LOS ANGELES — Next Level Apparel has been awarded Gold in the 2026 Hermes Creative Awards for Trade Show / Exhibit Promotion, recognizing the company’s reimagined trade show experience unveiled earlier this year.
The award honors the brand’s immersive, retail-inspired booth concept designed to place product interaction at the center of the buyer experience. Developed in partnership with DisplayIt, the open 40×40 island exhibit was created to encourage wholesale buyers, decorators, and apparel industry professionals to engage directly with garments by comparing fabrics, exploring color stories, and navigating the space naturally.
According to the company, the exhibit emphasized tactile engagement and customer accessibility while reinforcing Next Level Apparel’s focus on premium quality, ethical manufacturing, and long-term sustainability initiatives.
Grounded in modular construction and reusable design elements, the booth incorporated interchangeable components intended to reduce waste while maintaining flexibility for future trade show events. A dedicated sustainability section also highlighted the company’s third-party certifications and supply chain transparency efforts.
“Being recognized in the Hermes Creative Awards is an honor for our team and a reflection of the thinking behind this project,” said Etienne Houseknecht, head of marketing for Next Level Apparel. “From the beginning, we set out to transform the traditional trade show experience by putting product first.”
Houseknecht said the company intentionally designed the exhibit to function more like a retail environment than a conventional trade show booth.
“We designed the booth to function like a retail environment – open, intuitive, and highly tactile – so buyers can engage directly with garments, compare fabrics side by side, and experience color, fit, and quality in a more natural way,” he said. “Every decision, from the modular build to the sustainability-driven structure and transparent certification storytelling, was made to reflect a more thoughtful, product-driven approach to how apparel should be experienced.”
The Hermes Creative Awards are administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) and recognize creative excellence across advertising, branding, public relations, integrated marketing, digital media, and design disciplines.
This year’s competition attracted more than 6,000 entries from 29 countries.
AMCP represents marketing, communications, advertising, media production, and public relations professionals worldwide and also supports pro bono creative initiatives benefiting nonprofit and community organizations.
