👋 Hi. Here are three internet things that caught my eye recently: Blands End, a new and uncannily familiar apparel company; Balenciaga Pets, which must have referenced GeoCities in its project brief; and the Brodet, because men’s habit of gendering objects refuses to die. As always, reply with questions, comments, or thoughts about anything you read here.
This issue features 32 brands. Forty-one percent are white-led, 16 percent are Black-led, and 28 percent are led by non-Black people of color. You can find the complete Chips + Dips inclusion index here.
The Chips 🐩
Buffy teamed up with Madewell for a wearable cold-weather capsule.
Le Labo is distributing fragrances and candles via Postmates.
Moringa What is an ethical skin- and haircare company spotlighting the moringa plant. (Related: This deep dive into changing beauty habits in India is a great read.)
Canadian company Kind Stranger sells DTC psilocybin capsules.
Danish design company Hay is selling DIY Flavins (kidding, kind of).
Muri Lelu is a new cannabis-powered skincare company.
Art Life Practice and Studio Sundays are new entrants in the arts and crafts space.
Sway Scrubs takes a trend-forward approach to medical workwear.
Unified Ferments makes kombucha brewed from single-origin tea.
Waeve is a forthcoming wig brand.
New York-based kombucha label Yesfolk Tonics is making tinctures and skincare products.
Brooklyn design shop Lichen launched a candle in a returnable vessel.
The Big Favorite is a new circular basics label offering a discount to those who enroll in its recycling program.
Omsom has teamed up with the Ajinomoto Group for an MSG PSA called Know MSG.
The Dip 🐝
Earlier this year, The Wing hosted a series of virtual panels, one of which featured big-name investors talking about business trends, the impact of COVID–19, and the fundraising landscape. You can watch it here. At about the 18 minute mark, Forerunner’s Kirsten Green began talking about how over the past decade, businesses served wants. They tapped into discretionary income and led to the proliferation of brands and products reflective of their consumer. It’s only a matter of time before the needs side catches up, Green said. Change is currently being seeded in healthcare, finance, and education — all needs-based sectors.
At the time of the panel, I was mulling over the wave of DTC air conditioners. July, Kapsul, and Windmill had all launched or were set to in the coming months. A handful of companies seeking to disrupt home renovations have launched in recent years, too. It got me thinking about the place of bigger, needs-based businesses within the wants-based direct-to-consumer landscape.
In this house we…
While home upgrades are more of a want than a need, they also have more permanence than most other purchases. The first digitally native home brands were geared toward renters. Companies like Backdrop and Clare offer city-dwellers a low-lift and, most importantly, reversible way to make a space their own. And there’s Everhem, a company working to democratize access to high-quality window treatments.
Adjacent to renter-friendly brands are those focusing on piecemeal renovations, whether semi-permanent updates or full-room flips. Titan and Formed make well-designed sink basins, for example. On a larger scale, Outfit sells DIY renovation kits and Block and Made Renovations design rooms for vetted contractors to build.
Home renovations are challenging for a host of reasons. They often require professional (or at least semi-skilled) support by way of a middleman, which is precisely what most direct-to-consumer brands seek to eliminate. They also tend to be very fractured: a designer may recommend a contractor, who then has their preferred team of laborers and a unique way of doing business.
The DTC trope of “[thing] in a box” offers an appealing and scalable solution. Renovation companies can offer pre-designed rooms and an algorithm can determine how much of each material is needed based on a room’s measurements. The company can buy materials in bulk to reduce overall costs, and then partner with contractors to offer a steady stream of new clients.
These home design solutions balance wants with needs. A home is a need; making it look a certain way is a want.
Cooking up something new
In a kitchen, any appliance other than a refrigerator and stove and/or oven is superfluous. At the same time, they take up a lot of space and don’t necessarily support modern appetites for convenience. This is where new appliances come into play — want-based purchases that seek to become needs.
Today’s most popular supplemental appliances share one thing in common: they’re extremely hands-off. There’s the Instant Pot, its predecessor the crockpot, and sous vide circulators, a staple in modernist cuisine that grew in popularity as they became smaller and more accessible.
The Thermomix, while expensive, is primed for a countertop takeover. It’s been popular in Europe, where counter space is often at a premium, for years. AllClad introduced a competitor, the Prep & Cook, a few years ago — before Thermomix had made its formal entrance stateside.
Yet for all the countertop innovation, there seems to be little innovation among large appliances, especially when it comes to distribution.
The long game
There are likely many reasons for the lack of digitally native refrigerators and ovens — warehouse space and shipping complexities, among them. But at the end of the day, they represent a need, and it can be hard to turn a need into a want. Their relative permanence may also be a contributing factor.
We’re willing to buy t-shirts and shoes from brand new companies because they rarely last more than a couple of years, but the average lifespan of a refrigerator is 14 years. For that reason, it’s safer to buy from a company that’s been around for decades and has proven the quality and durability of its product — that a thing made to last 10+ years does, in fact, last 10+ years.
If and when large appliances enter the DTC chat, building trust will be essential to their success. Alternatively, there’s the incontrovertibly high-tech, Tesla-inspired route. And when it comes to making needs into wants, the latter may be more convincing.
Still hungry?
In 2019, July operated as an AC rental business, Don’t Be Hot, as a means of conducting market research.
There’s room (within reason) for creators to tap into want-based appliances, as Ghetto Gastro recently did.
Someone please make well-designed replacements for the ubiquitous apartment light. I’d buy four in a heartbeat.
Real Dip 🍾
Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp. That’s it. That’s the dip.
Plays well with smashed and seared potatoes, roasted cabbage, and coconut yogurt (I like Cocojune, Anita’s, and Coconut Collaborative).
Thanks for snacking,
— Emily 🍋
