Some housekeeping 🧹

Welcome to HYPER. You may know that Oren and Clayton are the two nerds who run this thing. And this week, we decided to merge ProductWorld, which is Oren’s newsletter, with HYPER.

As time went on, it felt like they were the same thing. So, now they are one. Nothing will change from a content perspective. If anything, it’s going to get better and better.

If you’re new to this format, good to have you. If you’ve been here a while, respect 🫡

Every once in a while, we’ll curate an email called “what’s in our bookmarks tab,” where we share stuff that we like. Welcome to our brain.

Oren & Clayton ❤️ you

Making good content is hard

You don’t want to pay for overpriced influencers, and sourcing good UGC by yourself sucks.

Sourcing people manually is tedious. You reach out, send them briefs, handle back and forth, contracts, feedback. You name it.

But you don’t have to do that.

Work with Minisocial instead ⚡️ 

They have a huge database with thousands of top-tier creators and they’ve worked with everyone from Olipop and Native to Harry’s and Corkcicle.

You fill out a quick creative brief telling them what you want, and they pair you up with quality, on-brand micro-influencers who make awesome UGC.

They do the dirty work; you reap the rewards.

Their pricing is super transparent ($2,000 for 25 videos), no long-term commitments, and you HYPER readers can get their first 25 UGC videos for $1,700!

Check out what they do here ✅ 

Cars 🤝 merch

Feels like the vehicle-inspired merch collabs are everywhere right now. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

To be fair, they actually sell too. From a partnership perspective, any good collaboration should tap into fandom as a way of activating passionate audiences to purchase. in a category they might otherwise not be considering.

A good collab will pass the quality and/or gravitas of one brand to the access and obsession of another brand’s fandom. And here are a few examples—

HUF x TRD

RHUDE x LAMBORGHINI

APL x McLaren

Now, if we’re talking crossovers we’d love to see come to life—especially where the brand customizes a whip—and we get an actual collection to accompany it? Let us indulge you…

Boys Lie x Volkswagen Jetta

Who Decides War x Mercedes 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II

UUUNTLD bringing back the Ford Ranchero

If an art director designed a fridge

RoccoFridge might be the sexiest DTC fridge you’ve ever seen.

And out of all the products that have been millennial(ized) at this point in late-stage capitalism, I have to say that a fridge was low on the list.

But here we are.

Two interesting thoughts to consider:

1. This ad plays into our consumerist desire to “vibe out” every aspect of our lives. We can’t just have any normal (let alone broke-ass-looking) fridge. It has to slap.

2. The dichotomy of taste in this ad also speaks to our desire to be undefinable. Modelos sitting next to Ghia in the fridge? That’s ironic and, well, dope. Right?

Upcycled HOKAs

You’re probably sick of seeing this shoe around. And if you haven’t seen it, it’s taking over, and for good reason. HOKA is the billion-dollar brand making perhaps the ugliest, comfiest shoes out there. And they’ve gotten there by making legitimately good products.

Now, they’re leveraging quality to tap into circles, people, and communities from around the zeitgeist to grow their brand equity. So they’re not simply a shoe you’re uncle in Iowa wears to the local Target, but they’re also a shoe with some cultural cache.

And this partnership with internet creator Nicole McLaughlin is a perfect manifestation of that. Nicole has built a monster following by taking upcycled products and turning them into random objects.

So, naturally, she turned a HOKA trail runner into 4 different shoes. And that’s brilliant.

Why?

Because the brand entity allows the creative force to do what they do best. The brand supplies the means to creation, and the creator uses that platform as a canvas to build on. And that’s dope.

Tapping into nostalgia

Arizona Tea is undoubtedly a core memory from childhood. Hot summers in Florida called for a refreshing 16oz can to gulp down as a reprieve from the sun.

There’s nostalgia there.

So Vacation, who’s created a brand playbook in their own right to follow, scratched an itch in my brain that felt nice.

Is this the vibe shift we were promised?

Benjamin Edgar’s emergency cigarette holder is so niche it feels meta. How niche do you wanna get with products?

This niche?

Because we can go there. And in doing so, it might usher a vibe shift. And whether you wanted it or not, it’s here.

When a nightclub makes non-alc beer 🤔 

LOAH—a non-alcoholic beer brand—teamed up with London-based nightclub FOLD on a blood orange lager, which might feel off-brand at first.

Until you think more about it. The rise of sober-curious drinking is alive and well, something we wrote about (link) earlier this year.

And the notion that one could go into an environment like a nightclub—a place known to be where one gets plastered while standing on a table singing Celine Dion—and just vibe to the beat while sober is more normal than you’d think.

The lamp hype cycle

The Noguchi lamp is exiting its Hero Arc, and entering its villainous decline. Sweet or sad? You decide (no judgement, of course).

When will a brace young group of designers fix the car matt blending epidemic?

As brand to car collaborations heats up, and everyone seems to want to take a little automotive flavor in their clothing brands, perhaps its finally time for matts, steering wheel covers, upholstery and dare we say… fuzzy dice to make their comeback?

HYPER reports

Check out our trend reports. These are carefully curated research we do on markets, categories, and topics within the consumer space.

How to Source Blanks 101 — HERE​ 
Your guide to finding and producing merch

Market reports on Running, Golf and Tennis — HERE
A guide to each sport, the market opportunities, and how to launch your own brand

Looking for brand strategy, research, or merchandise support?

Shoot us a note here: [email protected]

We’d love to chat!

Oren ​& Clayton ❤️ you