🪽 “Fashion Show 2.0” — Victoria’s Secret’s resurrection. Coterie’s $1B diaper. Ikea’s price pop. +Moneycrisp Apples

0:28This is Nick. Fans yet, besties and yetis, thank you for everything you do for the show. We just got to thank you again. It feels truly amazing to know that you took seven clicks and made those votes for us. That's how much you like the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have the best listeners yet by far. Which is why Jack and I just whipped up the most fascinating three stories you've ever heard. Jack, what do we got on today's T-Boy? For our first story, the Victoria's Secret fashion show returned Wednesday night to rave reviews. both from the viewing public and from Wall Street.

1:02But Jack and I have seen Victoria's Secret come back before and we saw it at Abercrombie & Fitch. For our second story, Coterie, the fancy diaper brand used by snobby parents. Guilty. Just got acquired by Mammoth. So we'll tell you why Mammoth, the owner of Harry's, is paying a billion bucks for something you poop in. And our third and final story, Ikea. They're known for assemble yourself fluggen sofas. Ah, the fluggen sofas. That are about to get more expensive. It's day 200 of President Trump's trade war, so Jack and I will tell you why 55 % is the number of the moment. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

1:37I mean, no better mix to go into the weekend with. Love the mix, Jack. You know what I'm doing this weekend, Nick? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cozy sweater, a spiced latte, and... A three-hour drive upstate to pick your own apples. Oh, besties, no activity has caused more arguments or proposals than picking of apples. And I'm just kidding. I have apple orchards literally all around me here in Vermont, so. Jack is an apple orchard. But besties, here is Jackson, my conversation starter for you while you are on your apple picking adventure. While you are paying a farm to do the work for them. What is the most profitable apple to pick?

2:15Now, Jack, it ain't the Macintosh, the Corlander, or the Gal, is it, my friend? According to the Wall Street Journal, the Honeycrisp apple is the profit puppy. The humble Honeycrisp get this yet is Jack. What kind of numbers we talking? The price for a carton of Honeycrisp apples just hit a record$70. Okay. That's double Fuji, triple the red delicious right now. Farmers are now calling Honeycrisp money crisp because this apple variety is bringing in coconut levels of cash. But here's the plot twist. Farmers also kind of hate Honeycrisp apples. Apparently they're the diva of the apple industry.

2:49So consumers love that red-green color, the syrupy taste, and the crisp that just crunches. But the farmers think it's too big, too fragile, and simply too susceptible to disease. Oh, that apple bumped into that other apple? They're both ruined. They're so fragile. Ah, throw the whole carton out, man. Here's the wildest part, though. The Honeycrisp is not a gift of Mother Nature. It's a capitalist concoction. Because the Honeycrisp was bred by researchers over at the University of Minnesota. And they were so unimpressed by the lack of durability from this Honeycrisp, they tossed it into the trash.

3:24And yet here we are, Jack, 37 years later, paying a premium for a good old Honeycrisp. Granny Smith never saw it coming. She never really sees anything coming, Jack. She's getting pretty old up there. Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is the norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50%, that's a fat tip. T-Boy City on your at-list. If you know, you know, cause we ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show.

4:00Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

4:11gusto one sec yetis we just need to take a break from the pod for a moment to find that i9c3 irs tax form for each employee and then jack we got to make sure each co-worker is countersigned i think oh yeah yeah and then we have to track down each employee and make sure they know their health insurance options oh right did everyone know open enrollment ends tomorrow nope no one did yetis we Charges podcast hosts, we also run a media company here and full-time employees mean full-time benefits too. Which means roughly 46 ,000 forms, documents, and tasks to process for each team member. Oh boy, if you're a small business, you'll want to outsource all that to Gusto.

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5:20That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash tboy. One more time, gusto.com slash tboy. Monarch. Happy wedding season to all those who celebrate. Wedding season. That means you just liquidated your 401k to pay for that bridesmaid dress. Yeah, flights, hotel, and a gift. Your presents. It was not the only present. Good timing though, because Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything. Your accounts, your investments, your savings goals, and your spending. We use Monarch to keep all our personal finances accounted for and in one place. We're excited that listeners of this show can get your first year of Monarch Core for half off.

