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The Analog Renaissance: Why 2026 Will Be The Year We Put Down Our Phones

Lately, I’ve noticed a growing, yet quiet, anti-tech grumbling from many people that I’ve interacted with. Whether it’s small talk with a stranger, or a long chat with a close friend over dinner, I’ve seen that there’s a growing annoyance at the amount of time that we’re all spending on our tech devices. I believe this is the start of a quiet rebellion against the digital noise that has consumed our lives.

From Brooklyn bookstores to Seattle coffee shops, people are gathering around board game tables, their phones face-down and forgotten. Knitting circles are filling up with millennials and Gen Z alongside their grandmothers (I’m working on a video about the massive rise in needlepoint businessses, so stay tuned for that this week), while record stores report their best sales in decades. This isn't exactly nostalgia; it’s a yearning for a simpler, more analog way of being. After years of doomscrolling, Zoom fatigue, and the constant ping of notifications, we're collectively realizing that our screens have been stealing something precious: our ability to be fully present in a single moment, with a single activity, using our hands to create or play rather than just to swipe.

The data supports what many of us feel intuitively: we're tired. Studies show that average screen time has plateaued and, in some demographics, even begun to decline. People are seeking what psychologists call "tangible experiences"—activities that engage multiple senses and produce physical results. There's a profound satisfaction in casting off a row of stitches, in shuffling a deck of cards, in the tactile click of a board game piece finding its place. These analog pursuits offer something our devices cannot: the ability to disconnect from the performance of online life and reconnect with the simple pleasure of doing something with our hands, at our own pace, without an algorithm deciding what we see next.

I'm calling it now: 2026 will be the tipping point. We'll see the analog movement surge from niche hobby groups to mainstream culture. Expect to see board game cafes flourish more than ever, crafting supply stores experience a renaissance, and "phone-free zones" become a sought-after amenity rather than an oddity. The pendulum that swung so far toward the digital is swinging back—not to abandon technology entirely (because of course this is not possible), but to reclaim balance. We're entering an era where choosing to spend a Friday night playing Settlers of Catan or learning needlepoint won't be seen as quaint or retro, but as an act of self-care and intentional living. The future, ironically, will look a lot more like the past—and we'll all be better for it.

And on a different note, I wanted to give you all the heads up that the format of this newsletter will be shifting. I’ll be moving away from the regular news roundups and this newsletter will focus on deeper dives into topics that I’m thinking deeply about. I’ve felt an urge to go deeper in this newsletter, to really use this piece of my digital real estate in a way that I haven’t done yet. In speaking with many of you about this newsletter, many of you found the most value in my “field notes” section and the resources at the end of the email, so these will be the topics that I continue to lean into. As always, you can feel free to message me (DM, email, whatever), if you have any thoughts about the future direction of this newsletter. Love you all. -Sammi

Brand Study: The SKIMS Saturation Point?

When SKIMS dropped their Merkin in October, there were mixed reactions. Many people praised yet another limited-edition product drop that somehow still managed to shock the internet. Other reactions ranged from “WTF” to general malaise over what was clearly a marketing stunt to generate buzz (which it did, of course):

SKIMS didn't just disrupt shapewear—they wrote the blueprint for how the hottest modern consumer brands scale in the attention economy. By fusing celebrity influence with growth tactics and of-the-moment cultural timing, Kim Kardashian and the Gredes built something that actually felt fresh amongst the concentrated ecosystem of celebrity-founded brands. Their X-factor was their marketing (the speed, the visuals, the collaborations). Of course, Kim Kardashian is one of the most famous people of our generation, so it certainly helped that she herself was a natural billboard for her products.

But as we know, you can’t build this type of company in four years on just savvy marketing alone. It was clear that SKIMS was on top of the fundamentals of product and distribution. Over the last few years, they’ve stayed ahead of product innovation, line extensions, and collaborations. The result? A $4 billion valuation in under five years and a cultural movement that defined an entire aesthetic era.

They’ve gone from DTC to wholesale to an aggressive physical store opening strategy. But SKIMS' explosive trajectory is now surfacing a critical question for every scaled DTC-turned omni-channel brand: Can hype-driven growth models sustain themselves past the saturation point?

SKIMS' current trajectory signals a brand chasing the infrastructure of legacy fashion giants. Yet the very tactics that drove virality—scarcity, shock value, cultural agility—risk losing their power as saturation increases. Their viral "faux hair thong" gets clicks and sells (but really, how many units of these did they actually have in stock? It’s easy to say “sold out” when you only have 50 units of each SKU to begin with). When so many launches are engineered for shock value, the law of diminishing returns kicks in.

