Master’s Qualifying Piece by Nico Cray: Theme “Expanding Consciousness”
Writing
Bernie Boulders
Amear Moretall
Kevin Dankman
Photography
CHAMPS Show Magazine Staff
D Mill @dmilldigital
Design & Layout
DJ Sixxx
Publisher
CHAMPS Trade Shows
Editorial Director
Kevin Dankman
Ad Sales
Kevin Dankman
Becca / Ron Kolb
Office 818-616-7424
By Kevin Dankman
The CHAMPS Trade Show, which ran from July 23rd to July 26th at the Las Vegas Convention Center, has been widely hailed as one of the best-attended and most successful summer events in its history. The summer show solidified its reputation as the premier gathering for the counter-culture industry, powered by its influential sponsors and buzzing with brand showcases, new products, and a remarkable lineup of celebrities.
Along the way, three Shops won prizes just for attending the show.
In the first of its kind Mystery Box Giveaway, three stores took home prizes wortth $1000, $3000, and $6000!
Each store got $1000 and then a chance at more!
Mr. Smoke in Florida won a total of $6000, KVC Smoke Shop in Maryland took home $3000, and Fuzzys Smoke Shop in Las Vegas went home with $1000 extra.
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Fuzzy’s sad they only took home $1,000
Big Winner Mr. Smoke Stuart of Florida
KVC Smoke Shop took home a total of $3,000
Mr Smokes brought home the big money total of $6,000
Three Big Winners
The
Glass Games:
A Showcase of Master Artistry
A major centerpiece of CHAMPS is the Glass Games, a series of live, world-class competitions for glass artists. The Las Vegas show hosted two major events that drew significant crowds and showcased incredible talent:
Mini Masters: In this Masters Qualifier, artists were given 6.5 hours to create a unique piece based on the theme “Expanding Consciousness.” The competi tion was fierce as artists vied for cash, prizes, and one of the seven coveted spots in the 2026 CHAMPS Masters Final.
CBS Dichro Day: Following the Mini Masters, this competition challenged artists to create a "dichrotastic" masterpiece in 6.5 hours using vibrant, color-shifting dichroic glass supplied by sponsor CBS Dichroic. The top artist from this event also secured a prestigious spot in the 2026 Masters Final.
These events highlight the immense skill within the glass art community and are a core component of the CHAMPS experience.
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Glass Games Group Shot
Nicro Days 2nd Place
Dicro Days 3rd Place Eternal Glass Works Nico Cray winning gift bag
Dicro Days 1st Place
Three Judges took time to rate each piece and find the winners.
Judges:
Dan Hoffman Glass
LaceFace Glass
Ethan Windy
The Glass Artists Moving on to the Masters are:
@nikocray
@jredglass
@slob_glassblower
@amorphous_symphony
@charismaforu
@eternalflameworks
@warwick_glass
@curseglass
@dojoglass
Hip-Hop Icons and Live Music
The trade show floor had the energy of a major music festival. The HHEMP.CO "Hemp World" activation was a central hub for live music, featuring performances by:
Legendary Chicago rapper Twista
New Orleans artist Curren$y Bay Area rapper LaRussell Reggae rock group Fortunate Youth Continues On Page 31
Judges Dan Ho man, Hugh and Ethan Windy
Curren$y
Twista
Kidd Conez
Beyond the scheduled acts, the event saw surprise appearances from top-tier artists, including Grammywinner Lil Baby, Rappers Lil Wyte and Runtz founder Yung LB were also spotted on the floor.
CuRB.Show Brings Skate and Street Culture
A major highlight of the event was the CuRB.Show, a curated "show-within-a-show" dedicated to the fusion of skate, street, and counter-culture. This area hosted its own star-studded lineup:
Stevie Williams: The iconic professional skateboarder was a key figure, promoting his influential DGK (Dirty Ghetto Kids) brand and new NFC Blanks Brand.
Sauce Walka: The Houston rapper was a featured guest, holding a popular meet-and-greet with fans.
Steve Steadham: Skateboarding pioneer Steve Steadham was also present, representing his brand, Stedmz Skateboards.
Danny Way: The Man who jumped the great wall of China and is working on jumping the Panama Canal.
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BMX back ips at CuRB Show Sauce Walka Greek Glass booth
Litty booth Seedless booth Smoke Odor booth
Titans of Industry and Entertainment
As always, CHAMPS attracted major figures who have become synonymous with the industry itself.
Mike Tyson: The heavyweight champion and entrepreneur was a massive draw, holding a highly attended meet-and-greet for his Tyson 2.0 brand and making a surprise appearance at the Royal Queen Seeds booth.
Uncle Lazer & David Lucas: Comedians known for their appearances on the "Kill Tony" podcast made cameos, adding a dose of comedy to the expo.
