Starbucks' $100 million man shares his vision

22:14It never can be replaced. And so I think when we do it right, you know, there's nobody better. And I firmly believe the best days of Starbucks are still in front of us. And I've had the opportunity to travel around the world and experience our coffee and the community coffeehouse around the world. And it transcends cultures, it transcends borders, it really is, you know, I think the best of humanity when you get people together around a table in a safe place over, you know, a cup of coffee where you can, you know, I really do believe it's important to get these ceramic mugs back too, because there is something to this mug hug when you get your warm cup of coffee.

22:55And, you know, we want all those little moments to be back again. And I think we talked about this, you know, we're designing a new mug, we're designing a new seat, we're doing these coffeehouse uplifts, because I do believe the customer experience, the aesthetic of that community coffeehouse is really important. I mean, it seems like in an age when everything is basically digital and convenience dominates, that it's no longer a distinguishing feature for your brand. I think all those things are just category antis, right? It's, look, we got to have access through the app, we got to be quick, We got to be convenient.

23:29We need to have drive-throughs. I think the thing that separates us is that coffeehouse moment. And whether you're walking into a coffeehouse to just grab your cup and go, I think it's important that you walk into a coffeehouse. You know, I mean, we've all been in those places where we've gotten to-go food. And if you walk into a place and it's empty and soulless, you don't feel great about that to-go order. If the place has a soul, a connection, even if it's a to-go order, you feel much better about that to-go order. And I think the same is true for Starbucks. I mean, that's part of the business argument here, right?

23:59Absolutely. That basically upgrading the physical space will actually increase digital orders and sort of other things along those lines. Absolutely. And look, the other thing too is there was a lot of feedback from our partners on what it took to run the Starbucks because now you have three key access points, right? You got the drive-through, mobile order pickup, and now you have the cafe or the counter experience for the cafe. today. We've worked on technology and process and flow and staffing to ensure that our teams are set up where they can do all three of those access points successfully.

24:33Some of the feedback I was getting initially is they're not set up for success. You might have heard us talk about this green apron service model that we just started to roll out. We're investing $500,$600 million into additional labor into the stores, but it's purposeful. It's purposeful to make sure that every transaction is more than a transaction. It's actually a moment of connection, both at the time you order and at the time you hand it off. And we say it starts and ends with the Green Apron partner because the great orders start with a barista experience and they also end with a barista experience.

25:06So whether that's a mobile order coming in and we share, hand the coffee to you, or if you're going through the drive-thru, I mean, some of the best experiences I've had just before I was flying out here to New York, I swung by one of our stores to go through the drive-thru, the woman was terrific. Super engaging at the order board and then really engaging when she handed me my coffee on my way out. She might have been a little bit surprised it was me, but nonetheless, she was terrific. I imagine the most frightening and exciting customer they could have. I don't know why. I actually think I'm a good customer.

25:42I want to rewind a bit, which is you start last year. You come into the role. and tell me what drove you crazy. Yeah, so, well, there were a few things that drove me crazy, which was, so I had left Chipotle and I had about a month, month and a half before I was starting at Starbucks. And the thing I did was I started going to Starbucks with a lot more frequency because I was kind of between jobs. And I heard that's kind of one of the things you do is go hang out at Starbucks. Yeah. Write your novel. Exactly right. Write a novel. Yeah. But, you know, that basically did not deliver on having a great in-cafe experience.

26:23You know, I walked into a store, outlets were covered or outlets weren't working. There weren't enough seats. It was clear that we had prioritized a waiting area for mobile order over solving how do we better sync up the timing of when you order your drink and when you show up for your drink so that you don't need as big of a waiting area and we can put those seats back in. And, you know, I also saw it was very transactional as opposed to giving our baristas or our partners the time to create connection and also do their craft correctly consistently. And so when I started to see these things, and it was really interesting, there was one customer.

