No. 024: The Official 2025 Trend Report
plus, 11 free ideas, lots of data, and a list of ways you can help LA 🤍
Happy Friday and happy 2025, everyone.
I want to start off by saying that it feels like a strange time to be writing a newsletter, or putting out any content at all, given the state of the world right now.
My thoughts continue to be with the people of LA, a city that I called home for 13 years. My heart goes out especially those who have lost everything. The only silver lining has been seeing the way people can come together in tragedy.
There are tons of resources for those who want to help, but I found this list from my friends at
to be super helpful, including ways to help from afar.In my attempt to provide a distraction, I tried to keep this newsletter light & fun with a trend-driven format. Hopefully it brings you a little levity this week.
xx
Sabena
🪄11 TRENDS FOR 2025
As I was doing my research for this newsletter, I found so much overlap in the stories I was reading; common themes, familiar casts of characters, shared blunders, and some bright spots too.
What resulted is a list of trends we can carry into 2025. Whether you’re a marketer or just want great dinner party fodder, I hope this helps! If it doesn’t, that’s fine too. Enjoy!
1. TikTok will stay — or we’ll make another TikTok.
You know, I’m not a fortune teller or anything, but I just can’t imagine a world without TikTok and its profound influence on brands, ecommerce, culture, trends, politics, news, media… the list goes on.
Over 1/3 of people in the US (with a phone) use TikTok — approximately 121 million people.
In the meantime, users are flocking to Chinese app RedNote, making it the #1 downloaded app on iTunes right now… clearly no one cares about their Chinese spy.
Aside from the obvious (IG Reels), a lot of social media experts are discussing the value of YouTube Shorts, and I’m curious to see if people will head there should the ban go through.
💡 Free Idea: If I were a small social media app right now, this would be user acquisition gold. I’d be trying to bring over as many new users as I could by creating content (and maybe running paid ads!) on why we’re the new and improved TikTok, while reaching out to as many creators as I can to incentivize them to join my platform.
2. Alcohol will be a *choice*
We’ve seen the writing on the wall, but 2025 becomes the year where drinking might actually be… weird?
Amongst those under 25, alcohol spending is down a whopping 61% in just a decade — a huge decline in a short period of time.
Earlier this month, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about the link between 7 types of cancer and alcohol and urged alcohol manufacturers to add cancer warnings to drink labels. This Brown University article goes deeper and was an interesting read.
Meanwhile, celeb Tom Holland just launched a non-alcoholic beer brand called Bero, nationwide in Target stores and also available at Soho House. Clearly, he’s bullish on the whole zero-proof thing.
💡 Free Idea: Knowing that zero-proof is on the rise, what else are we as a society moving away from? I know caffeine is a huge one… I feel like there’s an opportunity for a really amazing decaf brand. Just sayin’.
3. DEI Programs are dwindling.
I’m not happy about this… but would be remiss not to mention this “trend” amongst companies like Meta, Amazon, McDonald’s, Walmart, and Ford, all of whom have rolled back their DEI programs this month in favor of things like “inclusion” and “proven outcomes.”
While the impact of this remains to be seen, this Forbes article analyzing what went wrong with DEI from a marketing POV is fascinating. Per writer Gillian Oakenfull:
Marketing doomed corporate DEI by overpromising transformation and delivering superficial results. The way forward isn’t about abandoning the ideals behind DEI, but evolving them into frameworks that drive real impact.
💡 Free Idea: Honestly, I just hope we can find more ways to continue to support diverse founders — and lift everyone up. After all, only 0.48% percent of all the VC funding in 2023 went to Black founders. We’ve got work to do, and I’m not exactly sure what that work looks like — but for now, buy from diverse founders, share their products with your friends, and leave reviews.
4. “Luxury” for all.
Luxury has had a tough few years, and 2024 was no exception. Global luxury sales fell 2% in 2024, per Bain. This is largely due to price hikes from luxury brands and a huge drop in China (estimated 20-22%). In 2025, I think we’ll see more convergence between “luxury” and “non-luxury.”
Case in point: lab grown diamonds are quickly catching up to natural diamonds in volume share of all diamonds sold in the US — 54% natural to 46% lab grown. This chart shows how quickly the two have come to a head in just 4 years since 2020.
