Superstar cities are in trouble / Derek Thompson, The Atlantic:  As a general rule of human civilization, we’ve lived where we work. More than 90 percent of Americans drive to work, and their average commute is about 27 minutes. This tether between home and office is the basis of urban economics. But remote work weakens it; in many cases, it severs the link entirely, replacing spatial proximity with cloud-based connectivity. What knock-on changes will this new industrial revolution bring?

Editor's Note: I enjoyed debating the second order effects of remote work with Thompson. The ties between commerce, entrepreneurship, and infrastructure have always been clear. In a series of essays, I suggest that the word "agglomeration" should now be considered a digital behavior. In J-Curves and Agglomeration, I explain that as more of us depend on digital channels for work, education, and recreation: commerce's TAM will grow with it. In When in Home, I discussed the precursor of this thesis:

Today’s major tech companies are signaling that people don’t need offices to maintain operational effectiveness. If this sentiment maintains, these tech companies may no longer need Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, or Boston as talent-generating headquarters. Instead, they can move to cheaper suburban or rural areas of the same city or another one altogether.

As remote work tethers us to digital tools rather than physical real estate, other behaviors will shift alongside of this revolution. Commerce is but one of these potential changes; even our politics will be impacted by the remote work revolution. This was discussed in The New Digital Electorate: 

We are beginning to see the early signs of a shifting electorate that will be influenced by digital real estate more than its physical counterpart. According to a report in July 2020 that referenced the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Pew Research Center noted that 22% of US adults have changed their residence or personally know of someone who did.

Thompson published another great one with "Superstar cities are in trouble." Be sure to read it. 

Here's what really happens to the items you return online

Logistics / CNN Business: Once your return arrives at its destination, an employee needs to open the air fryer, inspect it, maybe even plug it in to test all of its features to ensure it's not broken. This costs the retailer time and money. Not to mention, the box was opened, so putting this back on the shelf with other brand-new air fryers is out of the question. In short, receiving and handling a return isn't simple in the slightest.

How Rothy's pivoted and stayed profitable

DTC Brands / Modern Retail: Because Rothy’s owns its own factory, it was able to churn out new product more quickly than other footwear and accessories brands. Lesley Clifford, senior director of merchandising at Rothy’s, said that it can bring a new product to market in less than two weeks, but typically will do so in two months. Historically, Rothy’s best-selling shoes are its dressier silhouettes — called the point, the flat, and the loafer. But, it had to switch gears as the pandemic dragged on.

With America still on lockdown, publishers lean into direct mail

Advertising / Digiday: Publishers know Americans are going to be hunkered down at home for another few months of coronavirus-created isolation, so some of them are hoping to drive more revenue by going right through readers’ front doors. Over the past few months, The Los Angeles Times has been pitching direct mail and custom publishing campaigns to media agencies focused on DTC brands.

Allbirds pushes for more brick-and-mortar stores even during COVID-19

Retail Real Estate  / The Inquirer: This year, as droves of retailers have trimmed offerings at their brick-and-mortar locations or closed them altogether, Allbirds plans to expand its retail presence by adding to its list of 23 stores that span Auckland, New Zealand, to San Diego.

Why catalog brands like Filson and Lands' End are cool again

DTC / Wall Street Journal: Alex Carleton, outdoor brand Filson’s chief creative officer, suggested that Covid has left us craving the pleasures of simpler times. “We are physically disconnected…[but] you have an emotional connection to the physical quality of the mail coming into your home,” he said.

Editor's Note: a few of the original DTC brands. 

NFT issuance landscape

Linear Commerce / Coopahtroopa: NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are uniquely distinguishable digital assets. Non-fungibility means no two tokens are the same. Whereas a dollar bill has the same value as any other dollar bill (meaning they are fungible), one car has a drastically different value from another (meaning they are non-fungible). NFTs frequently represent scarce digital content, and allow for provable ownership (otherwise known as provenance) of media files which have historically been free to reproduce.

Sneaker drops keep coming. Are they sustainable?

eCommerce / Vogue Business: The pace of sneaker drops has increased as the category has grown. Cowen Equity Research estimated in 2019 that the global sneaker market was worth $100 billion, while the global sneaker resale market was worth $6 billion. Highsnobiety writer and sneakerhead Fabian Gorsler says seasoned buyers are becoming burnt out and nostalgic for the “old days” when releases were dropped once or twice a month. Now, there are several major drops per week.

Personal branding just got a lot more branded

Consumer Psychology / AIGA. Selling personal merch through Shopify looks like a neighborhood bake sale in comparison, but [Grace Garcia] Clarke believes it’s a small but sure step towards a world where individuals exist in their own personality-based universe of profitability. “I think it’s the difference between being comfortable with the world we live in right now where humans are themselves but they sell things, versus this metaverse that I feel like we’re barreling toward, which is just like a Ready Player One level of simulation,” she said.

Eterneva is bringing millennial flair to the death-care industry

DTC Brands / Business Insider: Eterneva, a cremation-diamond company founded in 2016 by Archer and Ozar, has taken the direct-to-consumer ethos and aesthetic and applied it to the death care industry. This year, the company is focusing on expansion, pursuing Series A funding and partnering with funeral homes to bring a technology-driven company to a slow-to-adapt funeral landscape.

Editor's Note: dark. 

Between 2010 and 2016, a number of CPG retailers and digitally native vertical brands came of age with the help of a licensed gym movement that shaped a decade of influencers in health, nutrition, and fitness. That list includes fixtures like NoBull, FITAID, Rogue, Mizzen + Main, Zevia, Siete Foods, and RXBar. Built within or on the periphery of the CrossFit movement, these brands have gone on to amass mainstream followings and notable physical distribution. A few are now household names. One quieter brand has made an impact on a market long overdue with modern challengers.

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