☎️ “No you hang up!” — Landlines’ comeback. SharkNinja’s influencer army. The Fed’s D-Day. +Nike/Nobu Sushi Club.

0:28This is Nick. and you should be good for the day. Did any of the DMs sympathize with me having fallen on the treadmill? Jack doesn't run on the treadmill. The treadmill runs on Jack. Jack, three stories for today's T-Boy. What do we got on the pod? For our first story, Shark Ninja. This home appliance stock has more than tripled in the last two years. Because Shark Ninja doesn't care about celebrities, cool people, or Gwyneth Paltrow. They care about the grassroots. For our second story, it's the Fed. They just made their biggest announcement of the year. The Fed finally cut interest rates for this economy.

1:02Because the most important magic in your life isn't Harry Potter, it's interest rates. And our third and final story is the biggest comeback product of 2025. It's the landline telephone. Landline! Millennial parents are bringing back the landline, but not for them, it's for the kids. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Oh, fantastic mix of stories. And yes, this is your cue to increase the treadmill by 0.5 on the incline. The first rule of Sushi Club, don't talk about Sushi Club. I'm sorry, Jack, what the heck is Sushi Club? It's a real thing. It's kind of a big deal, actually.

1:37Nike just collabed with Nobu, the fancy sushi chain, for a new brand called Sushi Club. That's right, Yeti. Sushi Club, a fashion concept that combines sneakers with thinly sliced pieces of fish. Not an onion headline. This is a true story. It's a collab involving a sneaker brand and a sashimi brand. Jack and I will serve up some context here. You see, Nobu is the Louis Vuitton of sushi, charging 50 bucks per a spike of that sea urchin. No, we did a story recently on Nobu, because they've expanded to hotels and even spas. But Jack, on the other hand, Nike is in need of some help. Nike stock is down 40 % in the last five years, while the rest of the market is booming.

2:16The swoosh has lost some swagger. So here is the strategy. Nike has collabed on shoes with the king of Japanese cuisine. Here's the product. Nike Air Force Ones, but with laces that are inspired by chopsticks. And white leather that is the same shade as sushi rice. The only thing missing on these shoes is the inevitable brown soy sauce stain. Oh, I'm going to need my Tide stick pen, honey. Also, if the soles had a little pocket for actual chopsticks, that'd be pretty cool. I mean, you should be on the team, Jack. You should be on the team. Do you know anyone who brings their own chopsticks? I do, Jack.

2:50He had a holster on his belt. shoes would be a better place to store them. So besties, Nike's turnaround plan, is it faster shoes, softer athleisure, or more pro-athlete sponsorships? Nope. It's sneakers inspired by black miso cod with or without shop tech holders. Hey, Adidas, your move. You better sign Benihana before this pod is done. Bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it works out for us. Jack, let's hit our three stories.

3:23It'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.

3:42Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor.

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4:56Like how we triumphantly completed payroll paperwork right before the tax deadline. Hey, we're just kidding. That's not a win to celebrate. But it is an annoying thing that we did have to do. Yeah, we did. Because if you're an entrepreneur, you're the HR team, the benefits team, the payroll department, and you have to be all those things before your morning coffee. Double-digit latte. But you could be doing it all with Gusto. Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one, remote, friendly, and incredibly easy to use so you can pay higher onboard and support your team from anywhere.

5:23So save time with built-in automated tools like offer letters, onboarding documents, direct deposit, and more. And it's super simple to switch to Gusto. You can just transfer your existing data to get up and running fast and don't even have to pay a penny until you run your first payroll. Because you're not toasting a Negroni on Friday to celebrate that paperwork. Nope. So best use try Gusto today at gusto.com slash tboy and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash tboi. One more time, gusto.com slash tboy. Nick, did you see Liquid IV teamed up with Ring Pop?

5:55I did, Jack. And honestly, it's one of those collabs where you immediately think, how has nobody done this before? I mean, Ring Pop cherry is already iconic. My sons love Ring Pops, by the way. I give it to them at the beach. It occupies them for about an hour. But now it's a sugar-free Liquid IV flavor, too. Ah, it's not just a fun flavor. It's still the same liquid IV hydration formula that hydrates faster than water alone, has three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink, plus eight vitamins and nutrients. I've been throwing one of these in my water before the gym and before bed pretty much every night if I sweated that day.