27:01He happened to be in front of me. And, you know, he didn't realize I was the CEO. A lot of people at this time didn't know I was the CEO. And, you know, he ordered a brewed cup of coffee from our Clover Vertica machine. And our barista turns around, makes the brewed cup of coffee, and then sends it down the line behind lattes and everything else. And the gentleman's literally getting anxious. You can tell he just wants his cup of coffee. Like, right now. You know, just hand it back to me. He's good to go. And instead, we were sending it down the line. And, you know, so I just asked him. I was like, hey, does this happen to you all the time?

27:34He's like, all the time. Yeah. He goes in, you know, it would be really helpful. He's like, I can put my own milk in my coffee. Like the good old days. Like the good old days. And what I found out was we had removed the condiment bar during COVID, and we never put it back. And we had also changed the process of brewed coffee to go down the line as opposed to just hand it back to you at POS. It went down the line because the barista was the one to pour in the oat milk or whatever milk. Sugars. And inevitably, people are very, you know, your coffee is very personal. So to tell somebody how much milk to put in or how much sugar to put in, it's very hard to get it correct when the person doesn't see what's going on.

28:13So we also had a scenario where we're redoing these coffees a lot. Or worse yet, I saw somebody hand somebody their cup of coffee, a cup with some milk, and then a cup full of sugars. And then this person's got now three cups, you know, and is looking like, well, where am I supposed to go with this? Because we don't have the seat for him to sit down to go put the cream and sugar into his coffee. So, you know, those were little things where I'm like, gosh, this is really frustrating, and there's no reason for it to happen. And it made it hard on our partner. It made it hard on our customer. And these were simple things to solve.

28:43And hopefully, you've seen that already go into effect, where now we have the condiment bars back. When you do order brewed coffee, they should hand it to you right at the order point. Let me pause you here, though, because on paper, it's simple enough to put the milk back on the condiment bar. On the back end, though, you stop charging more for different milks, right? Correct. alternate dairy milks or whatever. Right. That's a relatively big decision, but you made it pretty quickly. Yeah, well, that was another thing that I was hearing from customers and I guess probably the point to go back to your question.

29:14When I first started, I always take the approach of what are customers saying? What are our partners saying? What's working? What's getting in the way? Then it's a really easy list to create to say like, okay, if we just fix these things to eliminate these pain points for both our customers and our partners, I think we're going to make a lot of progress. And, you know, one of the pain points was, why is it, you know, regular milk, there's no upcharge, but there's an upcharge when I want oat milk. And, you know, I was kind of listening to it. I'm like, I think they're right. As a customer, that would not delight me.

29:50So we made the decision to stop charging for oat milk. And with doing that, that also freed us up to then have the right milks on the condiment bar. Because what I found out was one of the weird little barriers was, well, we wanted to charge for the alt milk, so we didn't want to put it on the condiment bar. Yeah, I mean, I saw the hacks where people like get the espresso, pick up the alt milk, dump half the container, kind of like screw everybody, but also save a dollar. Yeah, well, and what's so interesting is like you see these compensating behaviors and you're like, this is really, this is really silly.

30:20Like we can make it very simple and the simplicity actually works for everybody. And so we made that decision. We put the condiment bars back in. And I mean, the one thing I had to get comfortable with at Starbucks is, you know, and if my team was here, I'm kind of a broken record of like, I want to do it faster. Why can't we do it faster? But I found that in my time at Chipotle. I found that in my time at Target. I've always, I guess, been a little bit impatient, especially when you get clear feedback of what you know you need to go do. And the scale of Starbucks resulted in like we had to track down, you know, hundreds of thousands of these carafe's and that took a little bit of time.

31:00So I couldn't get it done. They were gone. I wonder where the carafe's went. I don't know. It's a good documentary on that. I'm guessing people's closets are full of carafe. I don't know. You're changing store design quite a bit, right? So there were all sorts of store designs before. Moving forward, there will be three core store designs. I would say small, medium, and large. That's probably the wrong framing. Yeah, I was corrected. It would be tall, grande, and venti. Yeah. And, you know, the tall in particular is going to be a new format store we haven't really seen before. And it's modeled after a classic espresso bar.

