SEMA 2017 ANOTHER YEAR IN THE BOOKS
If you don’t know what the SEMA Show is, it’s the automotive aftermarket’s annual trade show and is one of the highest attended conventions held in the U.S. every year. With roughly 160,000 people who attend, it is second only to Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At the show, we have a booth and bring around 30 people, it’s the biggest thing we do as a company each year. This one marked my 16th year in attendance. So, it was just another year at SEMA for me, but it was fun to see the newbies on our staff in utter amazement at the sheer size of the show. While it’s closed to the public, and a real no-no to attend without being in the industry, I really wish every car person could see it at least once. All the coverage we and other media outlets do will never give it the justice it deserves. It’s Mecca for auto enthusiasts.
My first year at the show I can remember very well, I was 18 years old, working for a small truck shop in Mission Viejo, California. Walking through the doors for the first time, I really couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Each vehicle was at a level I had never seen before, except in magazines (go figure). Automotive industry celebrities were around every turn, new tools, new parts, I was like a kid in a candy shop; but for a car guy/ kid, SEMA is eons better than that candy shop could ever be. I didn’t know how to act or what to wear. I didn’t know the halls and finding different companies was next to impossible. I was the very definition of a greenhorn, and overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings then—and I loved every minute of it.
It was a dream of mine since I was a little kid, and it had finally come true: I was finally a part of the automotive aftermarket. After 16 years, I’ve moved around within the aftermarket industry a bunch, but I never left the industry, and I never will. I love this industry.
That first year, the trends were pretty interesting—many exist still today, but not like you’d think. Nerf bars and chrome/stainless trim was huge. Bug guards and vent visors were everywhere. The lowered truck scene was huge. Roll pans were a must-have. Neon undercarriage lights were huge, too— and yes, I mean neon like old neon signs. People actually had those glass tubes under their vehicles (remember LEDS weren’t a thing yet). As much as it really hurts me to say, the hot import trend back then is almost exactly like the truck scene today. Swap out neon undercarriage lighting for LED rock lights. Swap out lowering kits for massive lifts. However, the wheels and tires are the same, 24-inches with massive offsets and stretched tires. Back then, the joke was: Use Yuban coffee cans as exhaust tips for torque, Folgers for horsepower; it’s not too different today. V-tech Hondas were easy to tune to make big horsepower, diesels are no different now (except for displacement and torque). It really is funny to see how things have come full circle in 16 short years.
In the beginning SEMA for me was a dream, 16 years later I walk the halls from meeting to meeting discussing more serious things like CPL, SEO, and ROS (all marketing business mumbo jumbo), it’s funny how this passion turned into a job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a dream. Heck, not too many people get to play with some of the baddest diesel trucks on the planet for a living, just funny how life changes. Like I said, I still love this industry and always will. Thanks for reading Diesel World and giving me a chance to live the dream. I hope you all get a chance to see the SEMA Show at some point. If you can’t make it into the show, here’s a few tips: Get yourself to Vegas that week and stay for the weekend after. There’s tons to see outside the show during the week and that outside area is open to the public. After the show is over there’s a cruise and parking lot party with all the vehicles from the show in attendance, also open to the public. And lastly, Friday night is always busy with vehicles from the show cruising the strip. Auto Industry Week definitely dominates Vegas the first week of November that’s for sure.