In Today’s Newsletter
(Good) Brand: Homie Skincare
Armie Hammer’s New Podcast
Louis Vuitton’s Surreal Store Design
The Top Creative Agencies in the World
Ella Emhoff’s Press Run
Last night I went to a BlackRock event to celebrate the launch of their new ETF called TOPT, which combines 20 of the best performing stocks all in one. This isn’t financial advice but we should all be investing.
And this morning I’m thinking about this Nietzsche quote…
(Good) Brand is a new vertical under the Who Do You Know? banner where I break down the brand strategy of a new-ish brand I love.
Homie Skincare
Men’s skincare is having a moment to say the least.
The Cut recently reported on the rise of skincare focused content aimed at appealing to young men on TikTok. While the mens skincare category is still dwarfed by female spend, 70 percent of Gen Z men, aged 18 to 27, used skin-care products — and so do about half of all American men.
Globally, the men's skincare market was valued at around $13.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach approximately $20.15 billion by 2032.
And there are a new crop of brands built around the concept of male focused products. Take for example a new brand I’m curious about— Homie.
Founded this year by Rajiv Lahens, the former global creative director at Levi’s, Homie aspires to be the go-to solution for men building a proper skincare routine.
Being a modern man comes with its own challenges, and at HOMIE, we totally get it—we’re guys too. That's why we created HOMIE. We looked around and saw a sea of same-old products that didn’t really solve the problems we were dealing with. Another 3-in-1 solution? Come on, there’s got to be a better way.
That’s why we made it our mission to create essential hygiene and body care products that seamlessly fit into your daily life—products you'll be excited to use and proud to show off.
Our goal is simple: to empower you to create care-focused rituals that help you feel your best, from head to toe, so you're always ready for whatever life throws your way.
Branding
Part of nailing a rollout for men’s skincare involves creating a brand that appeals specifically to men. Homie has nailed this with their bold, all-caps logo and soft blue hues.
The name in it of itself communicates a sense of care for this category— mens skincare built by men who care about skincare.
While this brand could have gone town the 'man-o-sphere’ rabbit hole and served up some gritty packaging evocative of Axe Body Spray, Homie was smart to position their branding to be more akin to a fashion brand, which makes sense considering the founder’s extensive retail background.
Product Lineup
Thus far, Homie has a very tight, focused product lineup: a body wipe, a face wipe, and their new toner. While these hardly create a comprehensive skincare regimen, they do show glimmers of promise, and a test-fail-learn-scale mindset. New brands often dilute their value propositions by launching too many products all at once. My advice to most founders is to start small and create familiarity and desire before launching new SKUs.
Social Strategy
While Homie has been promoting on their Instagram with aesthetic, on-brand imagery, I was surprised to see they haven’t started promoting via TikTok.
TikTok is the epicenter of tips, tricks, and guidance for young men beginning a skincare routine, and not creating content for the platform is a missed opportunity at driving new customer acquisition, especially if Homie could offer a discounted product on TikTok Shop to get customers introduced to the brand.
And there are a ton of formats and creatives that could work for Homie. I’d even like to see the founder create content discussing the inspiration for starting the brand, and giving followers an inside look how the pivot from creative director to brand founder.
Overall, I’m stoked to see more brands popping up to cater to the growing men’s skincare market. I do believe this is a category with massive upside and there’s room for tasteful brands to capture discerning consumers with the right brand strategy.
Should I get the founder on the newsletter?
🗞️ NEWS 🚨
Armie Hammer is launching a podcast. After being blacklisted for more reasons than I care to count, the once-actor-turned-alleged-cannibal is launching a podcast aptly titled ‘The Armie HammerTime Podcast’ Hammer says the new podcast format will interview a variety of guests, saying: “Throughout the course of the day, every single person you interact with knows at least one thing that you don’t, so teach me what that one thing is,” The first interview features 80s movie star Tom Arnold. To me, this feels like a desperate attempt to get back into the spotlight after his career tanked. Previously Hammer uploaded a video of him selling a truck to CarMax because he “couldn’t afford the gas anymore” In case you were wondering if Hammer has moved past the sex-cannibal stuff, on the first episode he said, “I kind of like the cannibal stuff now.” Oy vey.
- is Making the Downtown NYC Internet Subculture Press Run. The possible future first daughter is making the rounds on all of your favorite Instagram pages and Substacks— writing a ‘10 Things I Hate/Love List’ for Dream Baby Press, getting a New York Times profile, and launching a Substack focused on her crafts hobby called Soft Crafts.
Louis Vuitton turned their 5th ave flagship store into giant luggage. The surrealist design is pretty impressive and is sure to get maximum street attention. This reminds me of the 3D CGI fakeouts brands like Jacquemus were doing earlier this year, but actually in real life. No word on lowered employee morale due to lack of sunlight indoors.
Creative Boom dropped a list of the top 25 creative-design agencies in the world. Pentagram, the world’s largest design consultancy and the agency that charged Citi Group $1.5 million for a logo hand sketched on the back of a napkin during the kickoff meeting, held the top spot.
And rightfully so, they’re the go-to for massive brands. But fresher, more exciting design agencies like
’s Mouthwash Studio came in at number 4. Mouthwash has been behind some incredible design work, notably for Thom Browne’s fashion week dinner, a motion design system for Rimowa, and branding for Barcelona based architecture firm, Mesura.They also did the branding for Literary Sport, which I covered on the first installment of (Good) Brand.
Jake Bell is a brand consultant, 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