The real story here is about transition costs. SKIMS mastered the art of becoming culturally essential. Now it faces the harder challenge: becoming operationally indispensable. That shift—from viral sensation to industry-defining behemoth—requires a different muscle entirely. It's the difference between dominating a moment and defining a category for decades. As consumer preferences shift from the beige-era of the early 2020s to more Gen Z maximalist aesthetics, can SKIMS continue to stay as relevant and industry-defining?

For the broader apparel landscape, SKIMS represents both blueprint for hypergrowth and a playbook for how to become a major player within a category. It proved that brands can compress timelines and scale faster than ever by leveraging cultural moments and limited-edition drops and collabs. But it's also revealing the limits of that model. The brands that win the next decade won't just be the ones that break the internet—they'll be the ones that learn to scale without dilution, and evolve without losing identity.

SKIMS' next chapter will tell us whether the Instagram-era brand model has staying power—or if it's just another cycle in fashion's endless churn. The investors and venture capitalists who have funded SKIMS are going to be looking for an exit of some kind over the next 1-2 years. I’ll be watching SKIMS closely to see how this all pans out, so expect more updates from me on this.

Business, Economy & Culture🛍️📈💸

👕 How Anthropologie Conquered Millennial Cringe How CEO Trisha Smith grew the business to $2.4 billion in FY25 from $1.6 billion in FY20 to become URBN's largest brand. 

🧵 Another Feather in Quiet Luxury’s Hat Sofia Richie Grainge just launched SRG Atelier with Revolve, betting big on collaboration—but it’s not without risk. By putting all her wholesale hopes in Revolve’s basket, she’s doubling down while many multi-platform retailers struggle. However, Revolve’s recent 9% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2 2025 suggests this may be a safer bet than most. Richie brings her personal aesthetic into the 56-piece collection—neutrals, sharp tailoring, soft impact and leans on Revolve to manage logistics so she can focus on creative direction. (vogue business)

🔮 Betting on the Future Market Kalshi just scored fresh funding with a valuation of $5 billion to expand its prediction markets (overtaking polymarket)—where you can literally trade on tomorrow’s headlines or weather. It’s Wall Street meets Vegas meets Twitter discourse. The prediction market is exploding into the mainstream, turning opinions into assets and uncertainty into opportunity. (nyt)

🏙️ Manhattan’s Second Wind The NYC office market is quietly roaring back—leasing is surging, rents are climbing, and prime towers are buzzing again. After years of post-pandemic doubt, demand for high-end, amenity-rich spaces is rewriting the city’s comeback story. Yet beneath the glassy optimism, cracks remain: older buildings sit half-empty, and the divide between trophy towers and tired stock grows sharper by the quarter. It’s not just a recovery—it’s a reshaping of what “office life” means in New York. (wsj)

🥜 Snack Aisles Meet Protein, Yet Again Pop-Tarts, Doritos, and Uncrustables are getting a “functional makeover” as they are also riding the protein wave- with Big Food leaning in on America’s health-inflected cravings. But beneath the marketing spin lie real tensions: will adding protein make these snacks healthier, or simply grant a health halo to the same old treats? In a world chasing clean labels, the performance snack push may be more branding than benefit. (sherwood)

🎥 Podcasting Meets Streaming: Spotify is teaming up with Netflix to stream select video podcasts, including hits from The Ringer. It’s a bold crossover that merges the intimacy of podcasting with the scale of streaming — expanding Spotify’s audience while giving Netflix fresh, personality-driven content. (cnbc)

👩‍👧‍👦 The Rise of the ‘Momcon’ Revolution “Momcon” spotlights how motherhood has become both a personal identity and a political statement, uniting women who see being a mom as a source of cultural influence and social power—blurring the lines between parenting, activism, and ideology. It also exposes tensions in modern motherhood: empowerment vs. expectation, faith vs. feminism, and community vs. conformity. (nyt)

🏦 Robinhood’s Next Big Bet Robinhood is shedding its meme-stock image and pivoting toward 401(k)s, family finance, and long-term wealth building for Gen Z. It’s a bid to mature with its users—and tap into a new generation that wants control over money but distrusts traditional finance. With a “Trump bump” lifting its stock and fresh entry into the S&P 500, Robinhood’s next act isn’t about hype—it’s about owning the future of everyday investing. (bloomberg)

💼 Rent-a-CEO Fashion and beauty brands are increasingly hiring fractional executives — seasoned leaders brought in on part-time, short-term contracts — to navigate volatility without the full-time cost. These “rent-a-CEOs” help bridge leadership gaps, scale efficiently, and test strategic fits. But success depends on clear scope, full team integration, and avoiding the trap of using part-timers as long-term placeholders. (bof)

🔌 Even AI Is Overwhelmed This Year.. OpenAI is partnering with Broadcom to build 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips and systems — enough electricity to power an entire city. The deal underscores just how energy-intensive the AI boom has become, with massive compute demands now defining the next phase of innovation. As tools like Sora 2 push the limits of generative video and multimodal processing, OpenAI’s appetite for power is skyrocketing. (cnn)

