The 10 Best Things We Saw at CactusCon: Rick Owens, Vetements, & More
These are the brands, products, and activations that stuck with us from Travis Scott’s CactusCon in Las Vegas.
On the weekend of November 16, Travis Scott transformed a part of ComplexCon 2024 into CactusCon. It was an ambitious project for the artistic director of this year’s two-day event and his Cactus Jack collective. The area, which exceeded all our expectations, was an amalgamation of the artist’s various creative endeavors.
After walking through a stone cave-like structure, visitors were greeted by a bazaar resembling a flea market complete with draped canopies and colorful Moroccan carpets. It was home to booths from a series of designers and artists personally curated by Travis Scott. Then, fans could enter the maze-like CactusCon merch area that housed exclusive collaborations by the likes of Cactus Plant Flea Market and Mowalola. It was situated next to the incredible Tech Glade studio setup designed by Rick Owens. Around the corner, activations from Sp5der and Vetements commanded lines for the entirety of the weekend. Other sections showcased custom cars like the BMW M3 E30 from Travis’ Jackboys era and a matte brown Brabus 600.
To top it off, the latest chapter of Travis Scott’s Nike partnership culminated in a full futsal court stadium, featuring their sneaker archive, a soccer jersey customization area, and a Cactus Jack sportswear gear shop.
The full CactusCon experience was an unforgettable one, and unlike anything we have ever seen at ComplexCon before. Here are the 10 most impressive things from the event that we can’t stop thinking about.
Cactus Jack
The biggest highlight of CactusCon was the exclusive Cactus Jack collabs. The store drew insanely long lines all weekend. As consolation for the wait times, fans were treated to displays of Travis Scott memorabilia such as friends and family boxes of Reese’s Puffs, the iconic Rodeo action figure, and outfits worn throughout the Circus Maximus tour. Once they snaked your way through the maze-like exterior, they were able to shop football jerseys made with the Las Vegas Raiders, cargo pants by Mowalola, WWE T-shirts with a remix of Mick Foley’s smiley face logo, a new brown colorway of Cactus Plant Flea Market’s Cowboy Pullover, and even bottles of “La Flame” Truff hot sauces. It would have been easy to blow all of your ComplexCon budget here.
Screwed Up Records
Travis Scott made sure to show love to Houston and its rich hip-hop history. A recreation of Screwed Up Records & Tapes, the iconic headquarters of the legendary DJ Screw, sat in the middle of the CactusCon Bazaar. The booth resembled the exterior of the actual store in Texas. Visitors could shop a variety of jackets, hoodies, T-shirts, and accessories laid out across a folding table. There were also airbrushed T-shirts featuring the inventor of the chopped and screwed music style complete with syrupy purple artwork. A poster board etched with pricing info added to the historical authenticity of the experience.
Very Special
Even if you aren’t a vintage watch expert, you could appreciate the variety of incredible pieces that were on display at the booth for Miami-based showroom Very Special. Standouts included a gold Rolex Day-Date with a raspberry red dial, a Patek Philippe Nautilus Jumbo 3700, and a custom Rolex Sea-Dweller with a Chrome Hearts band that was priced at $50,000. Seeing the display case had us wishing that we could cop one for ourselves. Time to start saving.
Nike
Travis Scott is arguably Nike’s biggest collaborator, so of course the brand had to go all out for CactusCon. Nike constructed a mini stadium inside the Las Vegas Convention Center that hosted soccer-themed programming. One area was home to a circular futsal court where an after-hours tournament took place for private VIPs. Another was dedicated to Travis Scott’s new line of soccer-themed apparel for his fictional club, Maximus United. Fans had the opportunity to customize their own soccer jerseys with Cactus Jack-themed patches, logos, and numbers, and take in Travis’ entire run of sneaker collaborations with Nike thus far including even never-before-seen samples. If you’re a Travis fan, there wasn’t much more you could ask for.
Brabus
Travis Scott might as well own the color brown at this point. Whenever it comes time for him to cook up a new project, you can almost guarantee it will be drenched in brown. One of the latest examples on full display at CactusCon was a one-of-one vehicle set up in collaboration with Brabus. The German aftermarket auto company dressed the SUV in a matte “Cactus Jack Brown” paint scheme with platinum black Monoblock M rims. The details on the interior were just as crazy—brown quilted leather seats, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel and dashboard.
Kozaburo
Kozaburo’s upcycling sub-label, Phantom Ranch, sold one-of-a-kind caps at CactusCon. There were pre-made styles as well as ones pieced together at the booth in real time. Each cap is handmade from stapling scraps of vintage dad hats. The final results transform otherwise worthless tourist shop fodder into unique statement pieces. Michele Lamy sported one during her visit to ComplexCon and Family Style Food Festival.
New Idea Corp.
New Idea Corp. was our best new discovery from the CactusCon Bazaar. The New York-based creative studio aims to educate and engage the youth through art, furniture, and fashion. In Vegas, it curated an exhibition of items like an original 1979 shirt by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s Seditionaries, a curved shelf by German avant-garde designer Wolfgang Launetsheimer, and the Do Hit Chair by Dutch designer Marjin van der Poll. Visitors could buy merch like T-shirts and caps featuring a Goodwill logo flip, as well as books full of reference materials covering topics like interior design and furniture.
Better Gift Shop
Avi Gold’s Better Gift Shop brought some exclusive pieces customized by Japanese embroidery master, AOI Industry. You may know AOI for its work with Supreme. Shell jackets from popular labels like Arc’teryx, as well as trucker caps and hoodies featured clusters of the incredibly detailed stitchwork. We wish we had the $1,000+ needed to take home one of the jackets.
Oakley
Eyewear aficionados would have appreciated the valuable vintage frames from Oakley’s archive. There was a pair of $2,000 gold Over the Tops and a $15,000 Romeo and Juliet set. Both were swiftly snatched up by eager buyers as soon as the fair opened its doors.
There were also various footwear styles from the brand’s Factory Team line, and Travis Scott’s custom Circus Maximus tour outfits hanging from the wall. There was something here for everybody.
Vetements
Vetements ran a custom T-shirt screenprinting station on the floor of CactusCon. Shoppers could choose from 17 different graphics in a variety of colors including an upside-down Eifel Tower, Vegas-centric wordmarks, and kitschy phrases like “This Is the Only T-shirt I Co-designed in Las Vegas.” Depending on the number of graphics chosen, the white T-shirt could cost between $200 and $950. Vetements founder Guram Gvasalia even made a cameo, signing some fans’ items.
