Inside ComplexCon Hong Kong: Exclusive Merch, Performances and Cultural Icons

At the first-ever ComplexCon in Hong Kong, a scene all too familiar to avid followers of the pop-culture festival unfolded. Thousands of streetwear fanatics lined up for hours awaiting the event and tornadoed the Complex Marketplace upon entry. This crowd rushed to grab all the limited-release RichMilk Drips, Verdy x McDonald’s skate decks, and Clot Crocs they could. The law of scarcity rules the Complex land, and those with the signed Jeff Staple Panda Pigeon Dunks win.

To the uninitiated, the sheer madness that unfolds when the doors open drops jaws; to others who have followed the Long Beach, California-born gathering — known for its limited-edition merch and sneaker drops — since its 2016 inception, it’s just business as usual. In its debut international effort, ComplexCon attracted more than 30,000 people (from places including the U.S., Canada, the UK, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, mainland China and Hong Kong) to Hong Kong’s AsiaExpo over three concert-filled nights and two packed exhibition days.

ComplexCon chose Hong Kong as its international launch city because of its vibrant and engaged youth culture and unique geographical location as an east-meets-west platform for cultural exchange. Launching ahead of the city’s spring art season, which included the first full-capacity post-pandemic Art Basel, the addition of ComplexCon to the calendar expanded the city’s offerings to include streetwear and pop culture, addressing segments previously overlooked. (Underwritten by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Complex Chinese is the licensed partner of Complex for Greater China.)

This edition was only the second time the event happened outside Long Beach in its seven-year history. In 2019, ComplexCon took on Chicago with Takashi Murakami as artistic director, inspired by Illinois-born designer Virgil Abloh and his streetwear contemporaries.

True to this edition’s theme of “Bridging Cultures,” attendees came to see what’s new and next in music, art, food, sports, innovation, activism and education. Attendees also came to shop. According to organizers, festival goers spend an average of $600 per person, generating over $30 million in revenue from products purchased onsite. 

“The overwhelming response from the community to this first edition of ComplexCon in Asia demonstrates the power and draw of youth culture, specifically, its ability to inspire and stimulate business collaboration. We curated with cross-cultural expertise a program that features the world’s most influential and trending creators and brands, and also included talent from across the region and locally,” says Bonnie Chan-Woo, CEO and founder of Complex China and the organizer of ComplexCon Hong Kong. “By facilitating a greater exchange of ideas and demonstrating pop culture’s appeal across borders, we created a self-reinforcing dynamic that supports the creative economy, brings communities together and enhances collaboration and creativity.”

Among the hundreds of creators and artists who participated were rappers 21 Savage and Lupe Fiasco; the godfather of streetwear Fragment’s Hiroshi Fujiwara; former Dior Men jewelry director Yoon Ahn; Jordan Brand chief design officer Jason Mayden, visual communications innovator Jeff Staple and Chinese designer Feng Chen Wang.

Throughout the marketplace, which juxtaposes large-scale site-specific immersive brand popups with white-box pop-up showrooms, attendees clamored for rare and limited-edition takeaways from more than 100 brands. ComplexCon also offers a lot that can’t be bagged up, such as the nightly Complex Live concerts, commissioned and loaned contemporary artwork, ComplexCon(versations) with influential cultural figures and a food festival with some of the city’s top restaurants. 

Cross-Cultural and Cross-Sector Collaborations Reign

South Korean artist VandyThePink teamed up with South Korean gamer Faker; L.A.-based Hong Kong actor and musician Edison Chen, founder of Clot, partnered with Crocs; fashion designer Feng Chen Wang collab-ed with Converse; and Verdy (who is Blackpink’s creative director) made magic with McDonald’s.

Brand Visionaries Lean In 

Cultural icons such as graffiti artist Futura, fashion designer Jeff Hamilton, artist Takashi Murakami and designer Jeff Staple had personal moments with their fans.

New York City Still Rules Street Style

The presence of New York was felt everywhere. Harlem stylist and influencer Bloody Osiris made the marketplace rounds, pointing out his favorites, including South Korea’s Thug Club. New York City artist Mr. Star City, whose work spans painting, sculpture, poetry, music, performance, film, photography and installation art, and who recently collaborated with Billionaire Boys Club, introduced a limited apparel collection under the guise of The Loverboy’s Flower Shop. New York-based artist Daniel Arsham unveiled a new “Future Relic” in his Star Wars series. Cast in bronze and stainless steel, with its patina darkened with black oil, the life-sized Darth Vader wields a lightsaber.

