Goldman Sachs Vibe Shift

Inside the bank's new logo, a sneaker vibe shift, Emily Oberg's sexual health brand, and some polls.

Jake Bell

Aug 05, 2024

GM EVERYONE!

In Today’s Newsletter—

Goldman Sachs multimillion dollar rebrand.
The sneaker vibeshift continues.
Cosmos public domain image project.
Emily Oberg’s sexual health brand.
and reader feedback polls.

It feels good to be back from a Substack hiatus. I took a week off to go to Florida, run a lot, and relax.

Writing this newsletter daily is a real grind, and its good to step away to gain some clarity and perspective.

I love this platform, but I want to find new ways to expand the Who Do You Know? universe. I have a few ideas of my own but I’d love your feedback.

I’ve created a series of reader polls at the end of this newsletter so I can see what you all want and gauge interest on new content ideas.

Take a look and give me your honest feedback.

But first, let’s discuss some news—

NEWS

Goldman Sachs unveiled their new logo. As the firm shifts away from consumer banking initiatives (the metal Apple card) and back onto things that actually make them money, they’ve decided to hire Jones Knowles Ritchie to bring a fresh, new identity to their logo, website, and other brand touch points. Take a look at the before and after here—
The new logo and branding could be described as… incremental… to say the least. They’ve reconnected the type’s ligatures (after a 2020 redesign separated them) and updated some colors to ‘improve accessibility’. But all in all, the firm’s rebrand has been largely ridiculed online for the reported millions of dollars they spent on it, and the years of back and forth it took to get to this modest change. Imagine your bonus getting cut, and your firm announced they spent $20M on a logo… Apparently, plans for a more distinct, evolutionary rebrand, dubbed ‘Project Richardson’ were scrapped… What do you guys think?
Cosmos launched a public domain search engine. Your creative director’s most used website of H1 ‘24 has launched an incredible new tool: a way to find public domain artwork, references, and images. Over 100,000+ images were sourced from public providers like the Met, New York Public Library, etc. The interface is incredibly slick, which is testament to the care and detail the team over at Cosmos has taken with each update. For any designer, creative, or art director, this tool is going to be incredibly useful for projects. All of these images can be freely used without fear of being sued. Cosmos (self described as a “A Pinterest alternative for creatives.”) has quickly become my favorite reference and inspiration tool, with its highly curated feeds, organization tools, and Chrome plug-in that lets you save and organize images on any site. I use it wayyyy more than Are.na and Pinterest these days.
The Sneaker Vibeshift Continues. Nike’s struggles have been well-reported externally and on this newsletter. The world’s largest sneaker brand has seen its market share and revenues decline, leading to their worst stock selloff in history. Now Puck’s incredible fashion writer, Lauren Sherman, is on the case— reporting on a LinkedIn post from Massimo Giunco, a former Nike marketing exec, who wrote an extensive diatribe on why they’ve struggled. You can read the whole post here, but I’ll boil it down quickly—
- Nike hired a CEO who had 0 sneaker industry experience.
- They cut ties with wholesale distributors, pivoting resources to expanding DTC channels.
- They made a lot of consumer behavior assumptions that panned out incorrect, overestimating their customer loyalty.
- The reality? Consumers are never as loyal as you think. When Nike pulled its products out of 3rd party retailers, consumers just bought other shoes.
- Nike shifted its iconic brand marketing initiatives to performance ads, in an attempt to increase LTV (lifetime value) from customers they already had, which has resulted in Nike losing its place in the cultural zeitgeist and losing market share.
- Now they’re flailing, trying to get back into retailers, and pulling out iconic shoes from their vault and retro-ing them, but consumers just don’t seem to care.
- Now to make matters worse, Adidas is increasing their ad spend by 15% to continue their brand momentum and kick Nike in the teeth while they’re down.
Emily Oberg
is launching a sexual wellness brand. According to the Sporty & Rich founder’s Instagram bio, she’s launching Sensual Sport. There is no tangible info on when this new brand will launch or what it will sell. Oberg has discussed becoming like Goop for younger people, so this new foray makes sense. I’ll be digging for more info…

HELP ME!

Okay here are a bunch of questions. Please answer (its anonymous) and it’ll help me figure out where to take Who Do You Know? next… and if you have any ideas or feedback, just comment or email me: jake@jb.studio

Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction, business development, and making things cool.

Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio