Together with
Moonlight sonata. Before yesterday’s lunar light show, the last time a Super Blue Moon lit up the sky (2009), Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were dominating the airwaves. Fast forward 14 years later, and not much has really changed. With the next SBM set to rise again in 2037, we wonder if Bey and Tay will still be topping the charts. Based on their track records, it’s probably safe to assume so.
In other news… classic styles drive the sneaker market, Gen Z ditches social media, and remote workers fight back.
Top Trends
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe
FASHION
What’s old is new // Illustration by Kate Walker
Retro sneakers may be the new fitted suit
The Future. For the past decade, the best-selling sneakers have been variations of the hits, including Nike’s Air Force 1s and Dunks and adidas’ Gazelles and Sambas — all shoes that debuted between the 1950s and 80s. For consumers, the iconic shoes may fall somewhere between a conscious status symbol and a simple belief that there’s no need to fix what’s not broken. Yet, the newest trend that may take the sneaker world by storm is young people remixing retro styles with their own flair… and brands could benefit from encouraging it.
New classic style
Old shoes are so hot right now.
On StockX, only three of the top 50 best-selling sneakers this year were made in the past five years.
Chris Gibbs, owner of retailer Union Los Angeles, says retro styles, including new collabs and colorways of those styles, are “driving our market.”
Over the last ten years, retro styles helped double Nike’s sales to $51.2 billion and boosted adidas’ by 50% to $24.3 billion.
But what’s driving the trend? The Business of Fashion found factors like widespread nostalgia, the cultural dominance of hip-hop and streetwear, and even COVID supply chain crunches created a perfect fit for customer demand and brand focus.
Even beyond sneakers, the retro phenomenon is what Status and Culture author W. David Marx calls “retromania,” which he says is a byproduct of an internet age when everyone has access to products and information. People learn what’s cool (like retro sneakers) and acquire it at scale… making it harder for new products to get a foothold in culture and break out.
That doesn’t mean brands will stop trying out new sneakers (Nike is upping R&D spending), but it probably won’t be their focus.
    |
SOCIAL MEDIA
Goodbye, social life // Illustration by Kate Walker
Gen Z ditches social media for private community
The Future. People are getting tired of the endless curation, projection, and pressure of the social media landscape and are now doing their regular posting on more private channels within platforms. That’s allowing users to be more authentic, build niche communities, and have healthier digital habits. As teens start to use social media more privately, digital marketing may have a harder time embedding itself in the daily communication of the average user — making these platforms a noisier, more fractured form of traditional media.
Up in the group chats
Instagram’s transformation from a digital scrapbook to a personal business platform filled with brands and influencers has led to user exhaustion, argues Insider’s Amanda Perelli and Sydney Bradley.
So, users, especially young ones, have scaled back how often they post on their main feeds, opting for only a handful of times a year.
They now spend much more time DMing, sending photos in group chats, posting on Stories, and using features like Close Friends — changes that Instagram head Adam Mosseri has even acknowledged.
That has shrunk users’ communities but also crafted tighter, more authentic ones, pouring more attention into relationships than engagement — a boon for new platforms like Discord and Geneva (though most are failing).
That’s not to say engagement is down. Influencers and brands post constantly, and their fans are happy to view, comment, and share that content. In that sense, most platforms have become what Perelli and Bradley call “aspirational entertainment” apps.
In the modern age of social media, most users are overwhelmingly consumers rather than creators. Having an audience just isn’t for everyone.
| |
Create, but way faster
Creating content just got a whole lot easier and faster.
How? YouAi.
YouAi has a creator suite that helps you brainstorm content ideas and bring them to life on all social platforms. Forget generic content. YouAi actually gives you a hand in creating custom content for your audience. And it does so in record time with tools like:
The CleverContent AI that generates optimized posts tailored to your brand and platforms and removes the stress of planning a tedious content schedule.
The Blog Post Generator that’ll spit out killer blog posts on any topic you want, in your unique voice. Ask it to edit until the content is exactly what you need.
The Video Script Generator that, like magic, will create the perfect script for any of your videos in seconds.
Oh, and if you want to see how the content performs, YouAi helps with that, too. Pretty incredible, huh?
