Thrilled to try Tom Brady's Good Nuts.

0:00Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer. I'm Nate I'm Jenna we're excited to be back I know we missed a week which is fine there's always a bunch of news we can talk about but we had a busy we had a busy week last week we really did but we're excited to be back with lots of fun news for you and as always for anything if you are trying to never miss a single news item our newsletter goes out every week and that we don't miss so no if you want to check out the news that we did not cover from last week go to expresscheckout.co, subscribe or don't subscribe. It's free either way, but you'll see the news that you might've missed last week.

0:42It's fun. We write a lot. Jenna, do you want to start? Do you want to kick us off with our first story? Should we just get into it? Let's just get into it. So first story for today is, I feel like we often start with food and beverage actually, but we're not. We're starting with some beauty today because Elf, the massive beauty brand that was really known for like kicking off dupe culture in a lot of ways then became known for buying road beauty and has been killing it affordable beauty brand across the board they have officially crossed over categories and are now in their hair care era so elf launched hair care, which is a big deal because e.l.f.

1:29literally stands for eyes, lips, face. This is a beauty brand through and through, and yet they now are entering hair care under their own same name. So it's not like they launched a new brand. It is the e.l.f. brand. They have a new hair care line with six different products, everything from like treatment oils to humidity repelling styling spray to just like everyday essentials like shampoos and conditioners. And it's still sticking with Elf's broader thesis of these quote-unquote prestige quality formulas at an accessible price point, which is a category that we refer to as mass-steege. We being the industry refers to as mass-steege.

2:09Mass market plus prestige. This is a really interesting launch. One of the stats I thought was really cool, obviously this comes from Elf, but they were saying that around 80 % of their community expressed purchase intent for hair care, which honestly makes a lot of sense. Like if you're buying a lot of the Elf products, you're probably interested in some hair care as well. There was interest from consumers in the hair care aisle. And I think something that you pointed out that you saw in the press release that they called out was that they use creatine as the hero product of two of the SKUs, of the Styling Cream and Styling Blonde, which is really interesting because we've been seeing creatine a lot.

2:54We've been seeing creatine across the supplement space and we actually have a creatine-related story coming later today. Yes. But it's interesting because I did some research and creatine is actually a pretty common ingredient in hair care ingredients. I didn't realize this, but even topically, creatine can help strengthen hair bonds. And so this is an ingredient that has been used, but it looks like at least we don't know what their like external marketing around this ingredient will look like yet. But at least within the press release, they did highlight creatine as a key ingredient. I realized that though this might have been an ingredient that has been included in hair care products before, nobody would have like publicly spoken about it before.

3:31And now creatine is having this like huge moment. It is like actually one of the most highly studied supplements out there. And now consumers are finally understanding that. And I think e.l.f. is capitalizing on this ingredients popularity by just highlighting it a little bit more and helping consumers understand that it might have applications that they're not yet aware of. And there are different brands that are doing that kind of work across different spaces. Like there's a lot of brands that are now highlighting creatine specifically for brain health. So it's like taking this ingredient that has a lot of legitimacy and trust already for one application and borrowing that trust in a different category.

4:12Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, even this week too, around, around the creatine, Kendall Tool, the ex Peloton instructor partnered with, with Create. And that whole campaign is really structured around, hey, this is not just for, like, obviously it's for an athlete, but it's broader than that. There's other benefits to it. Elf is definitely taking some of that credibility and putting it into their styling products. The other side, too, is like we've been seeing a lot of discussion around hair care. I feel like fragrance, body care, and hair care. we've been seeing a lot and it's it's interesting from an acquisition standpoint not your mothers and olaplex have been acquired by henkel which is a big multinational cpg brand and some raises like california naturals which has expanded their product set but their main skews are all hair care it's it's owen wilson's hair care line he's got luxurious locks as well cardi b launched grow good.

5:08I always call it good grow, grow good. And that sold out almost like instantly. There has been so much movement in hair care. And we have said before now, like this, the skinification of hair. We've also said like the skinification of body care, because people have been paying attention to body care in the same way that they were their skincare. And now they're paying attention to their hair care the same way that they're with their skincare. I think just across the board, companies are seeing these categories as opportunities to, again, like borrow from that kind of like level of routinification and obsession around the products that people are using on their skin and being like, well, what if you felt that way about your hair?

