Fans flock to Wisco Pop-Up event
After fans made their way through Lost Files, they were directed to the retail trailer brought by the Brewers.
Exclusive Wisco Way series merchandise was available during Saturday's event.
Lost Files owner Estevan Longoria manned the register during the event.
Brewers fans began lining up at 6:30 a.m. outside Lost Files in Downtown Lake Geneva on Saturday, two-and-a-half hours before the doors opened for the first stop of the Milwaukee Brewers' Wisco Pop-Up Series.
Fans were looking for a chance to snag limited edition sneakers, free Brewers tickets and more during the three-hour event.
Lost Files is a boutique that opened this past May. Owner Estevan Longoria describes his brand as "Midwest Streetwear," combining midwestern culture and fashion.
One family had traveled to Milwaukee from Dallas, Texas, for a Brewers game earlier in the week and when they heard about the pop-up decided to extend their trip and head to Lake Geneva to meet the mascots, buy the limited edition City Connect shoes and experience the collaboration.
This event was the first of the "Wisco Pop-Up Series" that the Brewers have created to go along with the "Wisco Way" city connect jerseys that are worn for every Friday home game throughout the season.
Wisco is the shortened form of Wisconsin, and is being used to connect with younger audiences throughout the state.
"It was very important to the organization to kind of lean into this state as a whole and be able to show that this wasn't just a jersey, it was much more than that," said Izzy Lugo, director of experiential marketing for the Brewers. "The real story is the people, the communities, and those small businesses throughout Wisconsin who really make the state special."
Fans were able to purchase merchandise from Lost Files and the Brewers that were shown for the first time at the event and the limited edition Nike Wisco City Connect Air Max 1s.
Lost Files brought in a local screen printer Hansen's Screen Printing to print the Wisco logo on tote bags that were given out with every purchase.
Lugo said sales in the Brewers retail trailer were triple what the organization predicted, showcasing the strong response of fans in Lake Geneva.
The line was wrapped around the corner until around 10 a.m., with the event only lasting until noon and many fans
"Lost Files is crushing it. They're selling a lot of their merchandise too," Lugo said. "Just spotlighting a small business like them, new to the area and everything like that, giving them hopefully one of their biggest days, if not their biggest day yet. That's the main thing."
Longoria said he used to sit in lines just like the one outside his store for shoes and was unable to put into words how impactful the moment was.
"It's so crazy, because I used to resell shoes, and reselling shoes was how I got enough money to start Lost Files," Longoria said. "I saved up about $3,000 doing that, and Nike's were a huge part of that. Five years later, we have a pair of Nikes at retail price in my clothing store, it's the coolest thing in the world. It's such a full circle moment. … "The essence of their city connect jersey was to connect with the entire state as a whole and just showing off all the cool things that are Wisconsin."
Both Longoria and Lugo said that it was only a matter of time before their brands intersected again in a bigger scheme after their first collaboration in 2025 with the Artist SeriesTt-shirt giveaway.
"The intersection between streetwear, City Connect and the Brewers, is just that younger audience," Lugo said. "We 100% want to capture that."
The campaign was designed to make the City Connect jersey feel more like streetwear than traditional game-day apparel, the Nikes being a key piece of the campaign, Lugo said.
Lugo said that Lake Geneva always was a part of the plan for the pop-up — vacationed here in his childhood, as did other members of the Brewers' marketing and executive teams.
Lugo said the team hopes to show fans the authenticity of the popups and the help it brings to local businesses is the bottom line.
"I'm just so grateful for the community," Longoria said. "I felt like we kind of really wanted to push this as a more community event rather than this just being like a sneaker release. We wanted the community to be involved."
Beth Tumas, owner of The Bottle Shop, which is next door to Lost Files, said that she was grateful the event brought exposure to their little corner of Main Street.
"I like to work with a lot of the local businesses, because I want all of us to be successful," Tumas said. "Any exposure you get is good exposure."
Longoria said he was grateful to have Barrel man, Bernie the Brewer, the DJ, Hansen's screen printing, and everyone who made the day a success.
"We wanted this to be an experience rather than just being another in-store shopping, customer type transactional experience," Longoria said.
The Wisco Pop-Up Series continues with stops in Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, Green Bay and Appleton, as well as murals across Wisconsin.
