Arc'teryx is now a leader in healthcare
Plus: The World Cup is getting a half-time show. One artist will have the audience of a lifetime.
Morning,
Low of the week: A nice, fat typo in the subject line of the podcast email.
High of the week: The most lovely chat with a fan of the letter.
Aiming for more of the latter. Reach out for fun chats.
If you only read one thing in this letter, I recco: THROWING OUT THE CANE about the future of healthcare.
As always, the lens of this letter is a best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What I’m dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands.
Let’s dig in.
CULTURE
MEDIA HAS CHANGED // Given you’re reading a Substack, you are undoubtedly aware of Taylor Lorenz’s arrival on the platform. The internet’s favorite writer on all things internet culture has left the WaPo and started User Mag. She gained 39K subscribers in a week. The future of media is your ‘owning’ your audience.
MINDFULLY CARING LESS // It was only a matter of time before the gentle parenting pendulum would begin to swing. It’s gaining steam fast. ‘Underparenting’ is a new term I can see gaining traction.
F&B
STARBUCKS IS OPTIMIZING -> Snaxshot // Starbucks has partnered with AG-1. You can now add a scoop of greens to a refresher or just get a shot in a glass of ice water. The latter is shocking. The last time Starbucks partnered so heavily with a brand may have been their ill-fated pastry partnership with La Boulange. While I think the ‘healthification’ of everything is losing steam, this is a big general audience AG-1 to gain.
LAWSUITS AS MOAT -> Snaxshot // JM Smuckers is suing Chubby’s Snacks for false claims. Seems like a big move against a brand with fewer than 30K followers. But they have a $1B brand to protect. Poppi is also having to lawyer up, due to too many gut-health claims. Lawyers are expensive and big brands have them on the payroll—smaller brands need to watch out!
SO HAPPY FOR SIETE // Few brands have the brand-love that Siete has. Since their inception, the prevailing statement has been ‘love that family’. That’s hard to maintain. So the internet was wildly ‘proud’ of the Siete team for selling to Pepsi for $1B. Maintain what has made them different within such a large org will be the challenge.
LUXURY SOBRIETY -> As Seen On // LVMH acquired a 30% stake in non-alcoholic sparkling winemaker French Bloom—their first foray into the NA space. Alcohol-removed is a growing approach in this space so I’d expect to see an NA Moët or Cheval Blanc sometime soon. The price point of French Bloom’s products is notable, 110€ for their cuvée is way beyond what’s typical in this space.
DIY CO-PACKING // Finding a co-packer is a big undertaking for emerging brands. ReScale is looking to change that. Founded by an ex-Trader Joe’s exec, the company will allow brands to find co-packers more easily. They plan to expand into trucking, legal, and other services. The company got most of its investment from Baukunst which is a VC group focused on brands at the ‘frontier of technology and design’.
DRUGS
YOUR CHOICE, BUT WILL IT BE CHOSEN? // California-based YourChoice Therapeutics is in human trials of a birth control pill for men. Vasectomies are on the rise, so the appetite for options is there. The placeholder brand will need to get better. It couldn’t be less reassuring.
HORMONES ARE RISING // Since the studies around the HRT causing cancer have been debunked, more and more peri and menopausal women are getting on them—with life-changing results. Unsurprisingly, the standard GP is quite behind the curve and women as seeking out ‘experts’. I predict this will be the next wave in ‘private’ medicine. There is yet to be a brand leading here.
SILVERS, ALPHAS & ZS
KIDS HAS CHANGED // Brands have been actively building for Gen-A in the beauty space for a minute. But this feels like an expansion. This kid’s hair salon, Super AwesomeCuts, is made-for-kids but not in the Mickey-decals-on-mirrors way. Gen-A are sophisticated when it comes to brands and these types of spaces are what they are craving. Another example is this tween-friendly store, Play, whose programming has been on-point. A related thought: Seeing these sparkle freckles this week, I couldn’t help but think a Gen-A ‘make-up salon’ franchise would be a huge hit.
KUMON COMPETITOR -> AfterSchool // Kumon is notorious on TikTok for traumatizing an entire generation of kids with tortuous math tutoring. Enter Girl Math in SF. While it’s still a single location, this place could easily be as big as Mathnasium and Kumon. That said, all of these brands are behind the curve aesthetically (see above) and there’s a big place for a more relevant player in this space.
YOU’RE INVITED TO MY CINCUENTAÑERA // The Silvers are celebrating. Pinterest called this trend back in 2023. Latina women hitting 50 aren’t just throwing a big party—they are having a cincuentañera. Even though signs of aging aren’t popular, celebrating getting older is.
RETAIL
BRITCHES TOO BIG TO FILL // Levi’s should have been having a good week with their Beyoncé collab but the timing has not been the best. Beyonce has had some bad tabloid press this week but the fact that
’s piece on Beyoncé is #1 in the business section of Substack is not great either. “Beyonce is iconic; somehow, her brands are not."—ouch.JD IS TAKING OVER -> Snobette // JD Sports is finally getting big in the States. They acquired Finish Line and Hibbett and are turning them all into JD stores. The company now boasts 4,506 stores. The earnings call also revealed some other good nuggets. There’s a growing trend in retro running. According to JD, the big players are New Balance, Asics, and Nike…in that order. That said, they are bullish on a Nike comeback. Nike’s themselves seem much less convinced:
“Our men's and women's lifestyle business was planned down double digits in Q1, and we expect these declines to continue through the year. The Jordan brand was planned down several digits this quarter. And we expect Jordan to be down at the same rate for fiscal 2025. And we expect Nike Digital to decline double digits in fiscal 2025 versus the prior year. All taken together, these trends drove a mid-single digit headwind on Q1 revenue.” —yikes.