5:54What if you felt that way about your body wash and your lotions for your body? And it's this huge opportunity and they're making moves to meet that opportunity. Something interesting about hair care that we can like keep noodling on for a while is it also has a similar phenomenon going on that we're seeing in beauty where consumers seem to be okay with and maybe like encouraging of some more like science oriented ingredients in hair care so a company like olaplex a company like filament which we spoke about in the newsletter last week which is also like a hair treatment and it really really focuses on like clinically backed studied ingredients that have more like science sounding names than some of these more natural brands like california naturals which is very focused on like rosemary oil and familiar natural sounding products there seems to be room for both and elf is going in the more like science-backed camp from emphasizing creatine the way they have but it'll be interesting to see this split continue and like if a winner comes out on top because within skincare we might actually be starting to see more people moving towards that science-y side than the like clean skincare movement so curious to see what will happen with with hair care i think if anything the the border between science-backed and quote-unquote natural organic whatever you want to call it i think is starting to blur a little bit that line is starting to blur i think we're going to start seeing some of the language start to appear a little bit on both sides.

7:31I do think we are leaning a lot more towards the science back, but I think it'll sort of sit in the middle, where it's not really one extreme or the other. It's going to be something like what Elf is doing, and especially if some of these retailers get more into the private label side of things, if Target starts to come out with more of these private label skincare and beauty offerings beyond I'm just, you know, they're really well known for their food. They do have some beauty and skincare, but it's not as prestige as their food products are. And I'm curious to see where the private label goes with hair care and beauty and body care.

8:09What angle they take. Or if they develop specific brands for natural and for scientific backed products. That is really interesting. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Well, we'll see where ELF goes with hair care. I think where they have a lot of possibility for growth is their affordability because people can trial these products without feeling like it's this like huge expense. It'll be interesting to watch this brand grow to a different aisle. But I know there's another story you want to talk about that you really want to say out loud. So I'm going to give it to you. I really want to say out loud.

8:41And this is very like boy of me, I feel. It's so boy. All right. I need a moment. because I cannot believe that this is a real brand name. And I get to say this. Tom Brady's Good Nut. It's a coconut water brand called Good Nut. This is a sentence I get to read on air today. It's truly a privilege. Jenna, I'm so happy that you're here with me. Audience, I'm happy that you're here with me too. We're so lucky. We're so lucky. So it's exclusively on GoPuff. It's an organic coconut water sourced from Vietnamese coconuts. There's no added sugar, nothing artificial, yada, yada. It comes in three flavors, including the first ever certified organic chocolate coconut water, which it's so interesting to me that like, this is the first ever chocolate, organic certified chocolate coconut water.

9:39And it's coming from effectively like a private label brand from GoPuff. There's also still in sparkling, of course. It makes a lot of sense that they're going with coconut water for a few reasons. Apparently, coconut water sales on GoPuff are up 115 % year over year. And more broadly, the category is projected to hit well over$11 billion by 2030. And this just makes a lot of sense. You could see this going beyond just GoPuff as well. If this does well on GoPuff, I could see this showing up in other places. And this is Tom Brady's second brand with GoPuff. They also launched goat gummies almost a year ago to the day.

10:18The organic, vegan, gluten-free, no artificial dyes or sweeteners, real fruit juice. All that's missing is like protein and probably some more fiber or something. But beverage makes a lot of sense. It makes sense from the coconut water side. And it makes sense just because everybody's launching a freaking beverage now, especially all the celebrities. But coconut water is seeing a lot of success. Yeah, really interesting because I think I actually said this on a previous podcast when we were talking about banana water. In my head, coconut water is less of a cultural phenomenon than it used to be.

10:50But in reality, that's pretty far off. Like I, I guess I associated it. I associated coconut water's peak with, it came out at this time with like, I feel like it was like coconut water, avocado toast and acai bowls. It's very like millennial, like first wave of better for you. And they all came out at the same time and felt, I don't know. That's like how I think of coconut water, but it's having a resurgence and it makes sense that it is because there's been a lot more rhetoric around hydration. Do we think that is warranted? No. We talk about this all the time, just like drink some water and have a banana.