WORK
The war room
Employees fight return-to-office mandates
The Future. Despite WFH arrangements becoming commonplace during COVID, employers are now reeling those perks back in, asking employees to show up in the office or face termination. Unsurprisingly, workers are pushing back. But with the job market hitting a brick wall due to recession fears, it’s a conflict that most big, team-based, competitive employers could likely win.
Home vs. company office
The office is now a work-culture battleground.
The model employers are trying to implement would have employees come into the office at least three days a week, enforced by employee badge swipes.
But employees are pushing back, stating the badge swipes are micromanagement and many have already moved to different states and developed new, more flexible routines.
Yet, the tide may ultimately favor employers. A survey from Monster found 75% of workers would relocate if a job wanted them to, while the other 25% would rather quit. But there’s a wrinkle. If employers want to attract new hires, 40% say having access to remote or hybrid work is a “motivating factor.”
One company is trying to have it both ways. Food giant J.M. Smucker is introducing “core weeks” — 22 weeks a year when employees need to be in the office for some of the days; the rest they can be home. The schedule means employees really only need to be in the office an average of six days per month.
| |
Discover the world’s most comfortable insole
Insoles are cool now — you didn’t know?
One of the companies giving insoles a facelift (footlift?) by valuing aesthetics as well as comfort is Fulton. Their insoles fit true to shoe size, so there’s no need to buy giant gel inserts and stress about cutting them down correctly. And Fulton’s comfortable cork base molds to your arch as you walk, providing customized support.
So, grab some Fulton insoles and ditch the discomfort next time you want to go on a hot person walk or plan on standing for hours at a music festival.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
CNN has tapped Mark Thompson, the architect behind The New York Times’ digital makeover and revenue recovery, as its newest CEO — just in time for Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN on Max rollout. Read more → variety
During The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has spent a sky-high 166 hours traversing America in her two private jets, mostly to get back home to Nashville — talk about a long commute. Read more → insider
Digital Eclipse is creating playable archives of classic arcade games, starting with the action game Karateka. Read more → theverge
Fashion & E-Commerce
In fashion, CEO basically means “Chief Energy Officer” — curating the vibe of a brand and getting people excited about changes (see: Pharrell at Louis Vuitton). Read more → fastcompany
Tremaine Emory is exiting his role as creative director of Supreme after only two seasons at the streetwear label. Read more → complex
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard built his new home in suburban Ventura, CA, almost entirely out of hay… and hopes to inspire others to try the cheap, sustainable construction option. Read more → fastcompany
Tech, Web3, & AI
Meta just took down the biggest online influence network in its history: a pro-Beijing campaign run by Chinese authorities consisting of 7,704 accounts, 954 pages, 15 Facebook groups, and 15 Instagram accounts. Read more → axios
OpenAI is on track to scrape together $1 billion in annual sales from ChatGPT. Read more → insider
The Air Force is enlisting $6 billion to build a fleet of AI-powered drones, dubbed the XQ-58A Valkyrie. Read more → engadget
Creator Economy
Reels may up their video runtime to 10 minutes to continue playing catch-up with TikTok. Read more → theverge
X is reopening its platform to political ads, overturning Jack Dorsey’s 2019 ban. Read more → techcrunch
YouTube has recruited MrBeast to spin up one of his insane challenges (this time with 1,000 QR codes spread among 748 of his videos and within some of the 2022 NFL season highlights on YouTube’s channel) to win a subscription to the company’s newly acquired NFL Sunday Ticket. Read more → tubefilter
JOBBY LOBBY
Explore a weekly curated list of the latest and greatest job opportunities in business, tech, and entertainment. For more listings, check out the complete job board.
Senior Software Engineer, Ads Data and Foundation Tech
TikTok
London, UK
Sr. Architect – Data, AI, Information Architecture
The Travelers Companies
Hartford, CT
Strategic Sales Director
Darktrace
Phoenix, AZ
Data Engineer, Stream Reporting
Spotify
London, UK
Like what you see? Subscribe Now or Partner With Us
Keep the editorial team going! Buy the team a coffee! ☕️
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.