2024 Trend Lottery, Adidas Pulse, Pharrell Vuitton, Burnout, Gen-Z In The Passing Lane
3 min read @ 840 words
DEPOP DEBUTS FIRST-EVER TRENDS REPORT ; depop
Social e-commerce and secondhand marketplace Depop and trend forecaster Agus Panzoni mined data from the platform’s 30m registered users to recap 2023 and place bets on 2024.
2023 RECAP:
Top searches for 2023 include ballet flats (+428%), gazelles (+306%) and COS (+245%).
Nike was Depop’s top-selling brand of 2023, with ‘sports mania’ seeing 6 million listings across the year.
Y2K was the most-loved decade for shoppers this year with 8 million listings.
Festival and concert-goers brought out their best and brightest #Mermaidcore.
Summer blockbusters dominated pop culture with phenomenons like #Barbenheimer - ‘Barbiecore’ searches soared 135% in the first half of 2023.
Beyonce, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift redefined what it meant to “go on tour” and Rihanna shut down the Superbowl.
2024 TREND OUTLOOK:
Full 12-page trend download covering top searches, key brands and visual inspo. Worth a look for folks in footwear product roles.
NEW LEADERSHIP AND BOLD OUTLOOK AT ADIDAS
Sparked by comments from new CEO Bjorn Gulden back in March, Adidas seems to have a bit more spring in its step. No longer flinching in anticipation of the next word-bomb from Ye, the product teams seem to be thriving with the CEO’s full-support and confidence.
Gulden doubled-down in support of his team in late November while accepting the “Shoe of the Year award” at the FN Achievement Awards. His words carried extra weight as Nike CEO John Donahoe was present at the event.
“To the Nike people in the room, watch out,” Gulden said. “We have a lot in the pipeline…not a joke.”
Zoom in: The Adidas product teams are rebuilding the product foundation across the spectrum from retro remakes and remixes to pure performance.
Retro & Remix: Campus 00s, Gazelle and Samba are on heavy rotation across the consumer, celebrity and collaboration spectrum. (StockX)
Performance Running: Adidas athlete Tigst Assefa set the Women’s Marathon World Record (2:11:53) at the London Marathon in September. She was wearing the brand’s latest supershoe: $500 Adidas Adios Pro EVO1. For those accountants out there, it can be amortized at $19/mile or $11.90/km over the course of a marathon.
Performance Basketball: Benefiting from the full support of the Brand and CEO, Adidas is creating a bold future in Basketball that they see as key to company success in North America. A key lever was the design leadership hire of Nathan VanHook who spent a decade-plus at rival Nike. One of Nathan’s most notable designs was the iconic Nike Air Yeezy 2.
More on Adidas and FOG/Jerry Lorenzo in future posts.
LOUIS VUITTON DOUBLES DOWN ON CHINESE CONSUMERS; wsj
With a splashy fashion show in Hong Kong featuring Chinese A-listers, the brand is projecting confidence in one of the world’s largest markets for luxury goods.
*The Guardian covered the event as well (no paywall)
Dig deeper:
This was LV’s first show in Hong Kong with Chinese celebrities dominating the front row and music by LV menswear creative director Pharrell Williams.
Hong Kong represents a notable shift from LV’s favorite haunts in Paris, New York and Tokyo.
Influencers in attendance aided in marketing the show with a combined 150m followers on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
LVMH relies heavily on Chinese consumers. 32% of its sales come from Asia (excluding Japan) with China driving the majority.
LVMH’s #2 brand, Dior, will show menswear in Hong Kong next year.
A different perspective from WSJ and The Guardian examines the ‘letting it rot’ movement in China. A growing number of Gen-Z and younger Millennials are leveraging a new form of passive resistance and seeking new paths to fulfillment.
Do You Have Burnout or Are You Just Bored at Work? Vice
Does Zoom-doom = burnout? Your eyes itch, your head hurts and your body feels weighed down with rocks. It feels like burnout for many of us. Is this accurate? New research says it could be boredom instead.
The big deal: Vice dives into the complexities of burnout and questions whether we’re overusing the term to describe general fatigue and unhappiness. Experts believe it’s become deeply misunderstood.
The basics:
Boredom stems from under-engagement and can be resolved through a change in environment.
Stress is usually temporary and situation specific. Agitated and over-burdened feelings are often alleviated once a specific task is completed.
Burnout is often caused by prolonged stress and often associated with “hopelessness and disengagement”.
A different perspective from author Anne Helen Peterson’s Buzzfeed article, “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation”.
More Zoomers, Fewer Boomers. Gen Z will overtake Boomers in the full-time workforce; glassdoor
Despite a softening labor market, Gen Z is poised to overtake Baby Boomers in the full-time workforce by early 2024 – a shift that has been long coming. Gen Z, or Zoomers, have been seen as “kids”, but they are increasingly coming of age and making up an important share of the American workforce.
About time! Millennials around the world rejoice as the blame for everything now shifts to a new generation.