[SIC] 111: The Clogs Have It

October 22, 2020

Hi all,

I finished the last of the Hitchhiker’s Guide books (“Mostly Harmless, if you’re counting) last week and have cracked into “The Way We Wore” by Roberts Elms, an individual history of the relationship of personal style and cultural history that’s making me feel appropriately clued-in and clueless, by degrees; perfect pandemic reading, in other words. S/o to Richard Hartell for the reco (and the book loan).  Next Up: “When Asia Was the World,” so that I can keep up with my ninth-grader’s dinnertime conversation.

Meantime, lots of online reading, too - following is the stuff I thought most notable; hope you find it useful. I even threw some pictures in (slowly getting better at this…) Thanks to Ricky, Kevin, Barnett, and Ruba for their recommendations and provocations. Keep them coming, all. And speaking of Queen Ruba - our talk on IG last week was one of my favorites. Back next week with [SIC] Talks #20. Any requests for weeks to come, hit me in the comments.

===== [SIC] 111: The Clogs Have It=====

Start here: 

• The Rise of DTC Media, from Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting (which is a highly recommended FREE follow, btw)  

• Related: via Platformer: Last week, Substack announced Bridge, a program that will pair Platformer’s Casey Newton, the homie Ernest Wilkins of Office Hours and other mentors with junior writers to help them develop new publications and build real audiences. (Substack)

• And from Ricky Engelberg: Virgil Abloh’s “Free Game” is “an introduction and an attempt to provide a mass form of mentorship to give information and access to black POC and to all those that are interested - Giving all the ability to consider a step-by-step guide to building their brand based on [his] past experience

• Which leads us to Rishad Tobaccowala writing that changes in where we work will be the driving force of the “rewiring” he foresees for culture. (Substack)

• Related: High Snob’s “In Fake Life” white paper. 

• and via Marketing Brew: 65% of advertising professionals said they won’t feel comfortable attending in-person events for work until there is a vaccine, per a recent Ad Age survey. 

• Not to mention, via Maekan: VITRA summit 2020 is the first-ever digital summit focused on the future of work and home.

Politicking & Electioneering:

• From Kevin Johannessen: Streetwear store Concepts is doing a series of Town Halls with the first one focused on voting. (Cncpts.com)

• And from Clubhouse-born political action org The 99 Problem comes “House of Us,” a virtual TikTok house united for a better future in America.

• New York Magazine, in partnership with the organization I Am a Voter, asked 48 artists to design “I Voted” Stickers, which they say is “What these voters need.” I’m not sure about the stickers being ‘needed’, but I like the initiative. 

Digital Domain: 

• Friends with Benefits is a Discord community started by Trevor McFedries (CEO of  @lilmiquela creator BRUD). McFedries was great on How Long Gone, too.  (Spotify)

• Scroll down in this week’s CCI to see how Bilibili is stepping up its original content game with a new deal that will deepen its collaboration on productions led by BBC Studios (Content Commerce Insider)

• And via The Future Party: Animated-concert streaming platform Wave has made several high profile moves to establish itself as he go-to platform for immersive concert experiences (Rolling Stone)

• Makes sense, given that Gen Z spends 10% more time in non-game apps than older users (TechCrunch)

• As YouTube adopts new standards, the transition from brand safety to suitability is accelerating (Digiday) 

• While TikTok Cracks Down on QAnon and Hate Speech (NYT). Let’s see if the platform can keep up with the ever-evolving slang. 

• Via Good is the New Cool: Jaden Smith and friends team up to look for solutions to racial and social Justice issues in a new series from Snapchat. (Hypebeast)

• Instagram rolls out fan badges for live videos, expands IGTV ads test (TechCrunch)

• Gucci And Giphy Add Avatars To Their Apps As Potential Digital Revenue Drivers (Ad Age)

• Employees are influencers too: Dunkin's TikTok marketing strategy includes paying employees to post videos at work and it's part of a growing trend (Business Insider)

Speaking of Influencers:

• Via The Future Party: E-commerce mainstay Teespring shifts away from physical merchandise towards digital goods, part of a larger wholesale move toward digital outfitting. Influencers make their money online, communicate with their fans online, and build unique online identities. 

• Hence: Influencers Are the Retailers of the 2020s (Vogue)

• And corollary: smart 2020 influencer seeding strategy, also via The Future Party: Adidas taking its fully recyclable shoe program to the public by seeding out to 1,500 people. (Input) 

• CCI’s story on virtual influencers (ie @lilmiquela, and Gucci’s “Erica”) is fascinating. Graph mapping some key ones here:  

  

Fashion & Style Stuff:

• Creativity is dead, long live curation, says our buddy Ana Andjelic (High Snobiety)

• To wit: Supreme to Gucci; How North Face uses collaborations to drive brand heat (Glossy) 

• It’s official: We Are In The Golden Age Of Clogs. I know this article says “womens” but they’re great for dudes to. My favorites are Magnified’s “Ask” style  (but low key the women’s “Embla” ones can just be sized up for men). (Refinery29)

• Can a pair of jeans kill the coronavirus? Diesel and other brands are rolling out antimicrobial clothes. (Vox)

• From Barnett Zitron: Secondhand Reseller Trove Is Helping Levi's Sell Used Jeans (Bloomberg) 

• Cozy bois: Yeezy's “Ghost Creatives” just launched a new brand (HighSnob)

• Oh and via The Future Party: Americans are prepping to hit the slopes. REI reports that demand for snow boots quadrupled compared to last year (Business Insider) 

Brand Action: 

• How Nike Could Beat Peloton at Its Own Game (Marker)

• Via Distracted: Pizza Hut is turning its boxes into foosball game. (Design Boom) 

• How West Elm became a go-to retail partner for DTC brands (Modern Retail)

• Via WITI: For those who miss eating on an actual plane,Singapore Airlines also turned two of its grounded jumbo jets into restaurants

• From Kevin Johannessen: "Are you just going to stand by and allow Mucinex to establish Sickwear to the detriment of SICwear?” Umm, yes. (Mediapost)

• Corollary: A new report from Morning Consult takes a deep-dive into Americans' changing expectations around brands’ engagement with politics, and the issues consumers care most about as they relate to corporate social responsibility and political activism.

• Secondary corollary: Agencies are launching despite— and as a result of — the pandemic as new creative opportunities arise from the disrupted marketing landscape (Digiday) 

• But, but: Interbrand’s global chief learning & culture officer onwhy your company needs a shadow board of young, non-executive talent (Quartz)

Publishers: 

• With Planet, The Atlantic aims to unleash its entire newsroom on climate journalism (Nieman Lab)

• Also from Nieman: Prism, a news site led by women of color, centers the voices of marginalized people in its reporting (Nieman Lab)

Visual & Experiential Arts:

• Via @tinycactus (above) and @Ruba: the Magnum Square Print sale is a great one. $100 Square prints from some big names. 

• Art fans here’s a series of virtual conversations for the Hirshhorn Museum/Smithsonian, featuring John Akomfrah and Olafur Eliasson, and Eileen Myles and Zoe Leonard. (Hirshhorn.edu)

• Prior to decommissioning the last remaining NYC Public Phone booths, artists are taking some of them over (Monocle) 

• The Snacky Tunes book boys are heading out on a virtual tour with friends like Hot Chip 

• Via The Slowdown: Hamilton Morris’s false peyote pot kit (Hot Plant)

• And via It’s Nice That: Nieves x Andreas Samuelson made emojis for people who hate emojis. 

Pods & Film: 

• Via Howard Lindzon: Matthew Ball’s essay titled ‘Audio’s Opportunity And Who Will Capture It’.

• And subscription podcast company Quake launches (Axios)

• Ben Evans started a new tech podcast friend and colleague Toni Cowan-Brown. It aims "to be one of the top ten podcasts called 'Another Podcast’". Links: Apple, Spotify

• And via Protocol: Tumblr CEO Jeff D'Onofrio on the Source Code Podcast this week

• Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking (The New Yorker)

• The percentages of women working as directors and writers on independent films reached a new high in 2019-2020. A study found women comprised 38% of directors working on narrative features and documentaries, up from 33% in 2018-19 (Variety) 

Final Diversions: 

• Via Farnam Street: Why Read? Advice From Harold Bloom (FS Blog)

• Via Protocol: step aside, Bezos. According to Social Capital’s CEO Chamath Palihapitiya, the world's first trillionaire will be made in climate change. (Twitter) 

• Related: Towards A Solarpunk Future (The Dorkweb)

• And Via WITI; A cover of Radiohead’s Idioteque, created by calculators. 

===== [SIC] 111: On The Outside Looking Out=====