5:56That's just 50 bucks with promo code TBOY. The weekly spending recap, it uses AI to categorize everything you spent organizing them into digestible buckets. Weekly emails are perfect, by the way, because checking finances daily, that's too much. Monthly, that's probably not enough. So Monarch helps you make sure you're on track for seven different destination weddings this summer. Because you don't want to go into debt if you don't even know the groom. Who's Henry? Besties, use code TBOY at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just 50 bucks. For our first story, the biggest thing on live TV this week wasn't sports.

6:33It was the Victoria's Secret fashion show. After a five-year hiatus, the lingerie runway that isn't just back, Victoria's Secret's stock is back too. Oh, yeah, it is. Victoria's Secret's challenges over the last few years. Nothing secret about it, Nick. No, they are not. Why don't you spill the beans? 10 years ago, Victoria's Secret controlled 33 % of the U.S. women's underwear market. Today, just 18%. And besties, that drop was caused by a triple whammy in news, three existential threats all at once. The first was a strategic error. They missed out on the bralette trend. Push-up bras were out, but Victoria's Secret didn't get the memo.

7:14The second was management. Long-time CEO Les Wexner was old and creepy, not okay in the Me Too era, or really any era. Nick, Les Wexner wasn't just Jeffrey Epstein's buddy hanging out at parties. He was his power of attorney. Not a good look, guys. Which led to the third major threat competition. Or I'm sorry, I should say Kardashian competition. Because Skims filled the vacuum left behind by Victoria. Get this, Yetis. Kim Kardashian's Skims brand is now worth$4 billion. Jack, can you sprinkle on some context compared to Victoria's Secret? That's almost twice as valuable as Victoria's Secret. And the result?

7:49Wow. Wow. In 2019, Victoria's Secret canceled its famous fashion show. The Angels hung up their wings, what seemed at the time, for good. But here's the news. On Wednesday night, Victoria's Secret had its second live runaway show in six years. The Angels, resurrected, had their mojo back. Now, the Victoria's Secret fashion show, it's almost like the Super Bowl halftime show. Okay, let's talk numbers here for a second, Jack. It cost$40 million to produce this show, which was in New York this year. And that$40 million, that's the same marketing spend as five Super Bowl ads. And strategically, Victoria's Secret chose a night without any sports games to compete with.

8:26The only thing to watch Wednesday night was this fashion show. Okay, there was a hockey game, Jack, but I'll give you a pass on that one. But unlike the St. Louis Blues, Nick, Victoria's Secret had the most complicated cultural balancing act of all time. They're trying to be inclusive, but they're also trying to be aspirational, but they're also including old models, but they're also including new models. In this post-DEI moment, they wanted to please and not offend both conservatives and liberals. Good luck with that, guys. Ten years ago, Victoria's Secret could do whatever they wanted. Today, totally different world.

9:01But today, Victoria's Secret's got to thread more needles than in one of those brawlets. So what happened on Wednesday night? Well, according to the New York Times critic, a reinvention of the rebrand of the rebrand. Yeah, for example, well, Jack, what's a good example that sums all this up? The models had wings on their back again. Remember, they're known as angels. But none of those wings had feathers like in the past. Yeah, it was basically a vegan wing situation going on. Now, both Hadid sisters walked for an eighth time, but so did the WNBA star Angel Reese. Missy Elliott was the musical guest, kind of standard, but one of the models was seven months pregnant, which is not standard.

9:38But the biggest surprise wasn't the stockings. It was the stock. Because Victoria's Secret, it's up 2 % since that show and up 10 % in the last week. And the stock has doubled since April. The hottest thing at the Victoria's Secret fashion show? The P &L. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Victoria's Secret? We've seen this comeback before. And we saw it at Abercrombie. Now, Yetis, remember, Abercrombie & Fitch was the best stock of the year in 2023 and 2024. There's a case to make that Victoria's Secret is following the exact same comeback path just two years later. All right, let's sprinkle on some context.

10:16Both Abercrombie and Victoria got so toxic, they each got their own Hulu documentaries. True. One of them was Netflix, but pretty much, yeah. They were also both owned and run at one point by Les Wexner, that guy we told you about. But now they're both run by female CEOs instead. And both of those women CEOs eliminated their brand's cringy elements. Yeah, like Abercrombie's topless male models or the dark-lit stores that kind of smelled like cologne. Those are gone. Both are instead refocusing on their signature products. Like Victoria's Secret's new everyday bras. Yeti's time heals wounds, including a brand's wounds.