6:27Way more fun than drinking plain water. Probably for workouts, travel days, hot days. Honestly, anytime you know you're probably just not drinking enough water. So if you're looking for an excuse to actually stay hydrated, this is a pretty good one. Check out the new Liquid IV sugar-free ring pop cherry at liquidivy.com. For our first story, Shark Ninja. They launch a new home appliance every two weeks. It's an R &D factory and its stock is surging right now. Shark Ninja's secret though, they spend$700 million a year on influencers. And that proves that you don't need celebrities to get noticed.

7:08Yetis, full disclosure, but based on the number of arguments Molly and I have on this, the most important real estate on earth is the counter space in your kitchen. And for Shark Ninja, the space on your kitchen countertop is their manifest estimate. They want all of it. Yes, it is. Shark Ninja, based in lovely Nita, Massachusetts. Just outside Boston. The fastest growing home goods company in the world right now? It's Shark Ninja. Worth$16 billion, they're now more valuable than Best Buy. Jack and I dove in T-boy style, and Shark Ninja's numbers look more like Sharknado. They control 45 % of the U.S.

7:46vacuum market, 35 % of the blender market, and 28 % of the air purifier market. Besties, Shark Ninja is on 35 different categories. They launch 25 new products a year. That is one every two weeks. It's insane. If it plugs in and makes a noise when you turn it on, Shark Ninja probably makes it. Yeah, and they'll sell it to you for six easy payments of$19.99 if you need it. Thanks, Afterpay. Their slushy machine, when they launched it, it had a hundred thousand person wait list. Shark Ninja sells an ice cream machine every eight seconds to quote Maximus the Gladiator. Are you not entertained? They have a team of 1 ,000 engineers working on their next gadget.

8:27The sun never sets on the Shark Ninja empire. They have people on every continent except Antarctica. Uh, hey, Christopher Nolan, why'd you make a movie on the Manhattan Project? You should have made it on Shark Ninja. And yet he's, what is Shark Ninja's strategy? What is it, Jack? They don't find what you love, they find what you hate. They find what you hate. That's what we find fascinating about Shark Ninja. Jack, why don't you share that Wall Street Journal story? According to that report, Shark Ninja's team studies online reviews ad nauseam to find customer pain points and then develop a solution to those pain points.

9:00And we actually shared a little on this in a story last year. Like if Dyson vacuum owners say that all this hair is getting stuck in their vacuums. No, it gets stuck in the spindle and you have to pull out scissors and like cut out the massive disgusting rings of hair. Well, the Shark Ninja engineers will create a vacuum based on those bad reviews that fix specifically the dog hair clogging issue. And now nearly half of all US vacuums sold are Shark Ninja. Your pain was Shark Ninja's gain. They didn't find what you love, they focused on what you hate. And now its stock has tripled since their 2023 IPO.

9:34But besties, Jack and I got more curious. And so we dove further in the financials and we found this wild stat that is core to Shark Ninja's strategy. And that number is$700 million. $700 million. That's how much money Shark Ninja spends every year on social media ads and influencers. Which to sprinkle on some context is twice as much spending on the marketing budget as Whirlpool does. If you saw a video of strawberries blending magically with ice to create a blender smoothie, and then a rum finisher on top for a homemade daiquiri, and then a little umbrella at the top, Shark Ninja's marketing team was fueling all those views over on TikTok.

10:15Because which one of us hasn't bought a Shark Ninja product based on an Instagram post? 700 million bucks though, Jack. I mean, at that price, Shark Ninja is basically subsidizing the entire creator economy right now. How did your influencer afford their trip to Ibiza? Well, Instagram posts for Shark Ninja's new face mask paid for the whole trip. Red light face mask, Nick, which still kind of freaks me out when Alex wears them. Jack, can you imagine if Billy Mays was still alive in the Shark Ninja era? It'd be a trillion dollar company, man. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Shark Ninja?

