Kingpins New York is warming up its engines for its next July edition taking place on 22 and 23 at Pier 36/Basketball City.
The global denim show will host about 80 international players from the denim and jeanswear industry scene, while several initiatives are expected to enliven the upcoming edition with lots of fun, engagement, occasions to connect and offer fresh opportunities the denim industry’s next generation.
“I can’t wait to see you all in a few weeks in New York at Kingpins. There’s nothing quite like reconnecting with old friends. But some of my favorite moments also come from meeting the people who are brand new to this community. The ones just discovering denim, still figuring out where they fit,” recently said Vivian Wang, CEO, Kingpins.
“Lately I keep thinking about those newcomers — the students, young designers, and denim lovers who are hungry to learn how jeans actually get made.
I’ve always believed it’s our responsibility to welcome new people into our denim community,” she added referring to the show’s last China edition focused on new emerging designers and newcomers within the business. businesses; and the people who love denim but haven’t built a career around it yet.
“Denim has never stayed still — production shifts, new regions rise, and creative energy keeps popping up in places you wouldn’t expect. That’s exactly why our community has to stay wide open. Our strength isn’t in any one city or region — it’s in how many different corners of the world we bring into the same room,” she explains.
“That’s really what New York is about for me. For me, it is a place where old friends, new faces, students, brands, makers, and innovators all come together. That’s what makes Kingpins special. It’s a community that’s always learning, always evolving, and always making room for the next generation,” she points out.
As part of this inclusive and engaging approach, some events will stand out better than others. One of them is Community Tapestry, a collaborative effort between Kingpins Show, Woven by Sarab, and a group of international denim mills. Mahmoud Abdul Khsyaem, founder of Sarab NYC, was at Kingpins NY last January showcasing a hand-woven tapestry made from denim scraps. For this July show edition, they redesigned the project in a giant-size version. The artist worked with ten international denim mills to create ten tapestries, which will be on display at the show.
These unique works of art will be available for sale, with 50% of the proceeds from the sale donated to Fabscrap NYC, a local nonprofit that collects fabric waste—making materials available to artists, students, designers, and makers and recycling the rest.
Kingpins exhibitors participating in the project include AGI Denim, Artistic Milliners, Bhaskar Denim, Blue Diamond, Envoy Textiles, Freedom Denim, Naveena Denim–NDL, Naveena Denim Mills, Master Textile, and Soorty Denim. Among others, the Lil Denim Styling Session will present four boundary-pushing designers together for a conversation about how denim will evolve. On stage will be General Experiment by Laurence Wei, Cleioner by Kendrick, Gekka by Nicholas Lu, and Greco by Benjamin Greco, curated by Lil Denim Jean.
Another project will see, among other protagonists, Oak & Acorn teaming up with Marist University students, Kingpins Show, and Artmill to reimagine the brand’s signature jumpsuit as a “future artifact of American workwear” disclosing how the next generation carries labor, utility, repair, and circularity forward.
Not less important will be The Botanical Alchemy—Part II: Still Blooming, a project focused on sustainable chemistry involving key partners including Tonello and MN Dye Studio, focusing on low-impact and natural dye innovation.