10:54And right now, millennials are remembering the positive brand equity from the past and forgetting the recent brand bruises. We've seen Victoria's Secret's outfit before. Mm-hmm. We saw it. with Abercrombie. For our second story, Mammoth Brands, known for Harry's razors, just acquired Coterie, the bougie diaper brand. Because even a dirty diaper can be an adult's status symbol. Now, Yeti's full disclosure, Jack and I have become fluent in a new language lately, diaper changing. In the dark, diaper changing. It's a talent. That is a talent, Jack. Well, Well, given that new skill and the fact that we interviewed the CEO of this company, we feel extremely qualified to dive in T-boy style to this news.

11:41We interviewed the co-founder and CEO of Harry's, which was launched in 2013. Yeah, what was the goal of Harry's, Jack? To offer a razor as good as Gillette, but for half the price because it's direct to consumer. And with millennial friendly branding on top of it, you'd want to lick that stuff. Well, millennials are parents now. So Harry's is acquiring millennial diapers. And that diaper brand is Coterie. Although we should point out, Coterie is not half-priced diapers like Harry's half-priced razors. No, they're double the price. This is the Bulgari of blowout blockin' over here. And with this acquisition, Harry's is becoming not just a razor company, a CPG giant.

12:19A consumer packaged goods goody, man. Because Harry's has razors, skincare, deodorant, and now diapers and baby wipes too. They basically reposition themselves as the premium Procter & Gamble. And they've structured it all under a new parent company called Mammoth, which filed confidentially to go public last year. Direct-to-consumer startups shouldn't IPO. They should just sell to Mammoth and let Mammoth go public with an IPO. But back to Coterie, Nick. Founded in 2018, Coterie realized that diapers are the staple-iest of staple goods. Because there are necessities in life, like food, But then there are necessities you will buy no matter what, like a diaper at 2 a.m.

12:58Every month, I am shocked by how much we spend on diapers. Okay, but aren't you potty training Brooks right now? Dude, we're potty training him to save money on diapers. That's why we're potty training Brooks. That's true. Now, we looked at the website. Coterie sells a 168 pack of size three diapers for$95. Okay, so that's one month of diapers and you have to buy the diaper wipes too. And if you think 95 bucks is expensive, yeah, it is. It's 35 % more than Huggies and 70 % more expensive than Pampers. Jack, why don't you amplify this number comparison up a little more for us? Coterie's diapers are nearly three times as expensive as Costco's Kirkland diapers.

13:35Okay, that's not a write-off, by the way. You know what that is, Jack? What is it? That's what that is. Profit puppy. Now, yes, these diapers have like luxury materials, probably 100 % down material. Primo packaging and a cute catchphrase to go along with it. Big news for little butts. It is adorable. But what's really driving demand for twice the price, plain white disposable baby diapers? Because Coterie is doing 200 million bucks a year in revenue. That's up 60 % from the year before. And it's profitable. And now Mammoth is paying up to a billion dollars to acquire it if Coterie hits their growth targets.

14:13But Jack, back to the question you just asked. Again, what is really driving demand for a twice-the-price toss-away dipe? I think our takeaway will toss. It sounds good, Jack. I'll take two. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Coterie? Every category needs its Rolex. There's always an opportunity for a status symbol. Now, Yetis, last week, you may remember, we did a story about luxury strollers. Jack, who is making a fancy stroller these days? Lamborghini, a$6 ,000 stroller. because city living parents don't drive their kids to school, they walk. If you can't show off your status with the car you drive, you need to show it off with the stroller you push.

14:52Coterie recognized the same opportunity as Lamborghini because there was no status symbol brand in diapers. I mean, it doesn't make sense if you think about it to put a Disney character or a Bluey character on a diaper, right? The baby has no clue what's on their diapers. I can't even see. So the baby is the user of diapers, but the parent is the customer. They make the purchase decision. Exactly. So the real focus of the diaper, this was the insight from Coterie. It needs to be something that will make the parent happy. So it made sense to create a luxury diaper brand that shows that you have money and you want to show that off, but you also care for your kid.

