claire re-emergence played a background role in this episode. She is basically insane and seems convinced that the “others” took Aaron form her. Jin notices she’s a little off and lies to Claire and tells her that Kate doesn’t have the baby….smart move. Claire returning to the temple with Jin can spell danger for the remaining inhabitants.

Overall the episode was pretty good, there weren’t too many new developments and it kind of seems like we’re being set up for somehting big in the upcoming episodes. There is still much to be figured out, especially when it comes to the sides of good and evil in the battle between Jacob and the Man in Black.