How I got my line into the top boutiques on the most prestigious street on Miami beach

I stroll into Astoria on Lincoln Road rolling my suitcase with a bag on top. Either I was a tourist catching a flight or just landed or I was a salesperson. Not sure here but usually from Toronto solicitors are frown upon, this is understandable because of all the crap these solicitors try to push off on the store owner.

Lincoln Road is the most prestigious luxury shopping street on Miami beach. The road is a long pedestrian street fill with lively music, tall palm trees, clothing boutiques, and restaurants.

I went into the store and came up to the sales assoicate there, "can I see Danny or Michael" I said reading those names off of the sheet made by my sales rep Sarvi. She contacted the stores here in Miami to get me names.

"Do you have an appointment with him?" she asked.

Trying to say anything other than no I said "I'm here to see Danny, I spoke to him on the phone."

"So he's expecting you? What's your name?"

"Jing from JUZD..."

"Let me go see." then she walks off to the back.

She has been gone for almost a minute, while I eagerly await the response. I thought to myself, so he have never heard of my name or even spoken to Sarvi. I'm not sure how she got his name, either way if she did speak to him there was no way he would remember JUZD.

Danny is a big deal, he has 5 stores including one on the Las Vegas strip. I was nervous but also kind of excited to hear Danny's bewilder response. I can imagine him saying "I have an appointment with who?"

She comes back and to MY bewilderment says "Come on in, just go to the back and up the stairs."

I went up and sitting there was Daniel Amuial the owner of Astoria.

"I know you from someone." says Daniel with a big welcoming smile.

You can expect his surprise when I said "Nope, we never met before."

The rest of the conversation is history, he ended up loving the line because it's unique and he said he's going to buy and didn't want me to show it to anyone else.

The MAGIC week in Las Vegas

The JUZD booth was on the edge of the eco section in POOL Tradeshow. This was our first clothing tradeshow and I was very excited. I’ve done two shows and each was disappointing but the cost for this one was a lot more so I anticipated the results to be a lot better. I got a booth for my friend Cristofer Carrado right beside mine.

It was our first show together and we got a bad location. All the way near the back. Very little traffic, we were in a pond with little fishes. All the tees sell for $20-$30 retail. It wasn’t right for us. To make it worst, POOL was known for it's eco section but this year MAGIC had it's own eco section and stole a lot of the bigger eco brands. The people that did drop by were very impressed and we made a few good contacts and got a couple of leads. Stay tuned to find out what happens.

We did have a good time and met some interesting people. Couple of interesting brands I checked out was Pnatrul. This brand is by musician Peter A Witting, which pimped out his booth with his drum set. He tells me that he get musicians he travels with to wear his gear, including Tommy Lee.

Right across from us were Forrest + Fauna, a brother sister duo. They spent the most time setting up their booth of all the lines at Pool. It took them two months to make and several hours to put up and take down. Painted, cut, diagramed, each piece of reclaimed wood. It felt like a nice personal shack in there, it even comes with a mini fridge…filled with beer. And they also produced their own eco paint. That's cool.

For any designers that are looking to do a show, they can check out Thread Show. Their concept is pretty cool; they’ll rent you half of the space for half of the price. Instead of $4000 for Pool, you’ll pay only $2000 and get your stuff in. But the section is smaller than a regular booth.













Free shirts and live screen printing from Alternative Apparel. Pick your size and the screen you want and it's done. I got this last time I was at the show. The shirt feels amazing, very light weight and fits good but after a few washed it looks crusty.













Tag bag lady! These bags are made from license plates from Africa. Buy a bag change a village. The company making the bags employs local African workers so you'll be directly helping them with each purchase.













Hard working Yvonne!

JUZD exhibiting in Las Vegas' Pool Tradeshow August 25-27th!

The much anticipated fashion event of the summer is weeks away and JUZD is getting ready to showcase and exhibit our collection!

The Pool tradeshow was established in 2001 for the boutique market and better retailers world-wide. Over 350+ brands show their merchandise to influential buyers for boutique shops across the world. New products from emerging designers and established brands showcase men’s and women’s apparel, shoes, accessories and even products from art, music to home products. This is where trends are started and where many new designers launch their new collection. Fashion forward is the name of the game and JUZD is gearing up to become a serious competitor!

It’s easy to see why buyers get excited for this semi-annual event; each and every tradeshow is different. This year JUZD is excited to be part of the eco-line section where we will introduce the world to bamboo’s first designer label. Come stop by and say hi; we’ll be at booth #1409. We can’t wait to go to Vegas and we hope Vegas is ready to get JUZD!

Jing at Project Show New York City Summer 2008

(Ronnie Comia of Cabana Group, Yuichi Ishii of Connected Showroom LA, Marck Marcellus the creative director of Goldspun, Me, and the rest of Goldspun crew.)

