The Most Magical Brands in the World šŖ
BoF's Brand Magic Index, Aime Leon Dore x Rimowa, When Brands Should Hop on Social Media Trends, and an AI Powered Fitness Startup.
GM everyone āļø
ICYMI, yesterday I interviewed Sabena Suri, co-founder of BOXFOX, which she scaled to a multi-million dollar e-commerce brand. She dropped tons of insightful gems on brand strategy, customer insights, and go-to-market strategy.
I put most of the interview behind the paywall, which is the first time Iāve tried that out. While this newsletter will remain mostly free for the time being, I am experimenting with putting some of my interviews with founders, tastemakers, and industry pros behind a paywall. Iām only charging $7/mo for this content, so consider upgrading your membership if you want to get more insider gems.
If youāre a close homie, donāt worry I already comped your lifetime membership š
This morning at the gym I overheard an insane album I had never heard before and I had to hit Shazam. Check out Love Hallucination by Jesse Lanza.
Hereās what Iām covering todayā
A new all-in-one fitness platform
Why everyone gets a $20 salad for lunch everyday
Business of Fashionās brand magic index
When brands should hop on social media trends
and a sick new store in NYC
Letās go.
This new health startup wants to help you track every bodily metric possible. Iāve written extensively on the trend of elevated fitness and health conscientiousness across culture. Whether it be the increased popularity of Huberman or Brian Johnson, or the $40,000 Equinox membership, we are seeing a massive shift in how seriously take their health, in hopes of prolonging their lifespan. Superpower is a new all-in-one biometric/fitness tracking platform making some lofty claims. They want to ātransform the current healthcare system into one that is proactive and data-drivenā by offering a seamless, and really beautiful, dashboard of your health analytics. Access comes with a yearly biometrics screening (at home somehow?) and personalized consultations with doctors and therapists. Their launch video and rollout have been really slick, and theyāve rolled out access to influencers on X who are giving rave reviews. I signed up for access to find out more, as the details on pricing are really vague as far as I can tell. I am very curious on the details of how the platform works in practice. This, as well as all the other health commodities Iāve mentioned prior, are indicative of a larger cultural shift, a realization our modern healthcare and food environment is ripe for disruption. More startups are going to be cashing in on this, and using buzzy terms like āAI optimizationā to boost value and attract clientele.
Stoffa just launched a store in NYC. The New York-based menswear label has been making sleek, stealth-wealthy, understated garments for 9 years, and now is opening a beautiful showroom on Grand St. Stoffa has been on my radar for a minute, and its repped by some menswear tastemakers like Nordstrom menās fashion director Jian DeLeon and Chris Black who said this about Stoffaā
ā[StĆ²ffa is] perfect for the moment,ā said Chris Black, founder of the brand consulting agency Done to Death Projects. āIf people are striving to dress [in a quiet luxury] way, then theyāre ā¦ going to be seeking out new things, and thatās where StĆ²ffa can take some market share.ā
Stoffa is giving The Row but for men, and at a more affordable price point, and the founders, Agyesh Madan and Nicholas Ragosta, want the brand to eventually be mentioned in the same conversation as other high-end heritage luxury brands like Loewe. I havenāt been to the showroom yet, but Iāll probably try and stop by this weekend and try it out. Iāve been looking for a new brand revolve my entire personality around.
got off some fits at the store recently.
The $17 fast casual bowl makes more economic sense than ever before. As fast food prices have soared over the last few years, the premium on going to a more elevated fast casual restaurant for lunch is lower than ever before: just $2.64 according to Bloomberg. New endeavors like Chipotle founder Steve Ellsā robot powered vegan spot, Kernel, and Australian This Bowl are moving in to cash in on Sweetgreen and Cava fatigue.
Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Versace are the most āmagicalā brands according to Business of Fashion. BoF is using AI powered insights to gauge what fashion brands have the most engagement and positive consumer sentiments, in an insight they are calling ābrand magicā This new metric measures how brands balance controlling the zeitgeist while remaining timeless. Theyāve charted out a ton of brands hereā
When should brands hop on social media trends? Speaking of tapping into the Zeitgeist, what brands are using social media trends to their advantage and which should appear to be less chronically online. Marc Jacobs strikes me as a brand that is incredibly responsive with engaging in the social media zeitgeist. They just tapped (I donāt even know what to call this) those people who dance. These ones..
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserand are frequently creating viral short form content in collaboration with Yulya Shadrinsky. This works really well for them, but is there a good rule of thumb for when a brand should hop on trends, of when they should stay on the sidelines? Oren John just posted this great video breaking down some insightsā
Aime Leon Dore and Rimowa are dropping collaboration luggage. The forest green color palette and gold details are very fitting. But donāt let me see you getting into Row 29B with thisā¦ you have to fly first class if you spend $3,000 on the luggage.
Collaborating with fashion and streetwear brands is nothing new for Rimowa, in fact its become a regular fixture of their brand playbook, helping them find synergies with other luxury brands and consumers. I broke down some notable collaborations on TikTokā
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Okay goodbye see you all tomorrow.
Jake Bell is a content marketing and creative strategist based in NYC. He specializes in content creation, branding, art direction, creative strategy, and making things cool.
Want to work together or chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio