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The Honey Deuce is the Erewhon Smoothie of the US Open & Lulu Dupes

the $23 signature drink and athleisure fakes

Author

Sammi Cohen
September 01, 2024

Happy LDW to my favorite readers in the world! I hope you’re relaxing, hanging with friends/family, or doing something equally as lovely. I’m personally about to go spend the weekend in Orange County, disconnect from social media for the next day or two, before gearing up for what will definitely be an action-packed fall. First on my personal to-do list for next week is some retail therapy, I’m looking for the following items: 1) a VERY cute fall jacket, 2) stylish knee-high boots (if they’re comfortable too, that’s a huge plus), and 3) more work-appropriate pants (I don’t want anything too stuffy but it can’t be too casual either). If anyone has recommendations for any of the above, you know where to find me!

Biz & Culture: Articles of the Week

The major stars of the US Open are obviously the tennis players. The (very close) runner up to this year’s tournament is the Honey Deuce. At first, I thought that this may be a new drink that the US Open was featuring, but to my surprise, it’s not… it has just reached a new level of virality this summer. Last year, more than 450K of these drinks were sold last year, which equals a whopping $9.9 million. The ingredients are simple: Vodka (the official US Open version specifies Grey Goose), Lemonade, Raspberry liquor, Honeydew balls, Ice. If you order this at The Open, prepare to pay $23. FYI, this is the price of some of the more “premium” Erewhon smoothies. Drink up.

Dupes are coming for athleisure, and Lululemon is feeling the heat. This is becoming a problem for the company that pioneered high-end athleisure and made $100 leggings the norm.  One of the teenagers interviewed for this article said that “finding bargains is the new status symbol.” Not only are dupes an issue, but companies like Alo and Vuori are gaining market share over the past few years, which is also eroding Lulu’s solid lead in the athleisure world. On a personal note, I find the concept of dupes fascinating because it hints at the change in consumer behavior/spending habits around specific product categories and price points.

Liquid Death is known for their viral marketing moments, and they’re currently the best at it. If you don’t believe me, they're literally a water company selling water in cans; they somehow have over $1 billion valuation. Liquid Death says that they are able to create their out-of-the-box marketing messages by hiring people who DON’T have traditional marketing backgrounds. Their SVP of marketing said that they hire “people that are Adult Swim writers and wrote for movies and wrote for The Onion”. Essentially, he says “you go to real funny people and then you can get the comedy.”

These quarterly Pinterest reports are SO fun to read/look at, and if you haven’t gone through this before, please do. For this fall, Pinterest users are embracing group activities, with searches for "cook book club" up by 130% and “fall movie night” up by 140%. There is also a growing interest in Japanese culture due to the influx of travelers to Japan, with searches for "Japan fall fashion" rising by 140% and "Japanese living room design" increasing by 135%. Leopard print is going to be huge (+2,990%!) and camouflage is also trending (+2,295%).

The founder of the Telegram messaging platform, Pavel Durov, was charged on Wednesday by the French authorities with a wide range of crimes related to illicit activity on the app. Mr. Durov was placed under formal investigation on a range of charges, including complicity in managing an online platform to enable illegal transactions and a refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said in a statement on Wednesday. I’m curious to see what will happen to Telegram now that they’ve arrested him and what this means for the future of Telegram.

OpenAI is reportedly about to raise a huge round of funding, and Apple and Nvidia might be among the investors. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple, which is planning to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, is in talks to invest. Soon after, Bloomberg also reported that Apple is in talks but added that Nvidia “has discussed” joining the funding round as well. The round is reportedly being led by Thrive Capital and would value OpenAI at more than $100 billion (!!!). We probably shouldn’t be all that surprised that Apple and Nvidia may up investing in OpenAI. Apple is set to integrate ChatGPT with Siri later this year, and Nvidia is a key supplier to OpenAI. OpenAI announced that ChatGPT had hit 200 million weekly active users — double the number reported a year ago — as the company eyes a $100 billion valuation. 

The Sneex of It All

As we all have seen, Sara Blakely announced the long-awaited reveal and launch of her second company, Sneex. As an avid Sara Blakely supporter, I was so excited to learn about what her next product would be. She literally created a new product category with Spanx, and it was this unique blend of innovation, visionary product construction, and problem solving that made it a billion-dollar company.

Yet, when the announcement came out that she was in fact, dropping a new “luxury hybrid stilleto”, there seemed to be a collective confusion across her audience. First, the shoes are half sneaker-half heel. There have been countless companies that have tried to do this (and remember, this was kind of trendy about 10 years ago?), and none of them have succeeded. I think one of the biggest questions for me was why she would put a new company/product out in the world that didn’t seem to have an audience that was excited about it? Sure, she was solving a problem: most heels are not comfortable and she wanted to create a better option. But even so, there are very specific “rules” that dictate when someone wears heels- i.e. they are going to a professional event (work/corporate life), or they want to look good (going to a date night or meeting friends at a nice restaurant). Sneaker heels are not the best option for either of the aforementioned occasions, so it feels as if Sneex would need to create a NEW occasion for customers to wear these types of shoes to.

I want to reiterate how much I love Sara Blakely and how inspiring, philanthropic and positive she’s been to women entrepreneurs and founders. However, I’m afraid that this Sneex venture is the result of having a “yes” team around you OR being so overly confident that your ideas will work that you actively refute customer and market data. I remain optimistic that there will be at least another “drop” of the Sneex products, which I am hoping will be much more attuned to customer feedback, and may have a shot of success (and lots of revenue).

It’s Tough Being a Teenager Today…

I know that this isn’t necessarily shocking news, but I thought it was important to share anyway.

This Pew Research Center survey covers varying perceptions on whether or not it is harder to be a teenager today than it was to be a teenager 20 years ago. A majority blame technology – and especially social media – for making teen life more difficult. Among parents who say it’s harder being a teen today, about two-thirds cite technology in some way. This includes 41% who specifically name social media.

While some mention social media in broad terms, others bring up specific experiences that teens may have on these platforms, such as feeling pressure to act or look a certain way or having negative interactions there. Parents also call out the downsides of being constantly connected through social media. It’s interesting to see how parents and teens differ in the way that they view technology’s impact on teens:

Although we don’t have answers to these pain points, I always think it’s good to reflect about the impacts that technology has on younger generations. Read the full article here.

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P.S. - If you see any typos in this newsletter, just know that I did it on purpose just to make you giggle.

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xx Sammi

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