31:35Yeah. So the idea is in a, you know, in a small format, you can still have a great barista connection and still have a couple seats. Like you've all experienced these places, right? As you've traveled around the world. the traditional espresso bar is actually though just a walk up to the bar get a shot of espresso maybe have a few words and out you go I do believe we still need to have some atmosphere where if you want to sit down and have your drink you can still have a seat so there'll be small formats primarily driven towards the idea of like hey I want to get my coffee maybe just have a minute or two with the barista and then move on or a minute or two with others that are in the store but also provide six to eight seats where if you want to sit down, you can sit down.

32:18And then obviously, when you go to the medium or the grande size store, you're going to have probably 30 seats. And then as it gets bigger, you can get to 50, 60 seats, and in some cases, even bigger. You might have seen, it was getting some news, we just opened a flagship store in Spain at the Bernabal in Madrid. And that is like the third place on steroids. I mean, And you have a complete view of the pitch for the Real Madrid soccer team. It's amazing. Yeah. It really is amazing. I think, actually, I think Fast Company says the most beautiful Starbucks in the world right now. It wasn't my article.

32:49I prefer the one in Chicago. That's Chicago. You know what? The one in Chicago is beautiful, too. And so the thing, my point is, it can be beautiful when they're big and multi-storied, or they can be beautiful and intimate when it's 800 square feet with 10 seats. We do not have to make a trade-off. But you keep saying seats. and you're adding 30 ,000 seats back? I think, you know what? I think it's going to be closer to hundreds of thousands of seats back in because what's happened over time is, some stores might've had initially 70 seats and today they only have 30. We're going to put the seating density back in.

33:25So ideally that store will go back. I don't know if we can get all the way back to 70, but you should be able to get back to maybe 60. So we're going to be putting back in hundreds of thousands of seats and I think it's going to really accentuate the point of difference of Starbucks. I mean, it is true. Like we've basically seen every major restaurant chain rip out seats over the last five years. I wrote an essay a few years ago called Death of a Place to Sit. And, you know, we've seen it basically everywhere. I mean, do you think this is going to lead the industry in sort of a resurgence of seating?

33:58Do you think people sort of draft off of Starbucks like they did Starbucks' rewards app years ago? Yeah, look, I hope so, because I do think the more people can actually connect face-to-face and kind of share those moments with each other. I hate to reference ads, but there was a great ad that Starbucks did a couple of years ago where they literally went around the world in 24 hours and just showed people connecting over coffee. And it's powerful. And you know what? I think you're seeing it even with like the resurgence of casual dining. I mean, a good friend of mine, Kevin Aukman, runs Chili's and Brinker.

34:35And I think he's doing a great job because he's bringing back that moment where you can get together. And in their case, it's over a burger. But it's like, I think people want a place to be able to spend time with each other over food or over coffee. And when I was at Chipotle, there was a moment there where we was like, oh, you don't need that front of house anymore. You can just do everything through the digital make line. And at the time, I felt like it was a little bit out on the island, but I was like, I disagree. I think people like to come into the store, interact with, in that case, going down the line to get your customized experience.

35:10And the same thing is true at Starbucks. I hear over and over and over again the connection between the barista and our customers is unlike anything I've heard. And there are these examples where people walk in and the barista knows them so well that they've already made their drink before they've gotten to the POS. And I wish every single one of our transactions was that intimate, that personal. That's what we need to get to. I mean, you bring up Chili's, which I think is a really interesting company. Applebee's is somewhat similar in this space where they are finding market share because they have these$13-ish meals that aren't really more expensive necessarily than McDonald's has gotten to, but offers a little more atmosphere, perhaps higher integrity ingredients.

35:53And you can go somewhere. right, and hang out. But I am wondering, a lot of this is taking a lot of investment. You're going to staff up. These store remodels cost about$150 ,000 a piece, right? Or sorry, uplifts. Remodels cost a little bit more. But are you worried with sort of a pinched middle class where we're seeing credit card debts rising, the economy is obviously shaky, we have global instability, that all of these improvements, I do believe could move the needle significantly for Starbucks. But if you have all of these challenges around a$6 or$7 coffee, does that offset your gains? I don't think so.

36:34I think when you have a commitment to craft and quality like we do, and then you have a commitment to what I would call a great customer experience, I would love for Starbucks to become the world's greatest customer service company. Right now, when I ask people, name me a great customer service company, I usually get a blank stare, which I find fascinating because I'm like, well, geez, that tells me right off the bat there is a huge opportunity to be the defining customer service company. And I think there is tremendous value in being a world-class customer service company combined with great craft, great quality food and drink.

37:15And I think when you look at putting those two things together for the price that we will have to charge for it, I think it'll turn out to be invaluable. Comes back to experience. Comes back to experience, yeah. And I think you might have even had it in the article. It's kind of interesting to have the simple idea of putting hospitality back into the hospitality industry. Yeah. It seems like - That was my line. It was your line, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, I might use it again. But it really is. And look, one of the things I've tried to do coming into Starbucks is keep it very simple and straightforward on what we need to go do in order to get this company turned around.

37:53And we're already starting to see elements of that show up across the organization. You know, our partners are really engaged. Our customers are giving us positive feedback. And I think we're on our way to being that world-class customer service, customer experience company again. I'm still seeing reports that the customer's experience to provide that baristas are taxed a little extra. And I know you're staffing up. I know that you are sort of simplifying the menu. You're doing all sorts of things to sort of help them out, to buy them time. But they're still writing with Sharpies on cups again.

38:30They are still slammed. When do you feel like you'll see a broad relief for that group? Right. Because just one more thing where what stopped me from going to Starbucks for a while was, I just felt like I was abusing the workers a little bit. I just saw them working really hard. It's tough to enjoy this little luxury when you see somebody just working so hard for it. Yeah, look, our goal is to create a situation where our partners can thrive. I do think we have to accept what the standards need to be though. And so our standard is going to be great customer service and great craft. And I don't believe we can lower the standard.

39:10I think what we need to do is make sure we create process, programs, investment, so that the standard is achievable. And the other thing too, and I've said this to our organization, I was like, here's the fact, the standard is going to go up. Like every year. You're saying the Sharpies are hard today. Well, no, what happens is over time, the Sharpie becomes just, this is what I do. That's the baseline. That's the baseline. It's partly a new thing right now. Therefore, as with anything, any little bit of change, sometimes there is a change curve. I think the mistake sometimes is we read into the change curve as like, oh, we need to lower the standard.

39:49I actually think, no, we need to provide the support to get through the change curve and then give people the ability to hit the standard. Because here's what I'll tell you is when people hit the standard and they get that great customer experience, unbelievably proud of what they just provided. And so that's what we get. The feedback comes from the customer. Ultimately, the feedback will come from the customer. We as the corporation need to make sure that we're setting our teams up for success so they have every right to hit the standard. And then I think the satisfaction comes with providing a great experience, a great craft of coffee.

40:21Last week, I was in Arkansas and I ordered a dry cappuccino and I get to the counter, the woman hands it to me and she's like, you feel how light that is? And I'm like, and she's right. And she's right. Because when a great, a great cappuccino is actually very light and she knew it and she knew she had a great one and she handed it to me and it was a little bit like that. Like, here you go, right? Like she dropped it. You enjoy that cappuccino, like, uh, order it again. Right. So, um, so I think there is something about hitting those standards and gives you pride in what you do and the feedback comes from your customer.