11:26But like there's a lot more rhetoric around hydration. And so coconut water has come back into the picture as a very naturally hydrating beverage. So it makes sense that they would be launching this. For coconut water, I think a great example of how successful it is right now is you look at VitaCoco. VitaCoco is like one of the best performing stocks of the past year. Their net sales are up around like 37 % year over year. That's so crazy. It's crazy. Just like coconut water volume in general is around 32%. It's leading across all US beverage segments. It's more than energy drinks. It's more than soda.

12:01It's more than traditional waters. Coconut water is leading. And I think it's one of the hottest beverage categories right now. One, because people have always known what coconut water is. The work has sort of already been done. The other side of it, real ingredients, clean label, you know what you're getting. And if you want to play in that real ingredients category, this is a very safe bet, honestly. and Vitacoco is just crushing it. Crushing it. They're doing so well. They just did... Jenna, I know you're not on TikTok, audience. I don't know how many of you are on TikTok, but there's a sound right now that's going viral.

12:36It's coconut water. It's just a woman singing coconut water. And Vitacoco had that musician in their office to do a thing with... Like, it is a cultural phenomenon. It's crazy. So interesting. It's so interesting. I do really think it is what you're saying of like, it's not just hydration booming. It's hydration booming at the same time as the like real ingredients or clean ingredients call out. And if you're like, I don't want any of that processed powdered stuff, then what you're going to go for is something like coconut water. And so they're just taking advantage. They have been around forever, but now might be the best time to double down on some of the things that are just like naturally true about the products.

13:17Yeah. And the fact that there's no education needed for coconut water. It's been a cultural staple before it was boxed up or bagged up or canned up or whatever. And now it's just the perfect timing for this kind of product to do so well right now and maintain its cultural relevancy and continue to grow. There's a lot of coconut water brands out there. There's 100 coconuts. There's Vitacoco. There's Harmless Harvest. Coahua. There's Goodnut. Cocoahua. Coahua. strange water strange water's good sparkling coconut water in a can oh so good um yeah and coconut water is also like it's being used as the base for a lot of other beverages as well i was gonna say that cafe culture has done a lot for coconut water because especially with the rise of matcha because matcha pairs very well with coconut so a lot of cafes have been introducing like coconut water matcha lattes and then that's turned into like espresso coconut water and yes being used as a base and people being introduced to coconut water within a cafe context and then they seek it out on their own um has also played a huge role in its rise i think i just think there more people need to try coconut water and cassacha a cappurina it's uh cassacha is a brazilian effectively a brazilian rum somebody's gonna get mad at me probably for saying that but it's it's sugarcane alcohol and it pairs incredible with a little lime and a little coconut water but like like the like the pink coconut water anyway back to the tom brady go puff of it all it's good and okay we do need to talk a little bit more about the fact that it's called good nut because oh and they made they made fun of the name in in the press release in the video that they launched with it they know what they're doing oh they know what they do and i think i mean if you look back like goat gummies also like yeah goat as in greatest of all time But like that in itself is kind of like a facetious, like playful name.

15:17Like they know that no one can actually take that seriously. They also know that no one can take a beverage called good nut seriously. And it's so smart in a brand to launch something that they know that someone will buy partly just for the stick of it because they will. Like a bachelorette party that's just stocked with good nut. Brilliant. Brilliant. You're welcome. Good. Take that. Run with it. That's good. that is so good oh that's funny but i like that it's like it's it's just the name that's kind of like funny and raunchy it's like they're not yeah the packaging's like cute yeah no the packaging's cute the full branding and the full picture that they're building with this brand is like still approachable it's not like they're going full liquid death where it's like everything is like raunchy and gross and whatever it's just the name i think that's really smart and i and also you're launching this on go puff you're only launching this on go puff it's fine it's fun who's buying go puff drunk people at 2 a.m i would buy something i would buy something called good nut if i hadn't heard about it be like what the hell is this and yeah what better thing to cure a hangover than a hydrating coconut water so i guess we can move on to the next story let's do it yeah what do you got for us so the next story is about ag1 ag1 as in athletic greens as in the greens powder that took over every podcast in America for the past decade, I would say.

