Nike’s Footbot

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It’s Monday, Future Party. Like most people, you probably didn’t want to get up this morning — and maybe even hit your phone’s snooze button a few extra times (because, in 2025, who still owns a real alarm clock?). Ikea is taking that idea very literally with the introduction of a tiny bed for your smartphone that tracks how long you sleep without scrolling. Hit seven hours of shut-eye a night for a week straight, and you’ll score an Ikea gift card. Everything really is gamified these days.

Nike just unveiled a new shoe called Project Amplify that… well… isn’t really a shoe in the traditional sense. It’s billed as “the world’s first powered footwear system.”

The Big Race: Nike is looking to usher in the next era of running shoes — footwear that uses robotics to optimize your performance. Essentially the first mass-market exoskeleton for the average athlete, Project Amplify could launch a cutting-edge sneaker war between major brands like adidas, Reebok, PUMA, and New Balance.

Behind The Soles: Created in partnership with bionic footwear and apparel brand Dephy, Project Amplify is like having “a second set of calf muscles” that can boost walking and running speed, according to Nike.

Last Step: Nike has been testing Project Amplify for years with more than 400 athletes — and technically, it’s still in testing. Michael Donaghu, the Nike VP leading the project, says they want it to be certifiably “swoosh-worthy” before a full rollout “in the coming years.” With Nike in the midst of a major turnaround effort, getting this right is paramount to reclaiming its top spot as the cultural tastemaker in athletic footwear and apparel.

Next Run: If Project Amplify reaches mass adoption, it could revolutionize people’s relationship with running, hiking, and backpacking by supercharging demand for longer trails and more challenging terrain.

The “10,000 steps a day” rule? Turns out it was a 1960s marketing ploy to sell cheap step counters.

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Consumer tastes have officially shifted from complex, fancy craft beers back to the basic brews that once defined the American fridge.

Why It Hits: Overall beer demand is declining, with US production falling 1.2% last year as younger consumers reach for trendier beverages like canned cocktails or health-conscious spritzers. Coupled with tighter wallets and the growing no-alcohol movement, American drinkers are ditching complexity in favor of affordability and nostalgia.

Behind The Bottles: Young people’s taste in beer is starting to look a lot like their dads’ from decades past.

Last Sip: It’s hard to overstate how significant the craft-beer boom was over the past two decades, launching hundreds of new brands and innovating flavor profiles and alcohol content. Drinking craft became a cultural signifier of coolness for the hipster generation… but the category seems to have hit a saturation point. According to CFRA Research, more breweries have closed than opened in the past 18 months — signaling a market hangover. No wonder craft brewers are trading their sours for pilsners.

Next Round: When tastes change, so does marketing. And as the Kelce brothers’ very bro-centric campaigns for Garage Beer show, beer advertising is swinging back to appealing to the “average” American guy… whatever that means in 2025.

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57.4% of you voted Yes in Friday’s poll: Have you bought any analog media within the past year?

“Do books count? I’m almost at my goal of 50 this year — last year, I read 43.”

“I love movies, and I can’t stand when I can’t find them on streaming services, so I still buy DVDs. I also recently bought a jigsaw puzzle.”

“Annoyed to admit that I bought a few of Taylor’s variants from her recent album drop. I don’t even like the record, ugh.”

“I still read my local newspaper in actual print, delivered to my driveway by a driver. I love sitting down with my paper at night and reading the local news rather than watching it on television.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🎥 California’s new supersized film and TV tax credits have begun rolling out to their first slate of productions.

🍿 Even though Warner Bros. Discovery has rebuffed three offers from Paramount Skydance, the Trump administration reportedly favors David Ellison to acquire the company ultimately.

⚽ Soccer superstar Lionel Messi has signed a contract to stay at Inter Miami through 2028… which most analysts believe will mark his final seasons as a pro.

🖥️ The US Department of Commerce is reportedly set to take stakes in several quantum-computing firms, including IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and D‑Wave Quantum.

🤑 OpenAI is discussing how to include advertising in chatbot conversations… and has hired hundreds of employees from Meta to help figure it out.

🤖 Speaking of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg told some employees that AI is officially replacing their job.

🍪 Snack giant Mondelēz (the maker of OREO and Cadbury) is rolling out a proprietary generative-AI tool that will allegedly cut marketing costs by nearly half.

🎲 TransUnion found that millennials and Gen Z are driving increased betting activity… but their growing credit-card debt is catching up with them.

👖 Post Malone’s apparel brand, Austin Post, debuted its first permanent collection.