10:50Shark Ninja doesn't use Gwyneth. They use the grassroots. Yetis, the rule in marketing these days seems to be that you need a celebrity to co-promote your brand if you want to be successful. Many of our friends are CPG entrepreneurs, and they say that they need a celebrity on their side for their brand to stand out from the crowd and get noticed amidst the noise. But Shark Ninja just spent 700 million bucks on influencers last year. Not celebrities, just people with a handle and a following. They're turning average influencers on TikTok into their very own QVC network for Gen Z. While Nike puts a million bucks into one mega celeb, Shark Ninja puts a thousand bucks into a thousand influencers.

11:27Shark Ninja proves you don't need Gwyneth. You can go grassroots instead. For our second story, in the biggest Fed meeting in decades, the Federal Reserve just announced it is cutting interest rates. We'll tell you what that means for your money and what it means for our money collectively as a nation. Yetis. The most exciting moment on Wall Street since NVIDIA's last earnings report. What is it, Jack? Yesterday was decision day for our central bank. Yeah, we almost kept Maxie home from preschool. It was that big a deal, besties. Can I sprinkle on some context? I would love for you to, Jack. The Federal Reserve, our central bank, is fighting a rare threat to the economy known as stagflation.

12:11Ah, stagflation. High inflation and high unemployment. It's like your house is on fire and flooding at the same time. It's a catch-22 for the Fed because lowering interest rates would help the jobs market, but potentially worsen the inflation situation. While increasing interest rates would help solve inflation, but then that would hurt the jobs market. Now, going into yesterday, investors expected a 0.25 % interest rate cut, and that's exactly what they got. Here's the news, besties. The Fed just cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point. Its first interest rate cut in nine months. What about a half a percentage?

12:46That wasn't even considered, according to the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, which disappointed investors a bit. Yes, it did. Now, besties, we know what you're wondering right now, and we've got the answer. If you're curious what impact this has on your wallet, well, then pull out your wallet because it's already affected your wallet. Starting today, if you have a high-yield savings account, it will decrease the rate it offers by 0.25%, mirroring the Fed's move. If you're curious about buying a house, well, mortgage rates are already down to their lowest level in three years in anticipation of what happened yesterday.

13:19Because what happened yesterday was so widely expected. Jack, what about credit cards? Because we all pretty much got them. Credit card companies, they take their lead from the Fed too, so your APR should be lower for your next statement. Besties, another way to think about this, interest rates are like the magic in Harry Potter. They affect everything you touch like it's Hogwarts. Can I go a little more nautical? They're like the tides. And like all your boats are the assets. They'll go up or down depending on the interest rates. You're right. They're like magical tides. So besties, a one quarter point, that doesn't seem like a lot.

13:54But Jerry Powell, the chairman of the Fed, indicated two more cuts are coming this year. That's two more sighs of relief for whatever loan you have right now. Also, Jerry Powell said one more cut could come next year, Which would be another sigh of relief. And the key reason he's comfortable with all these rate cuts these days, what is it, Jack? He said yesterday that he thinks tariffs are not a long-term threat for inflation. Yeah, that was the big news buried in his announcement. For the first time, the Federal Reserve thinks that the trade war price increases are a one-off. They're not going to, like, continue hanging with us for the next couple years.

14:27So with the inflation flood not a major concern anymore, the Fed can turn their attention to the fire, which is the worsening job situation in this economy. And that means cutting interest rates to help grow the economy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching rates? The Fed just gave its Declaration of Independence. Yetis, one reason why this was just such a big Federal Reserve meeting is because of President Trump's objectively relentless pressure campaign on the Fed to lower interest rates. So the question was, is the Fed still independent? like it's always been?

15:03Well, that exact question was asked yesterday to the Fed chairman, Jerry Powell. And he simply answered, yes, because what else is he gonna say? But what we found fascinating is that his actions spoke louder than his very short words. Except for the one new Trump appointee who was confirmed just last week, who is still technically a member of the White House, the Fed showed unity in yesterday's interest rate decision. Get this, the 12 members of the Federal Reserve voted 11 to one, defying Trump's calls for more aggressive rate cuts. Not with words, but with actions. The Fed just gave its Declaration of Independence.

15:38Now, a quick word from our sponsor.