40:59You mentioned a new chair and new cups. These are pet projects that you've had. I don't know if anybody remembers, but Starbucks used to have this iconic is a word for it, purple chair that was very Tim Burton-esque, I would say, in some of the stores. When you came on, you were like, we're bringing back the chair. Yeah. The idea is, look, when you walk into, I think these places that are personal to you, there's always a seat that you're like, that's my seat, right? And even if somebody's sitting in it for the moment, you keep an eye on it, right? There are too many people laughing. Well, because it's all real.

41:36Yeah. You know, people laugh at things. They're like, oh, shit, I do that. And, you know, the reality is that purple chair was one of those seats in our stores where it was like, you know what, once that seat's available, I'm going to grab it. And you would also see like young kids. It was amazing to me, but six kids would be using that one chair. And so we're going to come out with, I think, our contemporary version of that signature chair. It probably won't be in every single Starbucks, but it will be in a lot of them. And then I also think there's an opportunity to differentiate ourselves with a special mug.

42:09So when you choose to stay in our cafe, you get a ceramic coffee mug that aesthetically says, hold me, stay with me, right? And ideally, people will be wanting them personally. Hopefully, maybe they'll only even want to buy them for their own use at home. I was going to ask, is that something I could buy, or is it something I could only drink out of at a Starbucks? Because that also— Well, so there's a debate. Can I buy the chair? There's a debate. Look, my preference is why not? Why not let people—if you love the chair and you want to buy it, we should probably do something with Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma or whoever Restoration Hardware, where they can turn around and resell this chair for us.

42:49We're not going to be in the chair selling business. We'll leave that to the experts. That's not the headline? No, yeah, yeah. We're not. There's. Exactly. No, no. Coffee. And so, you know, there's a debate though. Like some folks are like, oh, we should only have the mugs in the store. And I'm like, well, look, if you enjoy it in the store, why not let people purchase them to enjoy it at home? I think the more you're exposed to our brand, the better. Yeah. I mean, I feel like a lot of your decision-making, at least in our conversations, tends to come through as, not to oversimplify, but common sense.

43:21Well, look, I think sometimes we overdo it and we walk past common sense. And I say this to our team all the time. I'm like, well, why are we doing this? I'm like, because it's common sense. I don't need a study. I don't need more analytics. This is obvious. So therefore, we're going to do it. and we're going to do it with urgency, and we're going to do it in a way that our customers tell us, hey, that was right, and our partners tell us I could execute it. And so I think sometimes we like to make simple things sound super complicated, and I'm like, I don't have time for the complication. We need to be moving at the speed that our customers are moving, and when you see common sense solutions, you just got to act on it.

44:00So we have only a few minutes left, and now we are at the point of Mark has questions about Starbucks as a Starbucks customer. So we're going to get through a few of these as quick as we can. Look, what's up with matcha? I'm hearing... It's going way up. Yeah, matcha's going way up. But my understanding is there's like not a lot of matcha in the world. It's funny you bring this up. We were just talking about this. The popularity of matcha has put a little strain on the supply globally. I mean, it's bothering me because I liked matcha before it was cool. But that's a different discussion. We're going to figure out how not to run out of it.

44:33That's for sure. but yeah, matcha is having a moment. And you look, the reason is it's really good, right? It's like, I personally, now one of my afternoon drinks is a cold matcha latte. I think also tastes really good when you put one of our cold foams on it. One note, one of my afternoon drinks. I just want to make sure everybody caught that really, really interesting phrasing. But when you say we're going to make sure we don't run out of it, I mean, does that mean you are essentially going to have to partner with matcha farmers like you've done with coffee. You know, look, the reality is a lot of people don't realize this, but Starbucks has a unbelievable history in tea as well as coffee.

45:12And the good news is we've got strong relationships on the tea side of things. And so not surprising, very similar to approach with coffee farmers is the same thing we're doing with tea farmers. The Chinese chain luck in is really growing quickly. they have a very opposite model, like very Uber-based transactional. Is there anything you admire from what they're doing? You know, look, I think there's always something you can learn. And they've done a nice job with, I would say, some of their flavor work. I think they've done an interesting job on how they've turned the app into the only way you can interact with that business.