Walmart also launched its $80 version of Hermes’ iconic Birkin bag, which retails for upwards of $15k (depending on the style). Called the “Wirkin,” it’s definitely going viral on TikTok. Just this morning, I saw a prominent influencer do a side-by-side comparison of her real Hermes to the Wirkin — and, surprisingly, the Wirkin held its own.
My friend Olivia has a great TikTok on what this all means:
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
💡 Free Idea: This one kind of feels like it’s already in motion — I mean, once Walmart is in on things it’s no longer a ‘trend’ per se — but I would be interested in the de-luxurification (yes, I made that up) of categories aside from jewelry and bags without compromising quality. This is different than the DTC model like Everlane or Away — where it was the same product, just cutting out the middleman. I’m thinking a fundamental innovation that makes it easier for more people to own nice things. Fake caviar? Cheaper laser facials? Idk, I’m not a scientist.
5. Underconsumption core.
Related to the democratization of luxury, we’ll be seeing “underconsumption” take center stage this year. My TikTok feed has been filled with videos about the topic, and I think it’s a really interesting juxtaposition when thinking about Amazon’s “Haul” and TikTok Shop against the quiet luxury of it all.
💡 Free Idea: A brand campaigned centered around the idea of only needing ‘one’ of a product based on its longevity. Could totally see Patagonia, Levi’s, Le Creuset or Rolex running with this.
6. The evolving brand + celeb relationship.
We’re squarely in the age of the creator (we’ve been here for a minute) where the celebrity stamp on a brand or a campaign isn’t a guarantee of success…in fact, it may do more harm than good.
Which means brands have to be creative as to how, why, and who they leverage when it comes to celebrities.
Kendall Jenner launched a collection with UK-based activewear brand Adanola, and while the outfits are very Kendall-coded, it feels inauthentic giving her longstanding partnership with Alo. Assuming that contract is up?
After much anticipation, Meghan Markle also announced that she’ll be launching a lifestyle show, called With Love, Megan …which just got pushed back to March. The feedback has been very mixed, but I think this is great timing given the popularity of the Martha Stewart documentary and Ina Garten’s latest book. I think we’re ready for our next domestic icon, and, done right, will usher Meghan into a new era. We love a fresh start!!
Also, I love reading
’s feature on Favorite Daughter, a brand created by celeb sisters Erin & Sara Foster — who also produced the amazing Netflix show Nobody Wants This. Apparently, most of the clothes actress Kristin Belle wore were Favorite Daughter, which is the best product placement I’ve seen recently; they were so “all of us.”
💡 Free Idea: We need to see more of Adam Brody in everything. That’s it, that’s the idea.
7. In our robot era.
This one is short. Again, I’m not a scientist. But it’s hard to avoid all the stories about robots taking over everything.
Chic-fil-A is the latest fast casual restaurant to announce that they’ll be using robots to make their lemonade, which apparently saves 10,000 hours of labor (it’s fresh-squeezed).
Chipotle also announced that they are training robots to make guacamole at two of their California locations (and more to come). Robots are already making some of our Sweetgreen salads, and honestly that’s personally upsetting because a robot probably won’t let me get extra kale 3 balsamic dressings. But also, all of this feels inevitable in 2025.
💡 Free Idea: A personal robot to do more things we don’t want to do. Laundry, loading the dishwasher, and chopping veggies. But then we can send him or her home — as a millennial, I can’t unsee Smart House.
8. We need more from rebrands.
Dell rebranded last week, and people made tons of comparisons to Apple, especially with their use of “pro” and “max” in product names (fair, tbh).
Walmart also “rebranded”, and the internet went crazy, because, well this is what they gave us. Late last year, I wrote about Jaguar’s rebrand… who also gave us nothing—so this feels like a trend worth mentioning.
A truly great (albeit temporary) rebrand? Coors Light’s limited edition release of “The Mondays” beer after the Super Bowl this year, to help people get through the most “Monday Monday” of the year. Smart.
💡 Free Idea: The rebrand I would love to see in 2025 is MTV. Cribs & Room Raiders, back again?! Also I think a Laguna Beach remake would kill it.