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16:48For our third and final story, Tin Can, a classic corded landline phone, has officially gone viral. This landline just raised VC money. Tin Can makes an old school product, a landline phone. But they've got a new school business model, and it's got growth hacks on speed dial. All right, Eddie, we're going to talk landline phones. Jack, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I feel like you should share a deeply personal anecdote right now. So first time I ever got a phone call from a girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in fourth grade. The phone rang. My mom answered. I was like playing video games or whatever.

17:21So my mom goes, Jack, it's for you. And then she goes, I think it's a girl. Jennifer. Butterflies in the belly. I mean, this is like one of my favorite humble brags about you is I always tell people, Jack got invited to prom when he was in fourth grade by a girl. That was what the call was about, right? But yet he's Jack and I are parents now. And we want our kids to have those same coming of age moments that we had with the old landline phones. But we don't have landline phones. No doubt. Now, some parents give their kids dumb phones without screens, but that doesn't really work either. And we're definitely not giving our kid a smartphone until we absolutely must.

17:59But the solution here, it turns out, is so obvious, it wasn't obvious. Bring back the landline. Yeah, yeah. Go back to the most basic innovation in the entire technological category. It turns out, Yetis, the hottest trend among millennial parents isn't organic diapers. It's landline telephones coming back into the home. But here's the key. Instead of calling up Comcast to hook up your old curly cord beige phone again, you're buying tin cans. Tin cans. Yetis, the financials of this startup, Tin Can, are almost more impressive than the iPhone. Jack, I'm just going to say it, more impressive than the iPhone.

18:40Because Tin Can just announced a$3.5 million fundraise for their landline phone business, but they run on Wi-Fi. That may not sound like a lot of money, but it is plenty of money to launch a basic dumb phone business with powerful margins. Nick, this is as dumb a phone as it gets. It rings just like phones rang 30 years ago. There's no caller ID. It's corded. It's basically the same experience as we had before puberty, Jack. Exactly. But with this phone, it enjoys network effects. That's right, because calling other tin cans is free. So the more people who have a tin can, I'm sorry, the more kids who have a tin can, the better the product experience of the tin can.

19:21It's called can-to-can calling. It's in-network. You can call your buddy and say, do you want to have a sleepover with me tonight? Those network effects are driving more tin can sales. But this business model also enjoys recurring revenue, which is key. Because the problem facing tin can is that you would only buy one tin can phone. So the business size could be super limited. But Tin Can found a subscription. They subscriptified. It's not just a one-off phone purchase for 75 bucks. To really enjoy the Tin Can, you pay$10 a month to be able to call anyone, including cell phones. Which leads to the profit puppy of this business.

19:59That 10 bucks a month, it's pure profit. Yeah. Because Tin Can doesn't have the costs of their own cellular network. They simply use your home's Wi-Fi. Not too shabby. So they sell a phone for$75 and then make$10 of pure profit every single month forever. The only thing not dumb about the Tin Can is the app the parents use to control who can actually call little Jimmy and little Julie. Because remember, concerned parents are in charge of this product. So only approved phone contacts can call your kid's Tin Can phone. But besties, that's not all. Because Tin Can also figured out a growth hack. Easter eggs.

20:35More like an entertainment hack. because if little Johnny dials ha-ha into the phone, which is 4242, then it picks up the joke of the day that you get to listen to and laugh at. Now, we don't have this company's numbers, and this could be a classic millennial fad that flames out in a year. But we do know it has become a viral trend, and our latest investor said this about the landline phone business. It's one of the most viral businesses I've ever seen. One sec, Jack. Ma, the meatloaf! So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Tin Can Landlines? The solution to smartphone peer pressure is millennial parent pods.

21:15Yetis, parent groups are banding together. Wild phenomenon. They are agreeing not to get their kids' phones and instead create networks of landlines. The parents are calling them pods. And these pods of parents who refuse to give their kids smartphones eliminates the social pressure on kids to have smartphones and use social media. Because if one kid has a landline, then it's lame. But if everyone has a landline, then it's kind of cool. And this reminds us of the Pinterest story from earlier in the week. Remember, Pinterest is trying to be the nice guy of social media, but trying to do the right thing when everyone else is doing the bad thing, it's not a good business.

