Brat Summer, Destroying a $52M Mansion, and the Loafer Boom
Here's all the news you need to know...
GM everyone! Hope you’re having a great morning and if you’re hungover or still out partying after the Charli xcx concert here in New York last night, hope you had fun.
In Today’s Newsletter—
How Kanye Destroyed a $52M Architectural Gem
The DTC Loafer Renaissance
Paramount’s Acquisition Troubles and TV’s Demise
BeReal is Getting Sold
A Drink That Makes You Want to F*ck
By all accounts this is shaping up to be a brat summer, according to all meme pages and
—I’m going to be balancing my nighttime brat summer activities with my Locked In Summer mentality as I train to run the 31 miler perimeter on Manhattan (Sign up for the first run club on Strava) and get rich (or die trying). Speaking of going out, the Byline one year anniversary party is tonight. I might be pulling up so maybe I’ll see you there.
NEWS
Kanye West Purchased a $52M architectural gem and basically gutted it. The New Yorker wrote an incredible deep dive, revealing the wild story on how Ye purchased a Tadao Ando designed home on the continent’s edge in Malibu in 2021 for a staggering $52M.
At the time, Ye seemed to be unstoppable, amassing a net worth of over $2B via his partnerships with Adidas and Gap. Since then, his fall from grace in the fashion world has been well documented and his net worth has plummeted. In the midst of this, he seemingly hired a random LA contractor to gut the home, and planned over-the-top renovations, including a concept of removing the home from the power grid. This contractor literally slept on the floor and recalls being so smelly that Ye took him to the nearby Nobu hotel and drew him a bath.
After a fallout, the home lays barren and is now being sold for $39M by Selling Sunset’s Oppenheimer group. This house was truly beautiful just a few years ago, and if you like architecture or reading about Ye’s erratic behavior, go read this.
The Loafer is Finding a New Customer and a New Sales Channel. We are truly living in a post-sneaker world, as evidenced by the insane success of Black Stock & Weber, whose seen sales increase 300% YoY, and Morjas, handmade leather loafers from Sweden. As more consumers look to elevate their footwear, but don’t want to shell out on $1000+ loafers, these lower cost but major quality brands are stepping in to meet demand and selling DTC. Chris Black, host of How Long Gone, told Business of Fashion,
We’re living in a post-sneaker boom society, A loafer is a very approachable style for most guys … It looks good with jeans; it looks good with shorts. You can’t really mess it up.
I just had a chance to try on Morjas loafers at the How Long Gone x Morjas party last week, and I fell in love. $400 later, and I am currently breaking these bad boys in. Perfect summer shoe.
Paramount is Ending Acquisition Talks with Skydance. After 6 months of back and forth negotiations, the declining media giant has pulled out a deal to sell the company to Skydance. Paramount is like other massive media conglomerates, in that it has a slew of IP spanning across genres, and its portfolio has become increasingly bloated. Its tried short-term solutions to pivot into the world of streaming with Paramount+ but my streams of Bar Rescue episodes are not enough to keep the company alive. It currently is reporting about $11B in debt on its books. All in all, this is just part of the larger trend as the business of media shifts to changing consumer behavior. Budgets are getting cut, companies are selling off assets, streaming prices are rising or getting ad-supported options, and the consumers are largely losing as the old entertainment guard tries to compete for relevance. TV used to be insanely glamorous… now its getting so bad Seth Meyers has to fire his Late Night band.
BeReal is being sold to VooDoo Games for $500M. This is a pretty incredible exit for the founders of BeReal, the once viral photo sharing app that gained popularity for its novel approach, where users had a limited time window to post, and utilized both the front and back cameras for posts. 3 years ago, it was a sensation, and today downloads have plummeted.
The app has had no real updates or improvements in years, and has all but fallen from the cultural discourse. Its kind of incredible they didn’t try to add in ads or a feed or VIDEO. But somehow, they’ve been able to get acquired for probably way more than they are really worth. Congrats!
Human Desire has made Viagara into a drink.
mentioned this product on X yesterday, and accurately predicted we’d see the functional beverage space shift into the sex space. Human Desire’s Sex tonic claims to contain, “a potent blend of clinically studied adaptogens and botanicals, our champagne-like libido beverage is formulated to enhance sexual arousal and stimulation, supporting an elevated sex drive over time.” The packaging is clean and simple, and fits in well with HD’s other functional beverage offerings, which all correspond to other feelings: Social (for when you need to party), Sleep, Soothe, etc.Their offerings remind of a bar here in New York called Apotheke, which offers drinks that correspond to how you want to feel. Its a little cringe, but people seem to like this concept. One ‘Success and Revenge’ for me bartender.
Okay gotta go, dive into the comments and let’s discuss.
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, and designer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
I am one of the few that loves BeReal and its simplicity, and I hope it doesn’t get inundated with ads and other features. I’m on a 683-day streak and I love looking back at my life to see random things I was doing, and think it will be cool to have that to show kids (if I have them) one day.
I didn't see the Bereal sale coming...can't wait to see if Voodoo brings it back to life -- I like this format, keep it up! :)