Once in a while, you just know something in an instant. You don’t know how you know. You just do. Maybe it’s that the 14th apartment you’ve seen in a real estate hunt is the one you’re going to live in, that today is not the day to take that shortcut home, or that you better check in on an old friend, ASAP.
$64 million will buy a lot of exercise bikes. That was the value of the US import market of stationary cycles in June of 2020 alone, when it reached an all-time high. After a post-New Year dip, the market started to climb soon after it became clear that Covid-19 would keep many Americans out of gyms indefinitely.
Although some gyms across the US are reopening, many Americans have no plans to renew their memberships in a post-pandemic world, having found safer and cheaper ways to work out from their homes. But even free videos, apps, and workout routines often require the use of equipment—whether a yoga mat and blocks, resistance bands, or just a set of dumbbells.
Remember when hard seltzer was the drink of summer 2019? Time is a flat circle, and now it’s the drink of summer 2020 too. The reasons many found hard seltzer attractive to begin with—“because they go down super easily and then suddenly I’m drunk“—are still very much here. And the convenience factor, which more than half of respondents to a 2019 Nielsen survey cited as a reason for buying canned cocktails and hard seltzers, is perhaps more important than ever.
Today’s cannabis industry is a constantly shifting landscape of legal developments, policy changes, company fortunes, and product innovations. After you’re done reading our latest field guide, check out this selection of people, organizations, and outlets to help you keep up.
Eight short months ago, hemp was the fastest growing crop in US agriculture. As of August, US farmers have reported slashing the planted acreage of the crop by 67%, from 137,000 acres in 2019 to 45,000 acres, according to newly released data from the US Department of Agriculture. This drop follows four consecutive years of US farmers more than doubling their hemp acreage annually.
Last week, the New York-based fashion company Alex Mill, which traffics in trend-proof button-downs, chinos, and jumpsuits, launched a small collection of one-of-a-kind pieces tie dyed in shades of summer popsicles. Alex Mill’s creative director and cofounder Somsack Sikhounmuong said when it came to styling the collection for photographs, his first instinct was to pair the tie-dyed shirts and jackets with the brand’s solid-colored staples. Then, he had a better idea.
In April 2019, the North American cannabis industry was riding high. The stock market value of public cannabis companies had tripled over the last year and a half. Investors observed legalization sweeping the US, and saw the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an industry projected to become worth tens of billions of dollars.
Curaleaf, the US’s biggest cannabis company, with a market capitalization of about $3.2 billion, just keeps getting bigger. The Wakefield, Massachusetts-based operator of grow houses, dispensaries, and brands turning out tinctures, vapes, edibles, topicals, and flower (as the industry refers to dried cannabis) has been steadily acquiring other cannabis companies in an effort to become, as CEO Joe Lusardi puts it, “the first true national cannabis brand with the widest distribution in the country.”
Two short years ago, the cannabis industry was frothy with cash. In 2018, US venture capital investment in cannabis companies topped $900 million, and the combined value of roughly 200 merger and acquisition deals was more than $15 billion—more than a third of which came from tobacco and alcohol companies. The moment was often compared to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s—as was the bust that followed. Cowboys with ample cash and minimal expertise built a house of cards with questionable business models amidst rapidly evolving regulations. It soon came crashing down.
On June 24, US Department of Justice whistleblower John Elias testified that attorney general William Barr ordered investigations of 10 cannabis mergers in the 2019 fiscal year based on personal dislike of the industry. If that sounds like a lot, he said, it is. According to Elias’s testimony (pdf), those reviews accounted for 29% of the antitrust division’s full merger investigations during that period.
US policies surrounding hemp and cannabis are a confusing, complicated, and often contradictory tangle. If those policies were a shoe, those shoes might be similarly confusing. Maybe, for example, the shoes would have a seam mimicking that of a penny loafer, to illustrate a sort of business-casual conformity. Perhaps though, they would also have a rubber sole, to gain some traction. Maybe the shoes’ toes would be reinforced to indicate a tough willingness to kick through barriers. And maybe, for no apparent reason, those toes would be separated, like the fingers of a glove. And of course, they would be made of hemp—that most durable of fibers—and machine washable. No nonsense.
The US’s war on drugs has plagued its communities of color for decades. As Michelle Alexander and Ta-Nehisi Coates have written, the program of drug enforcement and mandatory prison sentencing since the 1960s picked up where institutionalized racist practices such as Jim Crow and redlining left off. Jail sentences cut off access to basic freedom, and criminal records locked people of color out of opportunities for access to basic necessities, whether an education, a job, or an apartment lease.
As coronavirus stay-at-home orders and self-mandated quarantines extend beyond the first quarter of 2020, some new consumer behaviors are beginning to emerge among those still thriving (and spending) despite the pandemic’s economic ravages. We first noticed it when otherwise fashionable, non-domestic acquaintances began sharing photos of sourdough starters and herb gardens, touting their new Crocs, and tie-dyeing their clothes with turmeric.
In the days of protest following George Floyd’s killing, brands have been showing up on social media proclaiming that Black Lives Matter and pledging their corporate support—financial and otherwise—to push for racial equality.
When the film industry shut down productions in New York, cameraman Glenn Kaplan headed straight to his home in Vermont and got started with his new hobby. He had never had a garden before, but he now has vegetables and herbs growing in an outdoor raised bed, and four cannabis plants in a four-by-four foot tent in his house’s workroom.
The coronavirus might prevent Americans from socializing with our neighbors, but it can’t stop us from judging them. A sheer scarf is not a mask. Wow, another Amazon delivery?
Back in November, Peloton—then a newly public company—aired a commercial featuring a woman who came to be known as “Peloton wife.” In the 30-second spot, she receives a surprise Peloton bike from a man we presume to be her Peloton husband, then a year later surprises him turn with a video documenting her journey from nervous newbie to forever changed rider. Viewers did not like this ad. At best it was awkward, at worst it was dystopian and sexist. Peloton’s stock dipped 15% as detractors on social media roasted the company. Peloton didn’t exactly apologize, but told CNBC “we’re disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial.”
Despite a highly unstable economy, Peloton cannot keep its $2,245 stationary bikes in stock.
Sundries to stock in one’s cupboard during the coronavirus pandemic: canned tuna, honey, rice, and weed gummies.
This year, rather than spring trends—Hot pants! Corsetry! Orange!—we have pandemic fashion. Instead of investing in tangerine corseted playsuits or handbags to carry nowhere, we are buying sweatpants and, apparently, Crocs. You might have thought the “it” shoe of the pandemic was socks, but sales data suggests it’s actually a ventilated foam resin clog.
Thanks to Covid-19, it’s probably been a little while since you’ve been to your favorite gym, health club, rec center, or boutique fitness studio. According to the International Health Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), US health clubs are losing about $620 million in revenue per week of closures, so it’s no surprise many are taking their offerings online with virtual classes and home workouts.
Vanessa Packer got out of her boutique fitness studios just in time.
As I read the news online about the coronavirus, it’s impossible not to be distracted by the omnipresence of highly attractive loungewear. Yes, there are stories of aid packages, market slides, and death tolls. But there in the ads are also smartly cropped sweatshirts, drawstring pants in putty shades, and some shearling-lined suede moccasins that look suitable for wearing indoors and out.
