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Pump it up. MSCHF is at it again, FutureParty people. For its latest drop, the Brooklyn-based art collective has teamed up with Reebok to release a reimagined version of its iconic shoe: the Pump Omni Zone. We’re not sure about you, but we think these limited-edition kicks look straight out of a ‘90s dunk contest in the most ridiculous way possible. It must be all those Dee Brown vibes they’re giving (IYKYK).
In other news… Starbucks has a latte problem, super sleepers get competitive, and young adults stay close to home.
Top Trends
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FOOD & DRINK
Making a Starbucks drink now // Illustration by Kate Walker
Starbucks is weighed down by billions of drink options
The Future. Starbucks is doing just fine financially, but skyrocketing demand for insanely complicated drinks is overwhelming employees and irking customers who say orders are taking too long. So, the fast-coffee company is spending billions to go even faster, giving baristas the space to try to connect with coffee hounds — part of Starbucks’ original mission to bring Italian espresso culture to the US. But with 74% of orders now coming from drive-thrus, delivery, and pick-up, Starbucks may be on the verge of changing the flavor of its stores’ customer experience.
Custom complexity
Starbucks is overhauling its systems, technology, and maybe even its whole vibe.
Viral TikTok trends have brewed demand for elaborate orders with dozens of ingredients and secret menu items, thanks to the 383 billion different drink possibilities (yeah, for real).
That’s good for Starbucks ($1 billion in revenue from add-ons alone), but it slows down how fast baristas can make drinks, with wait times stretching to five minutes — which, ironically, is now the biggest complaint from customers.
Aware of the issue, Starbucks is bringing ingredients closer together, adding handheld blenders, introducing a machine that can brew coffee in 30 seconds, and piloting a way to make cold brew in minutes (as opposed to overnight).
The changes are important to Starbucks because by serving just five more customers per day at its 37,200 locations worldwide, annual revenue can increase by more than $900 million.
It also gives baristas more time “to make eye contact and make a connection,” says Natarajan Venkatakrishnan, the exec who oversees in-store equipment. That’s key when exhausted baristas note their ability to chitchat is integral to a good performance review.
It’s hard to make drinks quickly and make a connection with customers.
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TECHNOLOGY
Snooze athletes // Illustration by Kate Walker
“Hard-core sleepers” gamify nightly snoozes
The Future. People all around the world are using wearables, video games, and other devices to get better sleep. In an age of anxiety and burnout, getting a good night’s rest may become a fundamental part of the culture’s push towards health and wellness… with peak sleep quality turning into the new office brag.
Sleep stats
Some people are working hard to get some good rest, according to WSJ.
Mike Skerrett, a 27-year-old TV writer in LA, wears the biometric-tracking WHOOP band to log his sleep cycles and “optimize” sleep performance (on top of using blackout curtains and taping his mouth shut).
Claire Chivell, a 31-year-old designer and illustrator in Sydney, has been religiously playing Pokémon Sleep, which uses a phone’s microphone and accelerometer to track users’ sleep and reward them.
Emily Bottkol, a 54-year-old marketing consultant in Chicago, has been using an Oura smart ring that tracks biometrics through the wearer’s finger to determine sleep quality, giving the users a “Readiness” score each morning.
Dr. Michael Gervais, a performance psychologist who advises chief executives and Olympic athletes, says the obsession with sleep is a rejection of the past grinder mindset that viewed sleep as a nuisance. “Now, more people are attuned to the science, which shows that if you want to live a good life, prioritizing sleep will be one of the best practices you can do.”
But that obsession may actually make some lose sleep. Or, worse, develop a case of “orthosomnia” — an anxiety about optimizing sleep that can lead to trouble getting a good night’s rest.
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Data rules, but what does it mean?
Chartr will tell you with their free newsletter filled with fun-to-look-at charts and easy-to-digest insights. They break down the numbers behind business, tech, and entertainment news, so your head doesn’t spin doing too much math.
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450,000+ professionals already subscribe to Chartr, so get on it! (Your brain will thank you.)
ECONOMY
Working from the childhood bedroom
Kids are moving back home en masse
The Future. Gen Z isn’t ashamed to admit they live at home. Instead, it’s a smart move to get off the hamster wheel of paying astronomical rents that amount to throwing money down the drain. The shift in thinking may eventually lead to a rise in multi-generational households… which is already normal around the world.
Back to the twin bed
A Harris Poll found living at home is now considered a pragmatic choice to save money and get a financial head start.
Nearly 90% of respondents say people shouldn’t be judged for the move.
41% of respondents said they did it specifically to save money because jumping into the rat race of sky-high rents, living expenses, and student debt just wasn’t worth it.
Things are so bad, in fact, that three-fourths of respondents believe navigating those factors will keep them from ever being financially successful.
Currently, about 45% of Americans aged 18 to 29 live with their families. Bloomberg notes that’s approximately the same amount who did back in the 1940s — “a time when women were more likely to remain at home until marriage and men too were lingering on family farms in the aftermath of the Great Depression.”
Jason Dorsey, president of The Center for Generational Kinetics, believes Gen Z may be undergoing its own depression that’s turning into “financial nihilism.” That could affect higher education, investment, and family planning decisions for years to come.
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With Frontier’s GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly Pass, you can get five-plus months of unlimited flights for just $299! And no, you didn’t read that number wrong.
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So, before you grab your sunglasses and pack your bags, grab your GoWild! pass!
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Online community and data firm Fandom crunched numbers to rank the top 25 entertainment franchises, which was led by Star Wars, Marvel, One Piece, Elder Scrolls, and Harry Potter. Read more → deadline
Warner Bros. Discovery is introducing a live sports tier to Max — a partnership with Bleacher Report that’ll run an extra $9.99 per month starting next year. Read more → variety
The Second City, the famed Chicago improv company that was the training ground for the likes of Jordan Peele and Amy Poehler, is opening an entertainment complex in Brooklyn this November. Read more → thr
Fashion & E-Commerce
Even as other brands have pulled back, Puma is doubling down on digital sneakers and believes they’ll one day be a significant revenue driver. Read more → bof
So many kids have stolen their parents’ credit card information to buy stuff in Fortnite that Epic Games is offering $245 million in refunds to affected parents. Read more → bbc
H&M is starting to charge customers in the UK for returning items, joining ZARA and Uniqlo. Read more → bof
Tech, Web3, & AI
Neuralink is searching for quadriplegic participants for the first human trial of its brain-implanted chips, which will last six years (just don’t read about what happened to those monkeys). Read more → hypebeast
Waymo is launching a “tour” of its autonomous vehicles in LA, giving residents the opportunity to go on a driverless ride. Read more → theverge
According to a study from dappGambl, about 95% of NFT collections are now virtually worthless, having a market cap of zero ether. Read more → insider
Creator Economy
Meta’s verification checkmark is now open for businesses, but it’ll cost double than that of the subscription for individuals. Read more → engadget
Influencer marketing agency Linqia reports brands are being more selective about what kinds of influencers they work with, especially as over half are now employing user-generated content as marketing on their own social channels. Read more → insider
Substack redesigned its app to make it look and feel more like a classic social network — less focus on its newsletters and more on its feed of users’ posts. Read more → theverge
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.