This Week in Dulture…
Approx 4 minute read:
👟 The numbers behind Top 10 lists
🥸 NBA getting smart
📉 No love for big brands
🎬 So many moviesss (well, 4)
Dulture weekly mix
Alright alright alright - I will be the first to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of last week’s mix. I felt like it took a while for me to really get into it…maybe just the song order, I dunno.
So this week I’ve made it a point to kick the mix off that makes you want to stay. Unless this isn’t your kind of music, then nothing will keep you around and this part of the newsletter is useless to you.
For the rest of you who listen, any idea what the common thing is between every song in this playlist (aside from the same genre)?
What is it about brands that make us become obsessive?
Like you ever been in an Uber and the driver has like every Hello Kitty variation known to man stuck to the dash?
That was me with Ninja Turtles and GI Joe’s as a kid.
That’s me with AM1’s and AJ1 low’s now.
And out of nowhere, this is becoming me with Street Fighter.
The Freudian answer is it’s one of the first video games I ever played...where I proceeded to destroy my brother’s friends at his birthday party when I was in grade 2 and they were grade 7.
I saw this at some media brand’s convention recently and all I could think of is...
I WANT.
Fragment x Street Fighter
While trying to figure out how to cop this hoodie I def don’t need, I came across the top 10 sneaker list this media brand does every year.
As a guy who loves going to Footlocker and picking up GR’s, this list doesn’t speak to me but I do get my mf-ing hypebeast on from time to time and I know for a fact they missed out on much better shoes.
Like what Westside Gunn is doing with Saucony right now.
It took time but these have grown so much on me
I’m actually starting to get the same brand obsessive feeling over Griselda x Saucony.
(Look at this mf-ing jacket!)
They can’t miss you in this
I’ve seen this top 10 list in the past but this year enough is enough, I dug deeper and did a 2013-2026 analysis on this “list”.
Now I’m a Nike guy for life but I’m not oblivious to the work Ronnie Fieg has done with New Balance and Asics (I think the Salmon toe’s will be my first pair of Asics). Or how about what Action Bronson has now done with New Balance (#10 on this year’s list, almost like someone said ok fine). Or again, Sauncony x Griselda.
Social media validated my thoughts.
Do you guys like seeing analytics from the culture?
The NBA and Its New Balls
One of the biggest stories to come out of the World Cup was that new ball they used.
Remember this?
How does a ball do that?
Hydration break nonsense aside, the WC seemed like it had some of the most advanced tech in a professional setting, with all those offside and VAR calls.
The NBA is now taking a page out of soccer after piloting these Wilson bluetooth balls throughout summer league.
Bluetooth somewhere inside
In select pre-season games, these “smart” balls will be used in game alongside refs wearing wearables to “communicate with the replay center in designated situations, including replay reviews, scoring changes and clock malfunctions.”
Some potential scenarios where the ball becomes useful:
Last touch out of bounds
Shot clock violations/buzzer beaters
Goaltending / rim interference
Direct data feed to NBA replay center
…and my favourite, how many steps Lebron takes in between dribbles.
The ball won’t be used during the regular season but this just added fuel to the fire for conspiracy theorists.
The Latest Big Brand Busts
You can’t scroll for a second without seeing how Nike is in a severe decline.
I’m no economist but I do know sh*t’s just expensive af right now. And when you gotta double check prices at the grocery store, you def aren’t checking prices on <insert your fav shoe buying app here>
What about all the other big brands we see all the time?
They ain’t doing too hot either.
LV and Gucci are having a moment for all the wrong reasons right now.
Xbox has been nose diving for what feels like forever at this point.
And yo how’s my man still a trillionaire when this is going on?
Guess it’s all a sign of the times?
Walmart’s apparently packing heat now tho 🤷🏻♂️
Movie Month
Every October I make it a point to soak up as many horror films as I can. Halloween is always at the top of the list...2028 can’t come soon enough.
Horror aside, this month is giving you a bunch of reasons to go to the theatres.
Street Fighter comes out next Friday and although I get the vibe it’ll be a Fast & Furious-style bust, I do not care - did you read the intro to this issue?
Also next weekend is Nathan Fielder’s documentary, You Can See Everything, which documents disgraced Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, right before she goes to jail (so it seems). The trailer has been trending in the top 3 on the YouTube movies chart since it came out a few weeks ago.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a documentary feel more like a dramatic film than this one, respect to whoever did the trailer.
Staying in the Silicon Valley CEO type world, the sequel to The Social Network comes out today, The Social Reckoning. This time it’s a dramatic take on when that FB whistleblower came out in 2021 and said FB is doing bad things to kids, Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg.
I want to watch this but I’m just going to see Kendall Roy the whole time, I know it!
There’s a bunch of horror/suspense films coming out this month but I have a dare for you.
I dare you go watch this one:
(lol this looks so stupid...I think I HAVE to watch it now)