2PM - No. 807: NO WORD YET

Peloton, Just Do It / Bloomberg: Today's memo is a deep dive into this subject, we make the case for why Nike is the perfect acquisition partner. You can read it below. The primary reason Nike is the better buyer is because its core business is fitness. It already has the connections with athletes and influencers to revive the Peloton name. Its brand would likely have cachet with engaged Peloton enthusiasts, many of whom will already be wearing its work-out gear. What’s more, Nike can be considered a luxury label if you look at the upper-end of its price ranges, with jackets and sneakers topping $500. That fits well with Peloton’s positioning, given its hefty price tags, with bikes starting at $1,495.

New 2PM Memo (4 minute read): Who knows? It’s likely that Nike will dismiss rumors of its potential Peloton takeover if they haven’t already. CNBC noted earlier that John Foley has “unwavering confidence” in the company’s future as a standalone company. Peloton is not the type to cede power to any external company but if they did, it would work wonderfully. Assuming the deal won’t happen, this is why it should have. This Bloomberg opinion piece was spot on:

Nike can be considered a luxury label if you look at the upper-end of its price ranges, with jackets and sneakers topping $500. That fits well with Peloton’s positioning, given its hefty price tags, with bikes starting at $1,495.

What Peloton needs more than anything is energized and engaged new users who will feel comfortable paying the full price for Peloton hardware while remaining engaged in the mobile app and virtual community that comes with it. (Read More)

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How Shopify is bringing online retailers into the future

eCommerce / Inc: First Shopify enables the NFT trade for brands like BIGFACE, then Tobi joins the Coinbase board, now this. Well, this is why Shopify stays ahead of other enterprise SAAS options. Here is an excerpt: "The eCommerce platform now allows its online merchants to launch 3-D and augmented reality versions of their products directly on their websites. According to retail publication Charged, merchants can convert their entire product offerings into 3-D and AR models on their websites. Shopify is partnering with the UK-based AR platform Poplar Studio to offer the service through an app that costs businesses $49 per month."

Web3 / Glossy: For as much as I've championed the idea of brands building community around NFTs and (the potential of) DAOs, this is a great one on the counterpoint of pursuing web3 strategy as as a retailer. Not everyone is Nike. Here is an excerpt: "The reaction the company received was less than positive. Within a few hours, the tweet had more than 1,000 responses and 263 retweets. The majority of those responses were highly critical of the decision to get into NFTs. Some posts featuring anti-NFT memes and pledges not to shop with MeUndies any longer amassed thousands of likes. “The irony of a company that boasts about their use of Planet Friendly materials joining in on a scam that uses a disgusting about [sic] of wasted energy to mint Pretend Money is too much for me,” one comment said."

The crypto backlash is booming

Web3 / The Atlantic: I, for one, hope that this isn't the case because Web3 has the power to serve as a transformative tool for community, marketing, data transfer, corporate governance, and dynamism. Will their be hiccups? Yes. Comparing it to 2007? That's a low floor. Here's an excerpt: "The anger at Web3 carries echoes of the fury over the subprime-mortgage meltdown almost 15 years ago. The gross behavior that event exposed and the government bailouts that came after helped motivate the early embrace of bitcoin, which was compellingly described as a financial system based on “proof,” rather than the sort of “trust” that had just gotten the world into a huge mess. Now, ironically, the same historical event serves as the grounds for Web3 backlash."

Flexport is Silicon Valley's solution to the supply chain mess

Supply Chain / Forbes: There's been few rises more impressive that Ryan Petersen's leadership amidst a world of change in the logistics industry. Apparently, not everyone is thrilled with the growing notoriety of his company and its leader. That's a shame. Here is an excerpt: "Flexport’s software analyzes and optimizes a customer’s supply chain, then automates it, often coming up with ways to shave days off delivery and save customers millions in late fees. Flexport’s centralized tracking and messaging cut out thousands of emails, saving clients an average of four work hours per week. For a price, Flexport will even offset their carbon footprint."

UPDATED: The new DTC Power List is now available to all Executive Members. This is this week's top 20 for the week of February 7th. 

Buzzfeed revealed identity of Bored Apes NFT creators

Web3 / Fortune: Doxxing is never the answer, it can absolutely ruin lives. But I'd love to begin a conversation on how these founders planned to remain veiled as Bored Apes becomes coveted intellectual property in Hollywood, tech, Web3, and culture in general. Here's an excerpt: "When Buzzfeed tech journalist Katie Notopolous fished through public records to uncover the names of two men behind the wildly successful Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, crypto bros reached for their pitchforks eager to protect their own. “What Buzzfeed did today to the BAYC founders was not only unprofessional — it was downright dangerous,” tweeted Adam Hollander, founder of Microsoft's Incent Games, without specifiying exactly why."

Disney, Netflix, Apple: is anyone winning the streaming wars?

The Streaming Economy / Economist: Streaming services will be bundled. It’s likely that we’re near the point of OTT carriers marketing the opportunity for consumers to purchase pre-negotiated, economically-friendly bundles of streaming services packaged. With no-login, one collective price, and less of a fear of missing out – the past has become the present. An excerpt: "The combination of rising costs and slowing revenue growth “calls into question the end-state economics of these businesses”, argues MoffettNathanson, a firm of analysts."

Retailers are building their own ad businesses to compete with Amazon

Consumer Data / Business Insider: Ah, the good old content fortress. This has always been the end game. And rightfully so, where transactions are so goes the advertising dollars. An excerpt: "Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart are among a growing number of retailers betting on the growth of eCommerce and hoping that advertising can offset retail's thin margins. They're pitching advertisers on data that shows what people buy and when they shop. And they're hiring to build adtech and relationships with advertisers. Insider is keeping track of all the moves in the space."

How strip malls could help solve the housing shortage

Retail Real Estate / Fast Company: “There’s a lot of underutilized land there,” says Peter Calthorpe, a Berkeley-based urban planner who cofounded Urban Footprint, a company with a software tool that calculated the potential for the space. “Old strip commercial is now overbuilt, underused, undervalued, largely because we shop online. We don’t go cruising down the strip anymore to get what we need.”

Editor's Note: while this is a salient point, there's almost no way that this idea would be implemented in most suburban regions. This is part of the problem. 

Since StockX began minting its own Nike sneaker NFTs in January, it’s been tempting fate. Now that Nike has come along with a lawsuit that claims the online reseller’s NFTs are in violation of its trademarks, more will be decided on who has rights to what real-world intellectual property in the metaverse.

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