This summer's CHAMPS Trade Show was a powerful convergence of commerce and culture. Fueled by its dedicated sponsors and record-breaking attendance, the event celebrated every facet of the industry, from master glassblowers and legendary skaters to music icons and entertainment titans.
Arvida Labs - Mellow Fellow
Johnny Dang and Mike Tyson
Kavaly booth
OCB booth
Fire Bar Labs
Rick Flair and Hulk Hogan
Creating Store Stickiness: How CHAMPS Partners Build Community Destinations
By Amear Mortall
In an era where online shop ping dominates consumer behavior, brick-and-mortar retailers face an unprece dented challenge: how do you make your physical space so compelling that customers choose to visit repeatedly? The answer lies not in competing on convenience or price alone, but in creating experiences that foster genu ine community and connec tion.
CHAMPS Show Magazine has consistently showcased retail partners who understand this fundamental shift. These successful stores have evolved beyond traditional product displays to become vibrant community hubs that customers actively seek out for education, connection, and authentic experiences.
spaces into destinations that deliver value beyond the products on their shelves.
The most successful CHAMPS partners have mastered the art of section-specific experiences that cater to their diverse customer base. Rather than treating their stores as generic retail spaces, they've created specialized environments that speak directly to different communities and interests.
Building Community Through Specialized Sections
Adult Wellness Spaces:
The Experience Economy in Action
Today's consumers, particu larly younger demographics, prioritize experiences over possessions. They want to learn, connect with likeminded individuals, and feel part of something larger than a simple transaction. Smart retailers are responding by transforming their
The most successful adult sections move far beyond product displays. These spaces prioritize customer comfort and education, featuring discreet consultation areas, mood lighting, and private nooks where customers feel safe asking questions. Regular Q&A nights with wellness experts create ongoing reasons to visit, while curated "starter kits" help newcomers navigate their options with confidence. The key is creating an atmosphere that feels welcoming rather than intim-
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Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Education-First Cultivation and Mycology:
These sections thrive when education becomes the primary attraction. Live workshops transform casual browsers into engaged learners, while interactive displays featuring grow kits and mushroom logs provide hands-on experiences that online retailers simply cannot match. Time-lapse videos of cultivation cycles and expert guest speakers position these spaces as local knowledge hubs where customers come to learn and grow alongside their plants.
Authentic
CuRB and Skate
Culture:
Successful skate sections channel the authentic energy of street culture. Mini ramps, video highlight reels, carefully curated playlists, and local art create an atmosphere that resonates with the community. Skate Jams build loyalty levels, while in-store gear testing provides tactile experiences that online shopping cannot replicate.
Streetwear as Cultural Hub: The most dynamic streetwear sections operate as cultural epicenters. They rotate exclusive releases, collaborate with local artists for murals and pop-ups, and host on-the-spot customization events. By working with regional influencers and showcasing up-and-coming brands, these spaces become launching pads for local culture while building fierce customer loyalty through flash sales and collaborative events.
Empowering Your Team to Create Connection
Behind every memorable retail experience stands a passionate, knowledgeable team. The most successful Champs partners invest heavily in their staff, encouraging team members to become genuine ambassadors for their sections. This means moving beyond scripted sales pitches to authentic engagement where employees share their real expertise and remember regular customers by name.
Simple clienteling tools— keeping notes on customers' favorite brands, styles, or wish lists—transform casual interactions into personalized experiences. When staff can reference a customer's previous purchases or ongoing interests, they create the kind of personal connection that builds lasting loyalty.
The key is incentivizing team members not just to increase sales, but to help customers discover new interests and deepen their engagement with the community you're building.
Events as Identity Builders
The most successful retail destinations make events central to their identity rather than afterthoughts. Product launches and exclu sive previews create urgency and excitement, particularly for streetwear and skate com munities. Workshops and DIY nights in cultivation and mycology sections provide ongoing value that keeps cus tomers returning regularly.
Guest speaker panels and educational Q&As in adult wellness spaces build trust and literacy while creating calendar moments that cus tomers anticipate. Loyalty rewards and birthday sur prises, promoted through social media and email lists, make customers feel valued as individuals rather than transaction opportunities.
Staying Dynamic Through Constant Innovation
The retail landscape evolves rapidly, and successful stores evolve with it. Regular display refreshes and aisle rearrangements keep spaces feeling fresh and encourage exploration. Small-scale
pop-ups and themed weeks provide low-risk opportunities to test new concepts and gauge customer response.
Perhaps most importantly, successful retailers actively invite customer feedback after every event or display change. This creates a feedback loop that ensures evolution stays aligned with customer desires rather than internal assumptions.
Practical Steps to Transform Your Space
Start with focus rather than trying to revolutionize everything at once. Choose one section—perhaps making your mycology zone more interactive or adding local art and a small ramp to your skate area. Perfect the experience in one space before expanding your efforts.