16:47AG1 is an all-in-ones green powder if you're not familiar with it. And the brand just announced AG1 Pro, which is a creatine infused version of its OG powder, which they're now referring to as the next gen powder because they came out with like a 2.0 flavored version of the OG powder. And it also includes some other ingredients for muscle building, calcium HMB, and then something else for gut barrier function, which is zinc carnosium. So it's the pro version of it's already all-in-one greens powder, and it's following AG1's larger brand expansion. It has recently expanded into Ulta Beauty, Target, even Costco.

17:33That was a huge launch for them. And my opinion on this is it feels like AG1 is doing a lot to try to stay relevant right now. There are so many supplement brands now that are making the same claim that they can be the all-in-one supplement that will like steal your supplement stack basically. And so in the last year alone, the brand has been trying to keep up. They launched a sleep supplement, which is called AGZ. They launched in multiple different flavors, which is what I referred to with AG1's next gen. And now they're getting into AG1 Pro. And this succession of three different launches after famously being the brand that only had one product for over a decade says a lot about at least where the brand thinks it's heading.

18:22I would love to see the stats on this, but they have had to lost a good amount of market share to bloom who became one of the fastest growing greens powder companies like they built that bloom nutrition built their whole business on greens powders pretty much like they have other stuff but the greens is really where they took off grins grins grins one of the reasons grins did so well is because they basically launched at like the peak of ag1 where it was starting to tip over and people were like i kind of want something else tastes better more convenient whatever it is their launch their product looked pretty similar to ag1 when they launched colors branding packaging everything and now now there's tons of greens gummies and powders and everything and now now we're in this like supplement hell hole where there's like everything under the sun is available to us in all sorts of formats and injectables and in in gummies and pills and drinks synonymas and patches not enemas threw that in there um it's probably true it's probably true but they were so in their own world that they couldn't see what else was happening and they i think they're losing a lot they're losing a lot like the huell came out with greens powders and rtds like they all of a sudden were losing when they were winning for so long maybe this will help maybe having a more pro positioning and really leaning into like hey athletes hey high rocks people like brian johnson hugh jackman's doing a campaign for them right now it's okay maybe this will help them maybe they maybe they need to go a little bit more niche or maybe they need to be going on an acquisition spree they definitely have a lot of money i have to imagine cat cole is still there so clearly like something is going right i think like she's a very very good operator and a good CEO.

20:14And I would have to imagine she would be trying to go somewhere else if this wasn't really working, in my opinion. She seems very active and very, very invested. And I think AG1 has a lot of cash say that, sure, people might not like the green spatters. I don't like the green spatters. But people know what they are. And if they do something interesting, something new, something more exciting than this, this is not that interesting at the end of the day i think they could get some market share back but i think it'll come from them either going very pro and really leaning into that category and being like no no we're we're good we know what we're doing we have the good sourcing we have everything or making some acquisitions in the space because i i just don't think they are nimble enough right now i don't think they're exciting enough right now because there's so many other options there's so many other good options Yeah, absolutely.

21:07No, I think you're totally right there. You're spot on. Something I would add too, to the context of these other greens companies doing well, is that a lot of them are doing well using the messaging of being not AG1. Like Grunz's rise was about being something that you don't have. It was about being the gummy format, something you don't have to stir, something that's not a powder that you have to deal with every morning. They capitalized on some of the negative components of AG1 and ran with that and succeeded on that messaging. And that's really left a bad taste in a lot of consumers' mouths about like, oh, actually, yeah, like that wasn't a pleasant user experience to have to be stirring my greens every morning.

21:50And I am much happier with a gummy supplement. So it's interesting that a lot of these companies rose on kind of slandering AG1 in some ways, and now they are left in a position where they have to respond. But you're right that their response feels really lackluster. Something I mentioned in the newsletter is I think the pro positioning is especially fascinating because first of all, all they did was add creatine, which at this point is so ubiquitous. It doesn't feel very pro. They said that the reason that they launched this is because they had consumer feedback that a lot of people that were using AG1 were separately taking a creatine supplement.