45:49It's a different approach. I don't think it's the right approach for us. You know, It's definitely having an impact in China, but I will tell you our Starbucks business I think is having a nice recovery in China as well by us getting back to making sure that we've got the right product innovation and also the right customer experience. I think that's the one thing that they've probably done a nice job of, is just an unbelievable pace of product innovation. I think it sets the tone for like, hey, we cannot be complacent on flavors and drink combinations. And I will tell you, our China business, if you spend any time in China, you will see flavors and experiences that you just don't see in the United States.

46:31I had a latte when I was over in China. It was a rose dew latte. And literally what they were doing is they were steaming and seeping rose petals to get the fragrance into the syrup. Where are my rose petals, Brian? Well, you know, next time. But that creativity is really exciting to like a dark chocolate latte. So I think product innovation is one of those things that I think your competitors always make you better. And that's a great example of, you know what, we've got a competitor that has been innovating at a torrid pace. We've got to figure out how we can innovate correctly as well. All right, we're at time, but do you have a secret to share about any future menu items?

47:12Well, I will tell you, and this probably isn't all that secretive, but we are coming out with protein cold foam. Oh, come on. That's not a secret. In like just a couple. 15 grams of protein, you pour it on top, it's going to sell a lot. It's going to do really well. And the other thing I'll tell you too is we are going to be reimagining all of our baked items. You know, I think there's a real opportunity for us to be much more artisanal, and I think it will complement our beverages. I do believe our food needs to match the craft of our coffee. And I think there's a real opportunity for us to elevate and be much more artisanal in what you experience out of our bake case.

47:51And then ultimately, even with our food, I mean, the reality is you can't get past people talking about protein. You know, I keep thinking it's peaked and I've been proven wrong. And so you're going to see us figure out how we can combine more protein with gluten-free options. and I think you're going to see a nice improvement on the food side of things. Even more protein. Even more protein. Yes, exactly. Thanks. Brian, this conversation is fantastic. The audience was wonderful. We've got to go protein load. Okay, so we're back and we're going to try out a new game today for our last segment. It's hot or not, but not with people, right?

48:35It'll be a sort of a more ethical version. We're going to look at different designs over the course of the last month. And leading us through it all will be our producer, Cody. Hey, hey. Yeah, I'm moderating this week instead of judging like usual. So this should be exciting. He's still looking at us with a lot of judgment. So true. First thing we're going to talk about, name brand Aldi. So the headline here is Aldi rebranded all of its private label, or I would call them generic products, and they look a lot better, I think. Leading the witness. Leading the witness. But anyway, Aldi's putting its name on these products for the first time, and they're bright and colorful, and the design looks, dare I say, elevated.

49:20Brian Niccol:I'm pro this. I think it's part of a bigger trend that we've seen. I mean, Walmart upgraded its private label or generic brands. Target has had tons of success with this. It was only a matter of time before Aldi did this because Aldi, it turns out, sells most of its products are private label, and it was a huge missed opportunity for them. So I guess, you know, it has to be hot. This has to be hot because it's a good business decision. Look, I agree with how the trends you're talking about, but I'm going not. And, yeah, I'm sure if you look sort of item to item, it's better. But what I wanted here was some sort of more cohesive system, something that played back to the Aldi brand, not just like, I don't know, kind of looks like cheaper Target branding.

50:03It probably is cheaper Target branding. I mean, Aldi cheaper Target is probably a really good sales pitch for them.

50:10Brian Niccol:Okay, fair enough. Next up comes from one of my favorite segments of capitalism, the specialty beverage market. This one is Stiller Soda, which for some reason is the actor Ben Stiller's soda brand. It is not a prebiotic, not a probiotic soda. It is just a better for you soda brand. It looks like there are three flavors, one of them being Shirley Temple. What do we think of Stiller Soda? Stiller Soda for me is a not. Look, I like Ben Stiller. I don't need a soda. I don't know another way to put it. I kind of feel like the celebrity side hustle thing is a little cringe at this point. Like, maybe he's like the soda.