9. Corporate culture goes (more) corporate
We’re only 17 days into the year, and we’re seeing a lot of corporate companies act very… corporate.
First off, JPMorgan announced a RTO mandate which called all 300,000 employees back to office 5 days a week. Employees weren’t thrilled and the company had to disable comments on the internal memo page.
Starbucks issued a new code of conduct stating that in order for patrons to use the restroom, they would need to purchase something. This is a reversal of its open-door policy and also feels like a way to improve the in-store experience, which has been a huge factor in the company’s declining sales.
Meta is having quite the week, and I won’t go into it all… but Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to lay off 5% of Meta employees to “raise the bar” in preparation for an “intense year” feels… like a lot.
💡 Free Idea: This year, let’s make sure that even when we have to make corporate-y decisions, we don’t use corporate-speak to communicate them.
10. Female Athletes 🤝🏼 Brands
As interest in the NBA is declining (my friend
of wrote an excellent piece on the marketing of it all), we’re seeing an uptick in interest in women’s sports. 2024 was the year that women’s sports surpassed $1b in revenue.Launching today, Unrivaled is a 3-on-3 women's basketball league that operates during the WNBA offseason founded Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. The league raised $35 million from former athletes and investors and has already secured sponsorships with Wayfair, Ally, State Farm, Wilson, Under Armour, Opill, Miller Lite, Sprite, Sephora, VistaPrint and Ticketmaster and a multiyear media rights deal with TNT Sports.
Notably, per The New York Times, "the league is also firmly centered around its athletes, providing equity stakes, child care, on-site therapeutic services and, for many players, a higher salary for the eight-week competition than they will make in the five-month WNBA season.”
Since what we wear to all of these games matters a lot to me — I’m excited about Kristyn Juszczyk (designer and wife of 49ers player )’s new line with Emma Grede (co-founder of SKIMS & Good American) called Off Season. Last year, Juszczyk’s custom jackets went viral after being seen on Taylor Swift & Olivia Culpo; recently, Off Season went viral thanks to fashion icon Paige Desorbo sporting an Eagles puffer. I’m excited to see where this brand goes.
💡 Free Idea: Curious to see how brands who aren’t typically sponsors of athletics play here. Given Unrivaled’s focus on player benefits, I’d love to see a fertility company like Kindbody or Progyny become the official health partner and bring the conversation about IVF/infertility to a larger audience.
11. Nostalgia-fueled brand collabs.
Ending on a warm and fuzzy note, we’re seeing collabs that are 100% driven by millennial nostalgia become more and more prominent. They’re tapping into something, and it’s working.
First up, we have Olivia Jade (of TikTok, Jacob Elordi, and Lori Laughlin fame), as the face of a collab between LA-based Madhappy x Juicy Couture. The millennials among us remember the infamous “JUICY” sweatpants, and this collab delivers.
Bath and Body works teamed up with Sweethearts (who I hope doesn’t have Red No 3 in its products?) to launch a gourmand collection ahead of Valentine’s Day. Both of these brands are so nostalgic and this whole line feels like a nod to bringing in valentines for the whole class.
In the same vein, Dunkin’ Donuts teamed up with body care brand Native to launch a donut-scented line of body care products in four scents. I don’t know that I’ll be trying this, but again, it feels nostalgic.
Last but not least is this collab between American Girl Doll x Posh Peanut, which is a line of American Girl doll themed clothing made in the brand’s signature soft fabric — available for both moms & daughters. This one is so smart because its targeted at millennial moms who want to pass on their love of American Girl to their daughters. It’s cute, it’s kind of unhinged, it’s fine.
💡 Free Idea: I feel like I need to see Reformation do a out-there collab this year. I loved their collab with Kacey Musgraves last year but would love to see them push into “unexpected” territory. Maybe a Ref cafe? Hotel takeover?
That’s all from me! Would love to hear your thoughts on these trends. Do you have a favorite? What did I miss?
Have a great weekend,
Sabena
Great read!
100% agree on the women’s sports/brand sponsorship push. Already seeing folks like Mejuri partner with Emma Navarro. I love the idea of fertility in the WNBA or Unrivaled. I bet we see a nail co like OPI etc sponsoring an athlete or league too.