Next, plan a low-risk event: a "meet the grower" night, beginner's skate clinic, or streetwear collaboration release party. Use these events as learning opportunities to understand what resonates with your community.
Leverage your social media presence and email lists as amplification tools. Share photos, offer RSVP bonuses, and actively ask for feedback. Your digital presence should create anticipation for your physical experiences.
Finally, tap into available resources. CHAMPS partners have access to vendor programs and expertise that
can provide event ideas, staff training, and crosspromotion opportunities. These partnerships can accelerate your transformation from store to destination.
The Long-Term Payoff
In a marketplace saturated with options, the retailers that customers remember and champion are those offering genuine connection and memorable experiences. Whether your specialty is cultivation, adult wellness, mycology, skate culture, or streetwear, the principles remain consistent: prioritize experience over transaction, community over convenience, and authentic connection over scripted sales.
The transformation from store to community destination requires intentional effort and ongoing commitment, but the payoff extends far beyond immediate sales. You're building a customer base that becomes advocates, creating word-of-mouth marketing that no advertising budget can buy, and establishing your space as an integral part of your community's cultural fabric.
Start with one bold step, invest in your team's passion and knowledge, and watch your shop evolve into the kind of destination your community can't imagine living without.
Inventory Management: Some Practical Tips
By Bernie Boulders
Managing inventory well can make or break a retail business—that's something every store owner learns, often the hard way. After working with countless retailers and seeing what actually moves the needle, here are some practical approaches to inventory management that might help your store thrive, not just survive.
Why Getting This Right Matters (More Than You'd Think)
Poor inventory management is sneaky. It doesn't announce itself like a broken cash regis ter—it quietly drains profits through dead stock, missed sales from empty shelves, and the endless cycle of guessing what to reorder. The stores that figure this out often see dra-
That Actually Work in an AI World
matic improvements in cash flow and customer satisfaction, sometimes within just a few months.
The good news is that AI-powered inventory tools have become surprisingly accessible for independent retailers. What used to require massive IT budgets is now available for less than most monthly phone bills.
Some Approaches That Seem to Work Well
Starting
With the Right Foun-
dation
Choosing an inventory system
scanning (saves hours of manual work), automated low-stock alerts, and sales integration. Most successful implementations start simple—you can always add complexity later.
One thing that helps is thinking of your inventory system as the central nervous system of your store. Everything connects back to it: sales, reordering, customer satisfaction, and cash flow management.
Making the Digital Leap
Getting all your products into a digital system feels daunting, but most store owners find it's
ting aside a weekend for this task, armed with a smartphone
Inventory Management:
Some Practical Tips That Actually Work in an AI World
Inventory Management: Some
Practical Tips That Actually Work in an AI World
written inventory logs to a digital system and saw their fill rates improve dramatically. They stopped running out of bestsellers before big events and freed up cash that had been tied up in slow-moving inventory.
Another retailer discovered through their system's reporting that 30% of their product mix was generating only 5% of sales. They made strategic cuts and reinvested in proven performers, improving their overall profitability.
Addressing Common Concerns
The typical worries about cost, complexity, and scale often prove unfounded. Basic inventory management plans typically cost $50-100 monthly—less than most business phone bills. The learning curve for most systems is gentler than expected, with plenty of support available. Even smaller stores benefit significantly from these tools. In fact, independent retailers often see more dramatic improvements than larger chains because they can implement changes quickly and personally oversee the
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Moving Forward Thoughtfully
Starting with your highestimpact products—usually the top 20% that drive most sales—can make the transition manageable. Setting up automated alerts for these key items provides immediate value while you learn the system.
Many CHAMPS vendor representatives are willing to help with initial setup and training. They have a vested interest in their retail partners' success and often provide valuable support during implementation.
Getting inventory management right transforms the daily experience of running a
retail store. Instead of constantly worrying about stock levels or cash tied up in dead inventory, you can focus on serving customers and growing your business. The tools exist, they're affordable, and the results speak for themselves.
CuRB Show Rewind #1 Las Vegas Next Contest... Fort Lauderdale, Florida November 11th - 13th
Cover Shot by @Buenoshotem
Ryan Carrell @ryanskcarrell
Doing a Benihana
CuRB Show Rewind:
An Amateur Uprising:
Skate contests, especially the ones bolted onto trade shows, can feel sterile. They can be a predictable parade of the same faces doing the same runs for a corporate paycheck. This summer, the first-ever CuRB Show — hosted by the legendary Stevie Williams himself and with the iconic Dave Duncan on the mic—took that formula, doused it in gasoline, and threw a match. What erupted over four days wasn't just another competition; it was a raw, chaotic, and desperately needed reset. It was a statement that when you build it for the skaters, the entire culture—from the unsponsored ams to riders repping giants like Powell Peralta, DGK, Primitive, and Heroin — will come and shut it down.