22:26And so they put the two together. And I wouldn't call that exactly like novel innovation. But what's interesting to me is that AG1 kind of has always had this like air of being like pro. They have been like, they have, as I said, advertised on, I swear, like every podcast under the sun. But usually a lot of the messaging was around like, this is what top tier athletes are using. This is Huberman, who is like what a lot of people look to as the epitome of a health optimizer. This is what he is using. So it was already, the brand was already trying to frame itself from my understanding as like the pro option.

23:01But now it looks like they're kind of backing down on that and saying, actually, the original AG1 greens powder is more for the everyday user. And now this one is the pro. And it's really just to have two different SKUs and convince someone that they should be upsold to this more premium version of this basic SKU. But they were never referencing the original one as basic before. It was always like the superior premium powder. And now they're like, oh, no, that's actually the basic one. And this is the pro tier. And that's where I think you start to lose people and where I think you are totally right that they kind of need to come out with an innovation that's not just a little bit of an upgrade.

23:41but is like a totally different innovation in the supplement space because they do have trust. Their name has garnered a lot of consumer trust, but they're not using it thoughtfully or innovatively. Correct. Spot on. We'll see what they do. I'm surprised they haven't made any acquisitions or at least public acquisitions to this point. Yeah. I'm trying to think like who would make sense because they wouldn't want it to be a direct competitor, I would imagine. Maybe they would. Create. Create would have been an interesting one. Create would be interesting. Absolutely. Yeah. Like a creatine, a creatine gummy that, yeah, that would have been a much more interesting move of like, we hear our consumers are using creatine anyway, so we're going to buy a company instead of put it in our product and called and like spend all of these like R &D dollars, I assume, and now marketing dollars on trying to advertise it.

24:32You're right. I think it could have been better spent elsewhere. Although create now might be out of their budget. Remember, but there's banks now put that. anyways let's move on to something more fun than greens powders what's more fun than greens powders vodka jenna it's vodka okay fine you win granted honestly i don't like vodka that much i can only i don't i don't like alcohol but vodka is the only alcohol no it's the only hard alcohol i can do it can be masked oh i'm actually gonna love this story for multiple reasons but we'll get into that yeah i know the other reason you're gonna love it and i will have opinions so i know sazrak just launched svetka vodka water and they're calling it the world's first transparent canned vodka water it's a clear can that's what it is it's a clear can you can see right through it uh the pitch is basically it's the clearest way you can drink this summer is i think what it said in the press release it's it's vodka it's purified water and then it's like fruit flavor so the strawberry, peach, pineapple, lime.

25:39It's 90 calories. It's very, very low calorie, low sugar or zero sugar, zero carbs and not carbonated, which I have issues with personally, because I love non-carbonated. I love non-carbonated, especially, especially in alcoholic beverages, because I think that alcohol in general, like a beer bloats me so much. Carbonation also bloats me so much. I love having an option that is neither beer nor carbonated. It's the best. And that's why I've been loving a lot of the innovation that's been in this space already. We have seen non-carbonated become a thing in a lot of ways throughout the ready to drink alcohol space.

26:25I know one of my favorites is Surfside, which is one of the fastest growing alcohol brands right now. And it's like a spiked iced tea and lemonade. So they are also non-carbonated and I love them. And clearly other people love them too, because they hit 11 million cases last year. So maybe your carbonation theory is more about you. Oh no, it a hundred percent is about me. I mean, like we talked about this in the newsletter, there's so many like non-carbonated drinks coming out alongside the carbonated stuff like celsius expanded their fizz free line this past year leisure hydration is a non-carbonated enhanced water they had an oversubscribed series a they recently they're growing like 1300 cents in revenue growth over the past two years they're launching nationally and all foods target heb so and then like on the alcohol side there's beatbox It's NOCA, which literally stands for no carbonation.