15:28Besties, nobody buys a Rolex to tell them the time. They buy it for the message it sends. That's why in every product category, even diapers, there's an opportunity for a status symbol. Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Walmart business. Yeah, it is. We cover business trends on our show, and they move faster than you can spell GPU. One minute it's vibe coding, the next it's agentic. Tomorrow it's probably gonna be in-person old school again. Yeah, well, while you're managing this to stay ahead, the last thing you need to worry about is supplies for your company. Carol, do we have the cogs needed to meet our Q1 sales commitments?

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17:50For our third and final story before the weekend, Ikea's democratic ethos of low-priced furniture for all is under trade war pressure. 200 days after Trump announced his tariffs, we will update you on who is currently paying them. But besties, in order for us to tell this story, Jack, can you please tell us IKEA's greatest invention of all? They invented a universal language. Assembly instructions. Yeah, no words, just arrows, stick figures, and those cute, little, funky, adorable Adalin wrenches. It's truly a universal language. It transcends translation. And that language allowed IKEA to flat-ship just the pieces of furniture inside compact rectangular boxes.

18:34That lowered shipping costs and shifted the assembly burden to us consumers. That's how they got the prices so low. You want to know why the smorgasborden fluggen sofa is so cheap? Why is it, Jack? Because you're the labor. But Nick, what's the Swedish term for about that? Ah, non-schnackeldock. Because IKEA is raising prices right now, not lowering them. And they're doing it because of tariffs. But we want to reiterate, Yetis, IKEA was born with an almost religious devotion to low prices. Okay, let's tell the story of Ikea's founder, who was a billionaire named Ingvar Komprat. A billionaire, but he continued to fly economy and drive his old Volvo until his passing.

19:14In fact, we discovered one fact about the Ikea founder that was so disturbing to Jack. He was known to reuse his teabags. That's gross. I mean, you pull the teabag out, throw it away. Basically, Ikea's founder made the Costco guys look like Marie Antoinette. This is a true quote. He said, I'm stingy and I'm proud of that reputation. So, given that context, IKEA prices were already as low as they could possibly be. Awkward timing for Trump's tariffs. Right. New tariffs on home goods were announced last month, and new tariffs on furniture came into effect this week. And now they're getting passed on to consumers.

19:49Because only 15 % of IKEA furniture sold in America is actually made in America. There's no Flugensofa production in Ohio. Now, you might be asking, can IKEA move manufacturing to the U.S. to avoid these tariffs? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, Ikea doesn't think so. Because if they did move a factory here, that would increase costs even more than the 25 % tariffs do. Which is why, according to the archived internet pages, which never forget, Ikea's Flugensofa just rose in price from$900 to$975. And let's be honest, it does kind of suck putting those things together. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ikea?

20:28The biggest tax increase in U.S. history is the hardest one to pin down. Now, Yetis, Jack and I have told you before, tariffs are taxes. It is a sales tax, but only on the stuff bought overseas. J.P. Morgan called Trump's Liberation Day tariffs the biggest tax increase in the United States since 1968. Now, yes, the United States has collected an impressive$125 billion more in tariffs this year than we did last year. But the big question is this. Who paid those taxes? Initially, businesses did, and they did whatever they could not to pass them on to the consumer. Partly because CEOs were afraid of the wrath of President Trump.

21:06But now, Walmart and Target and IKEA are all raising prices. And Goldman Sachs predicts that 55 % of the tariffs are being passed down to consumers right now. In fact, Jack, what was that wild stat you found right before we recorded today's podcast? Standard & Poor's estimated yesterday that tariffs would cost$1.2 trillion this year, with consumers paying two-thirds of those taxes. So besties add it all up, and both because tariffs are constantly changing and because businesses are changing how they react to them, the biggest tax increase in U.S. history is the hardest one to pin down. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday?

21:47Victoria's Secret did a fashion show with Gusto on Wednesday night, and the stock continues to rise. And we've seen a once-toxic brand stage a comeback before. We've seen it. in Abercrombie. For our second story, Coterie has been acquired for up to$1 billion by mammoth brands. They're Rolexing because every category has an opportunity for a status symbol, even diapers. And our third and final story is Ikea. They're committing what to them is like a religious sin. They're raising prices because of tariffs. It's the biggest tax increase in U.S. history, and it's the hardest one to pin down. But besties, this pod's not over yet.

