Someone, apparently, did not get the memo – the memo that says nails technicians don’t want to compete anymore. All the major shows got the memo: The IBS shows in Long Beach and New York both cancelled their nail competitions, the Midwest Beauty Show scrapped its nail competitions in favor of a photographic competition. But somehow the memo that said the nail industry is so far out of sorts that nail technicians won’t compete and don’t care about putting their skills to the test didn’t get to David Daniel, Jim Johnson, and Lee Tomlinson. These three company principals have decided to launch a comprehensive nail competition even that has no intention of starting small. In fact, in case anyone was confused about whether they messiness about this becoming the industry’s biggest competition, they’re calling their even the Nail Olympics. Their motto is, “Everyone can compete, anyone can win.”

Instead of throwing up their hands in frustration at the state of shows, they decided to do something to generate excitement within the nail industry and encourage nail technicians to expand their horizons beyond the salons. They have developed a two-day competitive even with a wide variety of competition categories and divisions for every skill and experience level (division 1 us for students or newcomers who have never competed, division 2 is for nail technicians who have never placed in a nail competition, and division 3 is for competitors who have placed in a competition or who are ranked by NAILS Magazine as a Top Competitor).

The first Nail Olympics will be held June 10-11, 2001, at the Hair & Nail Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The organizers are trying to get as many other manufacturers involved and eventually take the program to shows around the world. We here at NAILS are excited at the prospect. It’s not just that we like nail competitions, but we like the idea of creating an “Olympic Village” feeling and getting nail techs together to network, compete, and share with each other what’s great about this business. There’s more information ion the website (www.nailolympics.com) but the program starts with a free pre-competition class and get-together party on Saturday night, competitions all day Sunday and Monday, and concludes Monday night with an awards presentation where no one goes home empty handed. Meet us there, and let’s light the torch together!

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.