50:54He's a prodigy of soda, and I'm underestimating him, and I will eat my words, okay? But, like, that's my take on Stiller's soda. I'm sure he did a lot of work in the kitchen for this, too.

51:02Brian Niccol:I'm going to go with not here as well, although I do want to add an asterisk here because, on principle, I am like a full chemical soda person. Otherwise, just drink water or a seltzer. So it's not because there's not enough chemicals for you. Let me finish. No, well, there is that. To your point, I don't think we need another soda. I do appreciate that it's not a prebiotic soda, which I feel like there are just too many of those on the market. I'm a little shocked that there's still room in this market at all for new launches. But that being said, in my asterisk is really just that I like the branding.

51:38Brian Niccol:I think it looks good. I think it's an appealing soda. They're trying to frame it as a refreshing option. And the art direction makes me think it would taste pretty good. Better than like an Olipop or whatever other brands there are out there. I'm going to stop you at the Olipop slander. Oh, God, please tell me you don't drink that. I have bought cases of Olipop, Liz. They're Ridge Rush. It's Mountain Dew. That's good for your tummy. Anyway, moving on. Let's go with, and I'm maybe going to mispronounce this, the Demna Gucci collection. This one's for Mark. It's definitely for Mark. Liz, how do you feel about it?

52:18No, never mind. It's so hot. It's so hot.

52:20Brian Niccol:Hot. Hot. What's hot about it for you? I mean, I actually agree. I really want to just see more men in mesh shirts. So I'm into it. Look, you know, Demna, you know, hot off of his run at Balenciaga, which I think ended more with like a whimper than anything else. Like, I feel like I like he felt sort of done at that brand. He felt like he'd said what he could. He went to Gucci and actually my expectations were a little bit low. But, you know, with this first collection, which he's even like in full Demna, you know, Demnaverse, he's like, it's not really a collection yet. It's just like these are a few items we're selling.

52:57It goes kind of through the history of Gucci. You see like time periods, like to the 1960s, there's a brocade dress that looks very 1850s. There's a tiger jacket that I want. Technically for women.

53:11Brian Niccol:That jacket is really cool. It's right. It's like these high cut, large shoulder silhouettes. But I just I like about every item and I think it's not taking itself too seriously. And it's like kind of that simple for me. Yeah, I really like that. The description is it'll make you look hot and rich, which something that we can. Yeah, right. Something we can all aspire to. It's like I don't want either of those things. The tiger jacket is really cool. What's next, Cody? Next up, I'm really curious about this one. Tiny Vinyl. It looks like a fairly new company that is making exactly what it sounds like.

53:47Tiny Vinyl Records. They can play on some modern record players, but it's basically an attempt to make vinyl cheaper. It looks like it's going to sell for$14.99 a record. So you get two songs for$15. What do we think of Tiny Vinyl?

54:05Brian Niccol:This is a knot for me, even though I appreciate the creativity here. I just think the utility of having two songs on vinyl is, you know, it's a novelty. That's what it is. I think it's an interesting way for musicians to potentially further monetize what they're doing. I respect that. But I don't want to be getting up after four minutes to flip my vinyl. I just don't want to do that. You know, I kind of what I love about it is that it brings you back to the era that I remember where you would like you would buy a single because like you like the one song the album sucked. And it was like, I don't know, three or four or five dollars.

54:44Not exactly a deal, but you like you got the jam. But look, this is so adorable. Like, I want to look at it. I'm glad it exists. But I just think about like piles of plastic. So I got to go with a knot because I'm with you.