22:24Here's what else you need to know today. First, big news from Waymo. Actually, a few huge announcements in just a few days. First, Waymo announced their first international expansion. They're coming to London, the city famous for funny-looking cabs. And then second, robo food delivery. It's coming with Waymo to Phoenix. You can do contactless food delivery through the DoorDash app delivered by a Waymo. You do have to come out of your house, but it's pretty close as possible to being a self-driving burrito. And second, on Wednesday, the president said that he has terminated the new Hudson River Tunnel Project in New York.

23:01President Trump explicitly said it was to punish New York Senator Chuck Schumer for the government shutdown. And for New Yorkers out there, you're probably listening to this podcast in traffic. So Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, they need tunnel improvements. But now$27 billion of funding for projects in blue states has been canceled since the shutdown, and less than one billion has been canceled for red states. And finally, Smuckers is suing Trader Joe's over copycat Uncrustables. Trader Joe's is known for making popular dupe products. That's one of the reasons people love them. But this one might cross the line.

23:36The Trader Joe's crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches even have the same circular sandwich with one bite taken out of it on the package. Blur your eyes and the Trader Joe's crustless snacks look just like Uncrustables. Jack, this tastes like a zuckin'. Now time for the best fact yet, which Jack and I whipped up because yesterday we asked you for your favorite words. Well, yesterday was International Dictionary Day. Yeah, it was. It was. And you shared a good favorite word. What was your favorite word again? Licanthropy. The process of becoming a werewolf during a full moon. Okay. So Jack, you know what my favorite word is?

24:11I think you're going to like the story. Okay. It's silhouette. And you know why silhouette's my favorite word? Yeah. Why? Silhouette was the name of a French finance minister who cut back so much on French spending that the French used the term silhouette to describe something as a cheap alternative. Interesting. So the word silhouette comes from French macroeconomic policy. Yetis, you'll look fantastic to end the week. Some of you are going to get engaged this weekend on an apple picking trip. Some of you are going to get into an argument on that apple picking trip. Let's hope it's not both of you in the same.

24:51But either way, Jack and I are wishing you the best of luck. We want you to celebrate the wins. Jack, so many wins to celebrate this week. Congratulations, man. That honey crisp. So tell your buddy this weekend, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y, that is how we grow this podcast. Have you had the best one yet? All right, Nick and I are going to go celebrate now. We hope you do too. If you know, you know.

25:14And before we go, congratulations to Yeti Scarlett and Jorge in Oklahoma City going to their first F1 experience at Austin Grand Prix this weekend. I would love to see an F1. I'll just never get an extra ticket, guys. And happy 40th birthday to Amir Bafrui from Katy, Texas, whose wife threw a fantastic birthday party. And a happy birthday to Alex Burns, the dookiest of Duke Blue Devils celebrating in Lincoln, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. And happy birthday to Gracie Wang in San Ramon, California, the best mom chef of all time. And a happy birthday to Jacob Rosenoyer celebrating the big day in lovely Los Angeles.

25:53And happy 24th birthday to Zoe Petrovas in Boston, Massachusetts. And if you want to get a shout out on this pod or you got the best fact yet, we got a form in the episode description. Just fill it out and we'll get you on the pod. This is Jack. I own stock of Victoria's Secret and Netflix. Beer-O Premium Non-Alcoholic Beer. All right, Yetis, a little behind the scenes here. Before our New York City live show back in April, Jack and I went sober for two weeks. True story. Couldn't risk getting sick. I didn't want to be groggy. I couldn't afford a hangover. It was New York, baby. Okay, but Jack, celebrating the wins is what we do.

26:29And so for our live shows, we crack open something special. So we drank Beer-O, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand co-founded by Tom Holland. Yeah, I actually first saw it at my grocery store. Delicious tastes like a celebration. Feels fantastic and looks legit. More on the looks in a sec. And if it's good enough for the actor who played Spider-Man, it's good enough for us. You see, it pairs well with a pickleball game, a profitable earnings report, or with the best podcast. So, Yetis, if you want to celebrate the wins with all the taste of a premium lager or IPA, but none of the alcohol, there's no better choice than Bureau.

27:03Okay, pause the pod. Did we mention the can is straight up gold? This thing will stand out at every one of your next parties. Trust us, we've done it. Only beer we know that actually upgrades the scene like a promotion. So, Basties, if there's a win you're celebrating every day, Bureau is the non-alcoholic brew brand you gotta bring. So use code T-Boy for 20 % off your first order at BureauBrewing.com.