No. 21: SKIMS' latest collab is so Kim coded
plus, pickle toothpaste, a dating app height detector, & why is Crumbl so controversial?
A special Saturday edition for you all!!
I hope you’re enjoying this with a good cup of coffee and your favorite baked good. My go-to is banana bread (must have chocolate chips, no nuts) but a croissant is a fine choice too. Anything but a danish.
🧲 OBSESSION OF THE WEEK
This new collab from Grillo’s Pickles is so weird, it’s wonderful.
In honor of National Pickle Day, the brand launched a pickle toothpaste (Cucumber Dill flavored) in partnership with oral-care brand Boka.
Honestly, this is a collab done right:
combines the DNA of two brands
gets people talking
is something customers just ‘have to try’
The goal with a collab isn’t longevity — it’s to make a splash at a moment in time and push the limitations of the brand.
For Grillo’s, they want to be more than pickles; they want to be a lifestyle brand. Getting into people’s bathrooms is a step in the right direction, and apparently the all-natural toothpaste is actually “quite refreshing.”
🍿 BRAND NEWS
SKIMS’ is dropping a collection with Dolce & Gabbana. The collection drops on Tuesday 11/19, and I have to say, like all SKIMS drops — it’s pretty iconic, from the campaign to the actual designs; the epitome of Italian glam with tons of leopard print. While D&G has had its fair share of controversy this year, the Kardashians have worked with the house for years (Kourtney wore D&G during her Italian wedding to Travis Barker).
Amazon launched a competitor to Shein and Temu called Haul — with everything under $20 (in exchange for longer ship times). It also feels like it’s trying to be competitive to TikTok shop. This feels like a race to the bottom, but Jeff Bezos always has an angle…
I’ve written about the downfall of Lululemon before, and this recent collab with Disney feels like the nail in the coffin. Does anyone want Minnie Mouse Lulus?!
Burberry is trying to make a comeback, with their iconic trench coat at the center of their story. Their stock is down 40% this year and the brand is realizing it priced out customers and needs to get back to its roots. Stay tuned for a deep dive.
You can now buy the air in Lake Como in can for a mere $12. I honestly respect the capitalist approach to profiting on literal oxygen here, but honestly this could be a cute gift for that friend that loves to talk about their many trips to Italy (I’m that friend).
I loved this article on the Taylor Swift effect, featuring the founder of Fazit Beauty — makers of glitter face freckles — who experienced a 1000% increase in sales and traffic after Swift wore her product to a Chief’s game last month and is now in talks with several NFL/NBA teams.
United Airlines is finally going to have free wifi, powered by a partnership with Starlink and a new ad network. Honestly, it’s 2024, so this feels like the bare minimum for all airlines.
If you haven’t noticed, Wicked is trying to be Barbie, with licensing deals and collabs on everything from marshmallows to pimple patch stickers. They had a slight mishap this week though, where the URL printed on a doll package took customers to an x-rated site rather than the movie landing page. Woops.
Liquid Death & Dr. Squatch launched a new collab, ‘Dirt Murderer’ soap, and the trailer is exactly what you’d expect — with the tagline being ‘Soap for Psychos.’ The blood in the shower is a little much for me, but I guess I’m not the target.
CPG startup BelliWelli raised a $10MM round to bring its fiber-loaded powders to the masses, with a focus on team and retail expansion. They are already viral on TikTok for their “Hot Girls Have IBS” messaging. I’ve tried their products and I do see the potential — collagen and probiotics have had their moment but it feels like there’s still whitespace in fiber,
The $8.5B merger between fashion conglomerates Capri Holdings (Michael Kors & Jimmy Choo) and Tapestry (Coach & Kate Spade) is not moving forward to FTC regulation on the grounds of antitrust. This Forbes piece on why Tapestry “dodged a bullet” is worth a read.
Poshmark just announced a new fee structure to better incentivize sellers — lowering Poshmark’s take from 20% to 5.99%. To offset, they added hefty buyer fees and buyer-paid shipping — and unsurprisingly, the community isn’t thrilled.
‘Hawk Tuah’ launched a new dating app called Pookie Tools, powered by AI. It has a built-in personal stylist and suggested conversation starters, but most disruptive is Height Detector, which tells you if a guy is lying about his height. There’s also a Bald Detector to predict how likely a man is to go bald. Savage, but you can’t hate on insight-driven product features.
🆕 TREND REPORT
Dense Bean Salad. If you’re on the side of meal prep TikTok, you may have seen Violet Witchel’s epic dense bean salads (DBS for short) pop up. For the other 98% of you, these are salads that are packed with protein from beans that hold up in the fridge all week long. The internet is obsessed, and the Cut went deep on the origin of Witchel’s pièce de résistance.
Doom Spending. Not surprisingly, post-election Doom Spending is a big trend right now, with 27% of Americans spending more in the face of concerns about the economy and foreign affairs. According to the study, a huge motivator is that Americans feel a general loss of control, and spending money gives them that sense back. I personally can’t say I’m a doom spender because I’m also a happy spender, bored spender, impulsive spender, and whatever other kind of spenders there are.
Greener Pastures. More and more Gen Zs are opting to move to rural areas in states like Colorado, Georgia, Texas, and Montana and are moving out of LA and Brooklyn (which experienced a 4% and 8% decline in Gen Z residents this year, respectively).
The cookie Crumbls. In other TikTok news, one of the most divisive brands on the platform is… Crumbl Cookies. I’ve seen countless videos of influencers & celebs — from Nara Smith to Kylie Jenner — do “unboxing” videos where they review pink sampler boxes and people have opinions in the comments. And apparently, the Crumbl Subreddit is full of “the most pissed off people in the planet.” I just…okay.
🎲 ONE LAST THING
If you’ve ever done the shopping for Thankgiving, you might be well aware that the cheapest part of the meal is actually the supposed star of the show…the turkey.
Which is strange, considering it feels like retailers could take advantage of our collective need to have the perfect Thanksgiving turkey at the center of our tables (whether or not we actually enjoy eating it).
But it’s actually a classic loss-leader strategy — the discounted turkey gets shoppers in the door, where they then spend on every other part of the meal, and those items tend to be profit-generating (champagne, pumpkin pie, etc).
I’m still a Steaksgiving gal myself.
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have a great week.
- Sabena
Great read!
Hello doom spending!! I’m wondering if I need to buy more of my favorite Korean sunscreens, though I’m not sure South Korea was on the list for tariffs. But who knows?