The Judge, Jury, and Executioner: The Love Gap
Before a single score was logged, the course itself made its presence known. As host, Stevie Williams didn't just lend his name; he oversaw the resurrection of his old stomping ground. KEEN Ramps didn't just build a feature; they built a monolithic slab of intimidation: a four-step, 4-foot drop, 12-foot-long tribute to the Love Gap, capped with a gleaming, custom LV Hubba. This wasn't a fun-box. It was a concrete guillotine, a career-ender for the hesitant and a proving ground for the fearless.
ON PAGE 6
How Lucas Alves Dismantled the Pros at the Inaugural CuRB
Show
Day 1 Skate Group Shot
Winners Row with Hand Painted Douglas Mills Decks from Apache Skateboards
CuRB Show Rewind:
The Gauntlet: Thinning the Herd
The first two days were a war of attrition. Amidst the carnage of snapped boards and bruised egos from the Shop Shootout and the 66-skater Amateur Gauntlet, a narrative began to form around one name: Lucas Alves. He won the Shop Shootout with a commanding 91.96, then immediately backed it up by taking second in the Am bracket. (Yeah, that name again. Get used to it.) He wasn't just knocking on the door; he was taking a sledgehammer to it.
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Day 2 Group Photo
Jalen Willis Jaymeer Painting the Course
Jimmy Casio at Shredie Pharmacy Rancho
Jimmy Casio
Jalen Willis
Jonathan Henderson
Lucas Aquino Lucas Aquino - Local Skateshop
CuRB Show Rewind:
The Final: Beautiful Chaos
Presiding over the madness from the judges' stand was a panel of certified heavyweights: Adam Dyet, Aaron Astorga, Colin Graham, and Chaz Ortiz. This wasn't a crew of outsiders; it was a lineup of respected pros whose own legendary video parts and contest histories gave them the unimpeachable credibility to make the tough calls. Friday’s Pro-Am Final became a 17-man demolition derby, with Dave Duncan's booming voice calling the action over the controlled chaos.
In a field of established killers, it was the Powell Peralta amateur, Lucas Alves, who systematically dismantled the course. The knockout blow was a flawless Kickflip Noseslide to Bigspin Out on the Hubba for a 92.97. It wasn't just the highest score; it was the exclamation point on a complete takeover.
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CuRB Second Place Winner Amateur Division - London Davis
DGK Amateur Winner Colin Slew
Poohrail
Terrell Newell aka Poohrail
Robby Hargreaves
Kanaan Dern on the Hubba
CuRB Show Rewind:
More Than a Contest: A Reunion 36 Years in the Making
Beyond the battles of the new generation, the CuRB Show became a convergence point for the pillars of skateboarding history. Amid the organized chaos stood George from Michigan's legendary Modern Skate & Surf, and beside him, the icon, Danny Way For the first time in 36 years, the two shook hands.
The last time they’d done that, it was 1989. A 15-year-old Danny Way had just made history inside George's shop, becoming the youngest skater ever to win a pro vert contest. That event wasn't just a local affair; it was the very first skateboard contest broadcast on ESPN, a full six years before the X Games even existed. It was a foundational moment for televised skateboarding, and George and Danny were at its epicenter. For 36 years, life and careers went on. Then, at the CuRB show, that moment came full circle. The handshake wasn't just a greeting; it was a bridge across decades, a testament to a shared history and a powerful reminder that the concrete bonds formed in skateboarding are unbreakable.
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MC Dave Duncan
Kanaan Dern Judge Adam Dyet
Hand Painted Trophies by Jaymeer
The Three Shop Shootout Winners
CuRB Show Rewind:
So, What Does This Actually Mean?
Let's be clear: Lucas Alves didn't just win; he dominated, walking away with the most cash and a $2,000 check for his shop, Transport Skate Shop. But the event’s true significance was measured in more than prize money.
This was more than an upset; it was a signal. It blurred the line between "pro" and "am" and proved that skater-run events hold the real soul of competition. From the history-making reunion of legends like Danny Way and George to the live-set from skate-punk pioneer Steve Steadham and his Stedmz Skateboarding brand, the CuRB Show was a "for us, by us" triumph. It proved that one event can be a platform for the future, a celebration of the present, and a sanctuary for the past.
The future of contests might just look a little more like this: a little less predictable, and a whole lot more exciting.
Special thanks to the BMX riders who came in support of Preston Cawthorn and gave it
Skate sessions.
Dalton Dern
Dane Vaughn
Daniel Young
Dustin Blauvelt Modern Skate Shop
Terrell Newell - 3rd Place Shop Shootout
Judges Table: Og Dustin, Colin Graham, Chaz Ortiz, Adam Dyet