21:50Doesn't work in the social media business model, besties. Similarly, families are finding it hard to tell kids no smartphone when their friends all have smartphones. Instead, collective action is the best way to eliminate harmful but hard to resist things. So the solution besties to smartphone peer pressure, it appears to be the millennial parent pod. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Shark Ninja sells 35 different types of appliances and markets them with a$700 million influencer budget. The stock has tripled, proving that you don't need Gwyneth Paltrow, you can do grassroots instead.

22:30For our second story, the Fed cut interest rates by a quarter point yesterday. Not as much as President Trump has been demanding. With actions, not words, the Federal Reserve just issued its Declaration of Independence. And our third and final story is the tin can. This is a viral landline phone. Old school product, new school business model. Yeah, it's neutro. It's definitely neutro. And the solution to smartphone peer pressure appears to be the Millennial Parent Pod. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, pour your pints out because Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's just quit the company yesterday.

23:09We did a story last week on how Ben & Jerry were protesting the parent company, Unilever, for silencing the Ben & Jerry's brand. Yeah, let's bring on some context. Remember, when Ben & Jerry sold the company, they were supposed to have an independent board let them say whatever they want, basically. But Ben and Jerry said that Ben and Jerry's brand has been silenced by corporate. So Jerry can't be part of it anymore. Oh, by the way, Yetis, Jerry doesn't have social media. So Ben actually posted the news for him on Instagram. I scream. You scream. We all scream for an amicable legal resolution.

23:41For our second story, StubHub had its IPO yesterday. But unlike all the other IPOs we've been covering lately, this one actually went down. Because StubHub is facing problems we discussed in our story last week on the World Cup launching their ticket presale. You see, with dynamic pricing, there's less opportunity for scalpers to make money. And StubHub, its business model, depends on scalpers. And finally, a couple important updates on robo-taxis have arrived at your destination about eight minutes later than they originally said they were going to arrive at your destination. But first, calling all bachelorette parties, Waymo is expanding to Nashville, but they're using Lyft as the app to book rides with.

24:20It's the first time Lyft has been used instead of Uber. So now you can squeeze all 14 of you into one Waymo, and that driver ain't going to stop you. True. Great point. Also, Waymo just got approval to start testing at SFO, the San Francisco airport check. Huge news because that is the taxi use case, getting to and from the airport. Yeah, Uber and Lyft do 25 ,000 airport rides to San Francisco. And this could be one. When I fly to New York next week to see a Jack, I'm going to see if I can get one of these. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is a correction sent in by Bryce Wary, a legendary Yeti who left us a comment on Spotify.

24:57We did a story yesterday on whether quarterly earnings required by publicly traded companies, whether quarterly is just too frequent, whether we should kill the quarterly earnings. And we said that quarterly financials are required by law to be audited. Mm-hmm. They're not actually, though. Only annual reports must be audited. To all the accountants out there holding us accountable, thank you, our bad on that error. Although, if you are an accountant, you're also going to hate our other catchphrase, always round up. Yetis, you look fantastic over there. Now, not all of us can get invited to prom when we're in middle school like Jack did.

25:31That is a rounding up that the accountant who just sent in the fact check is not going to appreciate. Okay, but let us know, What was your first phone call where your mom really ripped on you for it? No, where she said, I think it's a girl. Or I think it's a boy. Yeah, yeah. Every mom's done it. And we all have been there. Drop us a comment about your OG talk cute on the phone 30 years ago. And a five-star review. And Jack and I will see you tomorrow.

26:02And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Payton Giyat over in Atlanta, Georgia. And a big shout out to Kelsey Black of Pflugerville, Texas. She is headed to England for an epic bookseller conference and rocking her book brand. And a happy birthday to Gihwa Nagraj from Bengaluru, India. Congratulations and keep on consulting, baby. And a big shout out to Rick Mattson from Fox Island, Washington, who just got the best shirt yet from the T-Boy store for his son. Oh yeah, jetties, go to tboypod.com. We always got merch for you. Jump in T-Boy style. Oh, wait a minute. Rick got it from his son. Oh, happy belated Father's Day.

26:41Didn't realize it was Father's Day yet. I'll take two.

26:46This is Jack. I own stock in Lyft, Nickel and stock in Nike, and we both own ETFs of the S &P 500.

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