This time in Las Vegas for work, not for spectacle.
The city felt artificial in the daylight. Dry air. Long distances. Everything designed to move people quickly. Inside the Sands Expo, something more precise was happening. Agenda Show, Capsule Show, and Liberty Fair were running in parallel. Streetwear, fashion, and business sharing the same pressure chamber. Brands looking to scale. Designers trying not to lose themselves in the process.
That week marked our first real encounter with Shopify as infrastructure, not just software.
At the center of the conversation was Harley Finkelstein, then Chief Operating Officer, speaking at the Assembly Conference. His message was direct. Scale without surrender. Own the relationship. Build systems that can grow without breaking. Shopify positioned itself clearly as the bridge between traditional wholesale and direct-to-consumer digital commerce. Less noise. More execution.
The tone of the week was set early.
On February 12th, the keynote series opened with Jaden Smith and Ronnie Fieg, in a conversational format moderated by Jeff Staple. It was not a performance. It was a real exchange about culture, responsibility, and building brands that mean something. Fashion stopped being seasonal and started sounding structural.
That moment mattered.
After Las Vegas, Shopify became part of how we worked. We introduced it to many clients. We managed innovation and pro-level implementations for special projects and sales environments. Custom flows. Integrated experiences. Systems designed to hold pressure. What we heard in Vegas translated directly into practice.
Outside the trade halls, the city offered quieter encounters.
We visited Richard Mirando, known as Seen, in his Las Vegas studio. One of the originals. No mythology needed. Paint, time, discipline. A reminder that culture always predates commerce, even when commerce learns quickly.
We also reconnected with Asian partners. Long talks. Fast alignment. International projects sketched without ceremony. Las Vegas works that way. Everyone arrives neutral. Everyone leaves changed.
By the time we flew out, the shift was clear. Fashion was no longer asking how to sell more. It was asking how to scale properly through technology. Platforms were becoming backbone. Infrastructure was becoming culture.
