Recap of State of Unique, San Francisco

Instead of doing the traditional photo update with a bit of text, I figured I’d get some insight from the folks who actually participated. Below is a range of folks, both show veterans and first timers, and their thoughts on the first ever Unique San Francisco event.

• Overall the show was good for a first time show. the attendance wasn’t as high as that of uniqueLA but that show has a large fan base and is very well known around the LA community. given the resources to promote and market a first time show, i think the turnout was pretty good. the layout of the event was great as always and very well organized. sonja and her team did a great job with all of that as usual. - Jen Murse, Plastique

• The show went well. I met some nice people. I saw old friends. I got free beer, empanadas, and mac and cheese. How can life get any better? - Tony Bui, Genuine HaHa

• We thought that UNIQUE SF was an absolutely great show and it had a beautiful venue! The crowd was great too. Everyone seems to really appreciate our work, and all the vendors there! The selection of vendors was amazing also, we couldn’t feel more proud to be part of this show. - Arnel & Estefania, Ninjabot

• Unique SF was pretty successful for me personally. It attracted quite a receptive audience to my work, which I’ve seen go both ways at various venues. The flow was good, too many jewelers though, awesome sponsors, and the free activities & goods were impressive. It seemed the turnout wasn’t as expected though, pretty much every vendor I talked to commented on that… But it was the 1st Unique event here, so I’m sure it’s difficult to breakthrough and get the attention it deserves. The free booze alone should be enough to lure people over. One thing I would like to see next year is more Bay Area vendors, seems like they either had trouble getting SF vendors or they just really like their L.A. area vendors … I loved this event and I would definitely do it again next year if I can. - Kim Turner

• For me, Unique SF was a learning experience! It was really the first show of its kind that I’ve ever done, and I came away with lots of ideas to improve my display and diversify my inventory, which I realize I must do if I’m to continue doing craft and design fairs. Some of the best things that came out of the weekend for me were not only the sales I made but the networking that happened. I had a couple great art opportunities come my way because curators stopped at my table and followed up after the show. I really like that a show that focused on local design led to some opportunities to show my art locally in the future. I think that most of the vendors were top-notch, and I kind of wish I’d had more leisurely time to peruse all of their wares! – Gabrielle Rose, Draw Gabby Draw

• I think vendors will never find a better run show, Sonya is amazing! Great start for UniqueSF, I can’t wait to see this show grow in SF and beyond. – Samantha Barksy, Noteify

And a special note from the lady in charge, Sonja Rasula:

For a first-time show UNIQUE SF was awesome. One thing that surprised us was how positive and nice the shoppers were… In many instances they actually tracked me down to tell me how much they appreciated the curation of vendors, which made my team all very happy. They said that the show was fresh and filled with high-quality designers that weren’t ‘the usual suspects’, which is great since we strive to bring diversity and introduce people to up-and-coming brands.

The number of shoppers that attended the event was comparable to our first LA show, which has grown every year. So I think Unique SF will track the same way, increasing by thousands each show, [and] we plan to come back at least once a year, if not twice…

We were so impressed with and loved the SF-based vendors, we cannot wait to have our 2nd show which will no doubt attract more Bay-area designers/artists now that we’ve had our first show.There are a couple things we would change, mainly with the layout now that we understand how people navigated the space, but overall we really thought the show was great and got really positive feedback from the shoppers which is always a good thing.