The New New 

Many global brands debuted in Hong Kong at ComplexCon, such as South Korea’s Thug Club, beloved by Hollywood A-listers and K-pop stars, Yohji Yamamoto’s Wildside, the fashion icon’s latest project, and Pas Une Marque from France. Blackpink and Takashi Murakami dropped their first Asian collection and second collaboration.

Shopping Made Fun 

Inspired by Hong Kong street scenes, Clot’s street butcher shop and Randomevent’s tea house were authentic down to the smallest detail, with white-aproned ladies serving Clot’s limited-edition Nike drop. Taking the opposite approach, international brands brought a piece from home: Futura Laboratory’s “KNEWSTAND” Newsstand, BBC ICE CREAM’s F Train Subway Entrance at East Broadway (complete with graffiti) and Fried Rice’s Lower East Side Pizza Parlor transported shoppers to the Big Apple.

Exclusive Merch

Girls Don’t Cry, Wasted Youth, Humanmade, Fragment Design, Eric Kot, 21 Savage, and ARR x Little Thunder designed merch, with lines queuing for three-plus hours to snag hoodies and T-shirts.

ComplexCon(versations)

Over two days, 10 discussions with 32 thought leaders from 10 regions were conducted in 4 languages. Topics ranged from navigating collaboration theory and inherent creative tensions to K-Culture and sneaker collectors.

Fujiwara presented a Fragment University lecture on his Collaboration Theory for the first time outside Tokyo, providing practical tips, techniques, and frameworks on collaboration and ideation. Mayden, Staple and Wang shared their take on collaboration with Complex’s Brendan Dunne. Thug Min (Thug Club), Wendy Lin (VandyThePink) and artist SAMBYPEN joined Complex’s Donnie Kwak in a discussion about the rise of K-Culture and its influence worldwide. Dunne, sneaker expert and host of Full Size Run, compared notes with three of Asia’s most notorious sneakerheads, Wadism of Korea, XiaoPiHai of Malaysia and Hong Kong’s own Sunny Sun.

Stand-Out Performances

The three nights of concerts showed the range, diversity, and depth of hip-hop talent favored by the audience. Night one served as a showcase for Chinese hip hop with the trio 3CORNERZ, made up of MC Yan, Chef, and Edison Chen; Lexie Liu from mainland China; SHOU Lou from Taiwan; and Hong Kong’s Novel Fergus. Night two shifted the spotlight onto South Korea’s hip-hop scene, where five artists from the AOMG label performed: Simon Dominic, along with Loco, Gray, Woo Won-Jae, and Coogie. Sunday’s sold-out finale featured 21 Savage in his first live performance since the release of his album, American Dream, as well as his Asian debut. American rapper Lupe Fiasco also took the stage and brought out street artist Futura.

The Culinary Movement

Mirroring what it does with streetwear goods, ComplexCon presented 18 of Hong Kong’s food and beverage innovators within a curated culinary village. They also featured exclusive drops: McDonald’s Hong Kong served McNuggets and Hotcakes in packaging designed by Verdy; Chef Matt Abergel of the one-Michelin-star Yardbird peddled his “Flagrant Sauce” hot sauce; and Bar Leone, led by Lorenzo Antinori, gave out samples of his addictive smoked olives with mortadella on focaccia sandwiches.

Beyond the Expo

The newly reopened Regent Hong Kong in Kowloon served as the home base for talent and guests. The hotel, originally opened in 1980, has a storied past for locals and visitors who have encountered it over five decades as one of the most famous addresses in the electric city. Hong Kong-born designer Chi Wing Lo used his expertise in architecture, interior design, furniture, and art curation to envision the new interior of Regent, his first hotel project. Lo abundantly applies tactile materials such as natural oak and granite, blending serenity and stimulation. He scatters “personal haven” spaces throughout, which are meant to inspire indulgent, intimate moments. Within the 497 guestrooms and 126 suites, these “personal havens” take the form of a window-front daybed from which to sip oolong tea or an ergonomic bathtub to soak in while enjoying the views of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island’s skyline. The Regent’s brand reimagining continues, with Regent Santa Monica Beach set to open this summer.

Up Next: Las Vegas

On the heels of Asia, ComplexCon announced it will debut in Las Vegas on November 16 and 17, 2024, at a yet-to-be-announced location. Another international edition is also in the works, which will take place in Melbourne.

In February, NTWRK, a live-video shopping platform and marketplace estimated to reach $68 million in sales by 2026, signed an agreement to acquire Complex. Aaron Levant, who co-founded NTWRK with Jamie Iovine and Gaston Dominguez-Letelier in 2018, leads the new company. Levant originally co-created ComplexCon alongside Marc Eckō, Complex’s founder, in 2016.