At OTC, clothing can rack up the sales
From Liberace-style suits to kilts, vendors are eager to pocket deals
On the exhibition floor of the Offshore Technology Conference, the clothes are as varied as the equipment. Checkered button downs. Polos in bright green, orange and red. European-cut suits. Kilts.
But it all comes down to the same fashion statement: Buy my stuff.
The loud shirts, coordinated outfits and other attention-grabbing couture are designed to help companies that sell goods and services to the energy industry stand out in a sea of some 2,300 exhibitors at the annual trade show, now in its 50th year. Some vendors opt for outfits that might better belong in a Las Vegas lounge act while others go for a smart, subdued, all-busi-
ness look.
Bram Jansen and his colleagues at Dutch Filtration, an equipment maker in The Netherlands, went the lounge route. Donning baby-blue trousers, jackets and ties festooned with tulips, they became instant show stoppers. Some convention goers could only stare in amazement. But others stopped to talk about filtration systems.
“We feel like movie stars,” said Jansen, the North American sales director. “Everyone wants to take selfies with us.”
The trio paid about $120 for each suit, a small price considering the outfits worked, catching the attention of customers who made deals, said Jansen. The only downside to the suit: the polyester material makes Houston’s hot and humid weather only more so.
John Nixon, also opted for the lounge-singer look, wearing a sequined gold lamé jacket that shimmered under the lights of the convention floor. “How many people do you see dressed like Liberace?” asked Nixon, senior director for global strategy of energy and utilities at German industrial conglomerate Siemens.
Nixon bought the jacket for $99 on Amazon.com, inspired by academic research that shows that a flash of humor helps people better absorb information which, he hoped, would include his own pitch about oil and gas production-enhancing software. His presentation drew about 250 people.
To be sure, plenty exhibitors are stuck to the straight and narrow, sporting traditional dark business suits. Salesman Brian Spring wore a navy blue suit, tie and wingtips. His company, Corrosion Materials of Houston, requires its employees to wear suits at trade shows, even as OTC fashion gets increasingly more casual.
As result, Spring said, “We stand out.”
By and large, as younger executives and employees take over the OTC trade floor, convention goers are dressing down. Womack Machine Supply, a Dallas hydraulic equipment distributor, was founded by RC Womack, who liked his sales guys to look sharp. He required the sales staff to wear jackets, but the company has since abandoned its suit requirements.
This year, Womack’s sales team wore white checkered button-down shirts paired with gray or navy slacks and dress shoes. The company figures the outfit sets employees apart from the other exhibitors in brightly brightly colored polo shirts. “We wanted to stick with something more fashionable and not be so stale,” said Brock Romero, a Womack salesman.
The coordinated looks don’t just happen. Companies spend a lot of time deciding what to wear and when. Employees manning the OTC booth for Texas lubricant maker Jet-Lube get an email before the conference that sets the uniform for each day of the conference. On Wednesday, the shirt-of-the-day was a pumpkin orange polo, which didn’t exactly spark enthusiasm among the men.
“The people that pick these,” said vice president of sales Tom Blake, “don’t wear them.”
For Heatec, a Tennessee company that makes industrial heating equipment, the polos — neon green — won’t come out until Thursday, the last day of the show when exhibitors typically let their hair down. But until then, the eight salesmen were outfitted in matching checked dress shirts with the company’s logo over the breast pocket. This year, they are dark blue. Last year, the shirts were gray.
“Every show is a new shirt,” said Adriano Santos, industrial products sales manager, who pores over a catalog each year to pick just the right look to project the image of quality and commitment. To make sure everyone looks sharp, Santos orders enough shirts so each salesmen can wear a fresh one every day.
With OTC attracting vendors from all over the world, one way companies set themselves apart is by wearing native dress. In Scotland, that means kilts. At the booth of the Aberdeen company Reactive Downhole Tool, salesmen wore kilts in the national plaid of their country.
The company brought some extra kilts for its Houston employees so they would fit in. But the Houston employees weren’t having any of it.
“We tried to get them to,” said Chris Barnes, vice president of business development. “But there was some resistance.”