Made a quick 2 day trip to New York City for the Project Show which took place at the Javits Center. There was a bunch of shows going on including the super exclusive Capsule and some others like Blue and Collective.

Pretty fun, met up with a lot of friends and met a lot new ones. I squeezed quite a bit into those two days. Started off at the Project Show, streetwear clothing. When I got there saw my good friend from LA Yuichi Ishii. Last time I saw him in Las Vegas he was living in Japan and working as a buyer for his friend's Tokyo store Panty. He's back in LA and working for his buddy at Connected showroom. Here he's repping a NYC brand, Goldspun.

Saw the Dom Rebel boys Justin Svatina and Don Nguyen, repping Canada. They won't be joining me at the clubs tonight, Justin got to go back the hotel to finish some designs and send it back to Montreal for production.


Got this stylish fodora from Erwin of Goorin. A line that dates back to 1895 and now made by four designers in the Bay area. Available at Holt Renfrew. Also checked out the latest collection from Greedy Genius. Met Derek Levy and Mr. TranSITO. Pretty cool guys. Now I'm off to the Capsule Show in the historic Angel Orensanz Catherial.

Pretty exclusive, this tiny location (tiny compared to the convention centre of the Javits Center) on the south east part of Manhattan just east of SOHO houses only 50 brands. Difficult to get in and spots only open when a brand leaves. Met with Nicole to show her JUZD. Maybe I have a chance to get in.













Check out this cool necklace sonvenir they gave out.

This place was steaming! No AC small location tight spots and lots and lots of people. I was sweating just standing in there. Checked out this cool brand Alexander Olch. Make ties and suspenders. Before I can check out more got a Blackberry message from my friend to go to the Universial Gear, they want to "take a look at JUZD" and "speak to JD, go back he leaves at 6pm."

Took a quite look and I jetted.

On my second day met with Darrly Calmese the photographer and Stefanos Chen for an upstar NYC magazine called Alex the Magazine. I was there and posted for some pics and finally met Darryl and Stephanos in person. They wanted to do a piece on JUZD bamboo clothing.




Spent rest of the days checking SOHO area. Man, I love this city. I feel more at home here than I do in Toronto. Finish the night by partying it up at Manison Nightclub. Lots of people on a Tuesday night. Met up with all guys again at the club.

Can't for for MAGIC week in Las Vegas! Doing all this over again!

(And I got a custom made JUZD hat off the streets of SOHO in New York City. Didn't turn out too good as I ask him to do the logo and not his usually stuff. Note to self, let others do what they do best.)

JUZD team at Magic / Pool / Project shows in Las Vegas

From February 12th to the 15th the JUZD team was in Las Vegas checking out North America's premiere fashion trade shows, MAGIC, POOL, and PROJECT. Despite the predicting US recession the buyers were spending and spending lots. It was a good season for the brands we visited. Above photo (Jing Liu aka me! [lead designer of JUZD Bamboo Streetwear], Masahiko Nakane aka Polo [owner of Panty Japan], Christian Audigier, Yuichi Ishii [buyer for Panty Japan])



Once again Christian Audigier was the talk of the show.With the largest booth at Project, guest stars, naked (but artistically painted) girls, swimsuit models, and a performance by Snoop, Christian Audigier's booth was the spot to chill. Christian Audigier also premiere his latest label Crystal Rock, named after his daughter.


The colorful Creative Recreation showcased its new sneaker collection and style for Fall. While smaller labels such as Shmack Footwear were making head waves and extending their distribution for the fist time to Japan.

I was able to check out Raw 7. It maintained it's high end grudge style. It brought its unique style of art to sandals and underwear (which I got samples of woohoo). Another brand that caught my eye was Hard 8, an up and coming brand out of LA. It has simliar grunge style as Raw 7 and strong symbolic designs. What was also great was the overall fit and design of the shirts. It fits and feels really good and the designs was perfect for the shirt.

Pool was also a very interesting experience. It was one big chilling lounge. Lots of cool and funky brands. Alternative Apparel was a major sponsor, they were giving out free t-shirts, hats, and other cool stuff. But one of the most interesting brand is Cyberoptix Tie Lab. They print designs on ties and their creativity and craftmanship are amazing. Had a chance to talk to Bethany who is the principle designer and she's a really nice girl. It's not the usual silk suit ties I'm use to.

As for Magic, the big show, it wasn't all that interesting...to me anyways. Lots of huge brands. As for the streetwear section, it was like night clubs, with girls in skimpy outfits handing out flyers. But that's the streetwear culture. I prefer the class of Project.

Overall it was a very enlightening trip and I had a lot of fun. We are currently trying to get a booth at the Project show in August. Come check us out!