THE RETURN OF SPECIALITY RETAIL -> Retail Diary // Steven Alan has returned to retail. Since closing his boutiques, Alan has been busy helping other brands, like Clare V grow, but now he’s back. Alan is an outstanding curator. A curated lens is very much back. Taylor Lorenz as one example. ShopRat another. Big Night—the list goes on. Steven couldn’t be better for this moment. Having taste is the future.
RUNWAY SPECTACULARS // This year Paris Fashion Week was all about spectacle. While big shows have long had an element of fantasy, this is a new level. Coperni showed at Disney using the Disney Land Paris castle as the backdrop (this bag was also all over my feed). Louboutin also went big this year merging spectacle, sport, and fashion—quite the trifecta—with a synchronized swimming performance featuring the French Olympic team all wearing heels.
TECH
WITH SHORTS REPLACE TIKTOK? -> AfterSchool // TikTok is still not having an easy time convincing US regulators to back off. Europe is also hot on its heels. Maybe Amazon will buy them and this all goes away. Or maybe YouTube Shorts will take their place? But meanwhile, TT is not standing still. They are doubling down on livestream e-comm—which despite many efforts has still not taken off in the States.
WEIRDLY DRAMATIC WORDPRESS // The founder of WordPress, a business that is supposed to be open-source, has taken a huge dislike to WP Engine, the most popular hosting service, and has banned them from making plugin updates. Given that thousands of government agencies, public services, and businesses host with WP Engine this drama could get louder.
SPORT
WORLD CUP AMERICANIZED -> Offball // The 2026 World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium is getting a halftime show like the Super Bowl, produced by Global Citizen. Considering that soccer is watched by much more of the world than American Football, whoever headlines this may have the largest audience in history. Get your ads ready!
WELLNESS & BEAUTY
THROWING OUT THE CANE -> The Hustle // It is no surprise to regular readers that I’m quite obsessed with the changing face of healthcare. Skip has recently partnered with Arc'teryx to create ‘powered clothing’. The pants-meets-device are “designed to help you tackle any elevation with less exertion, muscle fatigue & joint discomfort”. This is the end of our ‘elders use canes’ era.
FIRST LIPS, NOW BUTTS -> Feed Me // Filled is out. Slim is in. ‘Ballet bodies’, slender yet toned are back. In line with dissolving lip and face filler, women are opting for slimmer and smaller body enhancements. Unsurprisingly, due to GLP-1, ‘body lifts’ are also gaining traction.
WELLNESS ROLL-UP // Women’s reproductive health brand, Loom, was acquired by Perelel. I’ve been following Loom for years, since they had a physical location in LA, before going fully digital. This type of ‘educational platform’ for a brand like Perelel is interesting and makes me think they are making a play to become THE reproductive brand women trust most.
TRAVEL
LONG HAULS FOR LONGEVITY -> The CQ // Longevity centers won’t make it into every letter, I promise. But the developments keep coming. The latest take is a cruise, Storylines, that is offering $44,000 courses in stem cells and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (HRT is huge right now). They refer to it as a “blue zone at sea.”
‘MEMOONERS’ & SOPHISTICATED PALATES -> The Hustle // Hilton’s released its 2025 Trend Report. 47% of global respondents travel by themselves. Gen Z (55%) and Millennials (51%) are more likely to travel solo. I suspect that the majority of this is for work (Gen-Z aren’t that young anymore) but ‘single’ travel is a huge space. This also stood out: “Balanced kids' menus are key, catering to Gen Alpha's advanced palate and love for global flavors. Expect more options, like the ability to choose pizza or sashimi, on kids' menus.” Gen-A is ready to end the chicken nugget cycle.
FUN FOR THE WEEK
Asics cast Brian Cox, from Succession in their latest campaign Desk Break—fun but it takes a long time to think about the brand / the shoes.
Thom Browne’s pop-up in Seoul commits to the bit perfectly.
This Stabilo x Dolce Gabbana collab has been all over my feed. I love the patterns but the pen colors and innovation don’t live up to the ‘packaging’.
Decathlon's ‘Rentals for Rubbish’ campaign gives you discounts for picking up trash.
Oset Babür-Winter, a former Food and Wine editor, launched a CPG-focused gifting suite called Prix Fixe.
LVMH sold Off White and people were unimpressed. Streetwear is not having a good moment.
Oreo released tubes of icing for you to repair cracked cookies like the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Naturally, people were disappointed the icing wasn’t gold.
A store in China is selling human-sized Pocky and Oreo boxes. This would be a hit as a pop-up in the US.
Miss Universe in South Korea has a contestant that’s 80.
Jessica Walsh launched a type foundry, Type of Feeling.
There are more luxury and sports collabs every day. Team ‘pre-game’ looks make sense.
That’s all, folx.
-Chris
If you read this and liked it, that little heart is there for that. The algo and I appreciate it.