27:21It's another, it's a Vodgeist tea, RTD. There's a lot of desire for flatness and boring drinks. There's also, it's so funny. When I first saw this fact of then, there's a brand called Orca, which is a energy water brand. It's also in a clear can. It's also a non-carbonated caffeinated water. Not also. It's a non-carbonated caffeinated water in a clear can. I love this. And to your point, Surfside, freaking huge. I will say as much as there already is some innovation in non-carbonated in this space, the clear can is smart. It's actually really smart because this is something that in the same way that, you know, like liquid death stood out in canned water by being this like all black can vibe.

28:02It's going to stand out. There aren't clear cans. There are no clear cans in the alcohol space. And so seeing that innovation visually, I think one, it upholds the storytelling of being non-carbonated pretty well because it's like you can see everything that's in this can including no bubbles and two it's just visually interesting and I think it will be like it's almost like a party trick in itself we'll put an image in but it's they're really cool looking and I think it was a smart move it was great I'll try it vodka water and a little flavor does not sound that appealing to me to be honest I like the bubbles because it changes it changes your your taste buds carbonation changes your taste buds and that's nice that makes sense yeah yeah well I'm excited.

28:42I will definitely be trying it and it, I am the target audience and I'm just excited to see more innovation in the ready to drink alcohol space. We're going to move actually back to skincare. So we're back on the beauty train because there was a pretty big raise this week that is worth talking about because it's interesting for a few different reasons. So a skincare line called Remedy just raised a$20 million series a led by L Caterton and And Remedy is the brand founded by Dr. Shaw. And Dr. Shaw is a very famous doctor as creator, basically. His at is Dr. Lee. And he has 21 million followers across all of his platforms.

29:28So he's a huge creator. Huge creator. But this is such an interesting... I mean, the line itself clearly is very efficacious. People are really enjoying it. It's seen incredible growth. But it's an interesting brand in itself because the person behind it holds two credibility factors. One being that he's a doctor and just derm-led skincare has been doing really well. L. Catterton itself is invested in multiple other derm-led skincare brands as well. But that derm credential is also further amplified by the fact that he's a huge creator. And we've seen a lot of dermatologist-led brands, but the dermatologist is often kind of more in a backseat.

30:10And in this case, he can operate like the brains behind the brand and also the brand behind the brand, which is usually how a creator operates. Yeah, and we even saw the other week that Experiment Skincare, they launched a product with a derm creator as well. And there's, you know, in this mastiche category of beauty and skincare brands, there's also a brand called Brinkwool, which is pretty similar, that has a dermatologist associated with it who shows up. I don't think it's big as Dr. Shaw, but still, like, that is a big part of that brand is that it is Derm creator-led, and that it's also a very successful brand.

30:51But I think the other side of this, too, is, like, it's not just that he's Derm as a creator, but he's trusted and is a Derm as a creator, which is very different. Because, like, I think there's plenty of creator brands that come out and you're like, yeah, okay, whatever. But his audience trusts what he's doing, trusts his recommendations. recommendations he had he backs it up and one it's very hard to build that trust like props to him and then converting that trust into hey i'm also going to create a brand to sell to you but like also believe me that it's good is a very hard thing to do and like the fact that absolutely yeah 20 million into it clearly means that it's selling well at target it's it like fits this perfect this perfect point where it's it's mestige the pricing is pretty decent it's this great creator and the product is really good.

31:38So it's really like a great brand that hits all the notes correctly. On your point about him like building trust, I think one of the things that he does really well is he's not just a creator being like, here's a day in my life as a dermatologist. He's a consumer educator. And so because he spent years and years building his brand as a consumer educator with no brand, no CPG brand attached to that, you're right that he had a lot of trust that he was able to capitalize on and now is. I think the other thing that's interesting about this is because he's a creator, logically this did launch more direct to consumer.

32:15It was on online channels for the most part. It launched in 2024. I guess it just turned two, it was March, 2024. And it launched on its own D2C website, Amazon and TikTok shop. And then it did so well, I'm sure largely because he was able to push the product that Target took it on. And so now it launched nationwide actually in Target in December. And that has a lot to do with why El Catterton was now like, okay, here's the time that we can make this really large investment because clearly this isn't just a well-loved, prestige, Durham-founded, creator-founded brand. It has this mass appeal and it's doing really well in Target as well.