54:58Brian Niccol:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the one thing I will say is that it is really cute, and they do it up, right? It's like they have the sleeve. They have everything that a normal-sized record would have, but it's just really tiny. It's just tiny vinyl. I think I'm with you, and before we move on, I am going to say tiny vinyl. This isn't new. Somebody just scaled it and sold it to Target. Anyway, next up, something that you wrote about, Mark, the Amex Mirror card. Can you tell us about that first? Yeah, so it's a credit card. their new Platinum card, limited edition, that is a mirror. And I'm going to say, hot if you're hot, not if you're not.

55:37Brian Niccol:I'm hot on this too. That's a little self-congratulatory. Like, yeah, I mean, looks pretty hot to me. No, but in all seriousness, I don't think Amex would ever frame it this way, but I think it's sort of, you know, like a self-owning trick on the people who sign up for Platinum. because if you're going to pay almost$900 a year for a credit card, you should definitely have to look at yourself in the mirror. Oh, yeah. Look yourself in the mirror when you buy those shoes you just bought because you need some introspection. Yeah, but also it's a major flex to throw down that shiny card on a restaurant table.

56:13Brian Niccol:I get it. I'd like to do it. I just want to buy very, very inexpensive things with it. Like, oh, I think I have to use my platinum card for this tiny vinyl. Okay, next up, this one is for me. The greatest design in the history of sport has returned. My favorite team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, has brought back the iconic tree logo. They're going to have it on the jerseys. They're going to have it on the court. It is perhaps the best relic of design that died in the early 2000s. I'm leading the witness here. What do you guys think about the trees? Well, I would just say the greatest design in basketball is obviously the Bulls logo, which is timeless, unchanged since launch.

56:58So we won't get into that more. That just like facts. I can't fight that, actually. But no, this is fantastic. I'm so into it. I'm so like, yeah, 100 percent. Very hot.

57:08Brian Niccol:I guess I'm hot on it, too, although I don't really care about the Timberwolves. But I can acknowledge that it's a great design. And also, I like a retro throwback. And also, I also, I want to know where this is going. The more I look at it, the more I like it. Because the, can you call it a wordmark? The actual, where it says timberwolves across the chest. It looks like a metal logo. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like it's for Halloween. And that's really fun. I mean, it doesn't look like a throwback. If you took this, like, I think a lot of people will just think it's contemporary, right?

57:42Totally. Because it does feel really fresh right now. Now, if you had no idea of history, you'd be like, oh, that's, yeah, they did a good job of that. Yeah.

57:47Brian Niccol:Yeah, great jersey. Awesome. My tree throwback jersey is sitting next to a bunch of metal shirts in my closet. So that's perfect. And you just connected something for me. Last item, Stephen Smith's first Crocs design. Yeah, you know, Stephen Smith, basically the dad of the dad shoe. Also, you know, one of the big minds behind Yeezy is now like leading innovation at Crocs. and he released his very first silhouette. And look, it looks kind of like a Yeezy Croc with two almost like pebble water patterns in it. And I'm going to say hot. Oof, I'm going to say not because if I cannot describe what the shoe looks like and I'm having a hard time describing what the shoe looks like, I just don't think it should be worn.

58:32Brian Niccol:I'm not a novelty shoe girl. Very practical. I mean, look, it has a very Yeezy-esque silhouette. I actually don't like it. its original white and blue colorway a ton, which calls more attention to it. But in like straight black with the texturing, I'm here for it. I'm here for it. But you know, more so I think like Crocs in general is doing some things with new silhouettes and pushing the boundaries a bit. And so as a symbol of that, like I'm really here for it. I want to see where Crocs is in like one and two years. And then I think we'll know, I don't know, we'll know how good that design team is.

59:06Brian Niccol:Yeah. No, I respect your opinion. I respectfully disagree with your opinion.

59:15Brian Niccol:That's all for today's episode. Our show is produced by Timberwolves superfan Cody Nelson, mixed in sound design by Nicholas Torres, and our executive producer is Josh Christensen. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next month.