🧻 Costco’s Quiet Fashion Flex Costco didn’t just sell bulk paper towels—over the past few years, it’s quietly transformed into a multi-billion dollar player in apparel. The secret? A mix of treasure-hunt merchandising, “dupe culture” (lululemon?) and smart licensing deals (hello, Kirkland Signature collabs.) In a retail world chasing hype, Costco’s proving that cool can come in bulk. (cnbc)

☕ From Checkout to Hangout Retailers are trying to turn stores into “third places”—spaces where customers hang out, connect, and stay—not just browse. By layering in cafés, lounges, listening bars, and subtle hospitality, brands are hoping to build community over transactions and nudge loyalty and dwell time in new ways. (bof)

🤖 Nestlé’s Efficiency Era: The world’s biggest food company is cutting 16,000 jobs as it leans hard into automation and cost-saving tech. It’s not just a restructuring — it’s a signal of how even legacy brands are trading human experience for algorithmic precision. (cnn)

Venture Capital, Innovation & Entrepreneurship💰🌍💼

 🔊 Spotify’s New Parental Play Spotify is rolling out managed accounts in more countries, letting parents give listeners under 13 their own music profile—with filters on explicit content, blocked songs/artists, and disabled video or messaging. The catch: kids get real Spotify perks—playlists, personalized tracks—but their listening won’t mess up your Discover Weekly or Wrapped. (verge)

🤖 Rent a Cyber Friend Rent a Cyber Friend is staking a claim in the loneliness economy — a video-chat platform where strangers pay by the minute to talk (yes, really). The growth is wild: 3 million users onboarded without VC or marketing spend. In a world obsessed with AI companions, Rent a Cyber Friend bets there’s still currency in the real. (tech crunch)

The Social Currency Podcast Roundup

Spirit Halloween: The Billion-Dollar Pop Up That Can’t Be Beat: While most retailers are bleeding cash or shuttering entirely, Spirit has cracked the code on how to win in the age of e-commerce — by being deliberately temporary. Sammi unpacks how the brand turns ghost-town real estate into an asset, runs on a gig economy workforce, and creates an IRL experience that even Amazon can’t compete with.

RH’s Luxury Mountain and House of Cards (Part 2): In part two of this Restoration Hardware deep dive, I pull back the curtain on what’s really at the top of “Luxury Mountain.” From the troubled Aspen expansion and RH’s sky-high ambitions in Europe, to eyebrow-raising governance decisions, failed ventures, and Warren Buffett’s very public goodbye— you have to wonder: is the RH foundation starting to crack? I explore whether RH is still building the “LVMH of America” or if it’s become a masterclass in overreach, vanity projects, and vibes over fundamentals.

Yachts, Private Jets, and the Restoration Hardware CEO Lore (Part 1): This episode was my most requested one to date. I never expected my short form video about Restoration Hardware to create the waves (rather, tsunami) that it did. So this one was

Tracy Anderson (Tracy Anderson Method) From small studios to celebrity status, Tracy Anderson has built one of the most influential—and imitated—fitness empires in the world. Tracy opens up about the evolution of her signature method, the tension between exclusivity and accessibility, and what it really takes to maintain your signature style in a copycat industry. She also shares her candid thoughts on the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, the tech takeover of the wellness space, and why protecting intellectual property is the next frontier in fitness.

Resources/Links/Reads 🌶️🧥

🧲 Seven Weird Habits that Make People Obsessively Attracted to You (medium)

📊 What Every Company Can Learn from Private Equity (hbr)

👜 Buy: Loewe. Sell: Isabel Marant. Hold: Tory Burch (the real real)

🔍 Saying less (good times)

💡The 25 Most Interesting Ideas I've Found in 2025 (So Far) (derek thompson)

🏡 More than Money: The Rise of Joy-Driven Renovations (thumbtack)

🚶‍♀️The Walk That Rewires Your Brain. Forget Supplements (medium)

Brand I’m Loving: Engine

At a time when I’m definitely craving more IRL experiences (see my whole bit about analog activities for proof above), I’m very thankful for companies like Engine that make travel booking (hotels, flights, etc) for business so much easier for any of the in-person trips that I’m attending through the end of the year. In my past corporate life at Amazon, booking corporate travel was a disaster. Now that I’m branched out on my own as a founder of my own company, I’ve actually enjoyed the travel booking process since I’ve decided to book my business travel with Engine. I definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a better, less clunky way to book your business travel.

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P.S. - If you see any typos in this newsletter, know that I did it on purpose just like The New Yorker does via their style guide.

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✏️✍️ I’m always looking for new companies, people and stories to highlight. If you have any ideas for a future newsletter, please feel free to drop me a note.