Complex hosts first annual ComplexCon

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Nov 8, 2016

Complex Magazine launched their inaugural ComplexCon conference over the weekend. The conference, which billed itself as the ‘world’s first cultural fair’, brought together music, fashion, and art for the two-day event November 5-6, located in Long Beach, California.

Snoop Dogg, 2 Chainz, Migos, Chief Keef, Skrillex, Kid Cudi, and Travis Scott all performed at the event. Luxury streetwear label Off-White’s designer Virgil Abloh also played a DJ set. The event also featured panel discussions from influencers in the fashion, art, and music industries, including footwear designer Jon Buscemi, world-renowned artist Takashi Murakami, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams.

Although the main draw of this event is the high-profile music performances and appearances, many fashion brands used this event to release capsule collections, limited edition collections, or to host pop-up shops. Japanese streetwear label A Bathing Ape, Pharell and Nigo (co-founder of BAPE)’s label Billionaire Boys Club, and Puma were among one of the 100 brands that hosted a pop-up shop at ComplexCon.

Nike took over a 7,500-square-foot retail experience inside ComplexCon, where shoppers could browse hundreds of footwear and clothing items from the brand.

Because of the strong ties between hip-hop and streetwear fashion, ComplexCon proved a great platform for streetwear brands to promote themselves. Levi’s released a limited-run collection of denim jackets with Kinfolk. Nike raffled off limited-edition sneaker collaborations with streetwear clothing label Anti-Social Social Club. Fear of God and Vans rented a booth for their collaboration, which previously sold out in all retailers and is reselling for an extreme mark-up.

Complex, which curated the event, is a New York-based digital media platform that puts out a bi-monthly print issue. Complex specifically focuses on covering hip hop and rap, streetwear, sneaker culture, and street art.