This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
⚽ On Running’s MJ moment
💅 Lisa Lisa Lisa
💫 The first time I’ve written about pickle ball
🧛♂ 40 yrs of vampires
Dulture weekly mix
Timbaland came up for me at some point this week, I can’t remember why but that random thought is what inspired this week’s playlist.
What’s crazy about a Timbaland mix is that you can easily put one together with the same 1-2 artists and it’ll look like a proper album, meanwhile all the tracks are from several albums spanning a good 10 years.
If you like Timbaland’s production then you probably love Justin Timberlake’s albums will enjoy this mix. There’s a little something something for everyone - old school, new stuff, legendary stuff, you name it.
In 2019 I worked with a bunch of pro athletes across the NBA, NFL, MLS, and other leagues getting them into the tech world.
Light flex, whatever whatever.
Working with pros for the first time is an eye opening experience no matter how you cut it.
But when you find out these guys make racks off of things like an IG post, or showing up to an event for half an hour, you realize how much power being a pro can really command.
Occasionally…like SUPER occasionally an athlete’s leverage goes beyond charging for appearances and endorsements
…like the time this upstart running shoe company brought in this rookie kid to be their first basketball athlete, who ultimately redefined their brand.
42 years later another running shoe brand is doing something eerily similar…except they didn’t bring in a rookie, they brought in the current best soccer player in the world, who will eventually be the actual GOAT.
Wish he was still a Nike athlete but Kylian is GOATED regardless
Plenty of athletes sell shoes, have signature shoes, blah blah blah. Very few athletes are important enough to pull a company into an entire new sport.
That rookie kid did it in ‘84.
Steph did it with Under Armor in 2013.
Now Kylian Mbappé is attempting to do this with On.
What happened: On Running signed French soccer mega star Kylian Mbappé to a cash + equity deal where they will build their soccer brand around him.
There’s a bit of a late 80’s Nike <> Jordan undertone to this story except Jordan became Jordan back then. Mbappé is already Mbappé.
So you’d think with On following the same playbook Nike laid out 40 years ago that they’d be able to put a major dent in their soccer competitors.
Only time will tell. I can’t picture the brand putting together the arsenal of football inspired lifestyle shoes and clothing that Adidas (and I guess Nike to a lesser degree) has done but what do I know, I’m just a guy who will prob never own a pair of On shoes (they just don’t do it for me).
I love Mbappé though so if there was ever going to be someone convincing me it’d be him.
Lisa Literally Everywhere
I’m a big on the philosophy of saying yes to everything.
You never know what’s on the other side of a yes.
I’ve said yes to so many meetings where I look at my calendar and wonder why I’m even bothering and I come out of the meeting like holy sh*t I’m about to make a bag, where did this come from??
When Lisa left her original management team, YG, the floodgates from saying yes immediately opened.
Post YG 2023 - Launches her own management agency, LLOUD
2024 - Leaves Celine and becomes the House Ambassador for LV
(there’s more but let’s move on)
2025 - Scoops up Bose for a partnership to promote their Ultra Open Earbuds, turns into a bunch of limited-edition releases.
(again, there’s more but let’s move on lol)
2026 - She basically blows up
Signs long term contract with Nike as a global ambassador
Guest designer for Kith Women
Launches her own Meta glasses collection at Meta Connect
Just re-released Nike’s Moon shoe a couple days ago
Her documentary comes out on Oct 12th
She’s got an EP coming out Oct 23rd
And a partnered PS5 controller coming out on Oct 30th
Man, I’m not glazing this woman but holy, if y’all didn’t know who Lisa was when she was with Blackpink, she’s damn near making sure you know EXACTLY who she is now.
Call it blasphemy but there’s a Beyoncé type moment going on here.
Where Beyoncé built an insane fan base in North America and then fanned out to the rest of the world to become globally reknowned, the rest of the world been knowing EXACTLY who Lisa is for years now and we’re only recently catching up in the west.
All she needs to do is date an NBA or NFL player and it’s a wrap lol.
(Do with this information what you will 🤷🏻♂️)
Andre Agassi, But Make it Pickleball
I went from watching Agassi vs Sampras for years to eventually Federer dominating everything in sight.
To having kids and being too busy to keep up with tennis.
...now I play pickle ball.
I feel like this is everyone’s eventual transition.
Maybe one day me too, Andre
So many people I talk to now play in some shape or form, people I’d never expect to even play a sport have picked up a paddle.
And had their un-athletic a$$ handed to them...but they thought it was fun so it’s whatever.
Pickleball as a sport is in this weird limbo of everyone plays but no one really talks about it? Yes yes yes, there’s definitely a big community out there- Agassi vs Waters (the best women’s player in the world) did some numbers (ESPN gets like 20K views a video with 14M subs - bruh)
Given there’s this ‘everyday Joe’ vibe to the sport, you’d think the gear would be everywhere.
You would be wrong. Most of everything you see out there is tennis stuff that I guess you can use for pickle ball. It’s like wearing basketball gear for volleyball tho...?
But because pickle ball is this “everyone” sport, I feel like you can get pretty creative with brands and gear.
If I were gonna make a pickle ball fit this is how I’m rolling.
(Says you can get creative and comes up with an all black fit lol...it’s fire tho I don’t care)
TIL paddles can easily run you $300+ !!!
40 Years of Belmonts (Not cigarettes)
This week Castlevania turned 40.
Originally released in Japan in September 1986, the game spawned from creator Hitoshi Akamatsu’s love of Western horror movies. His goal was to create a game that felt like you were in the world of Frankenstein’s, Medusa’s, and Mummy’s - which are all enemies in the game.
The game was called Demon Castle Dracula in Japan but when it got ported over to the US, strict Nintendo of America controls forced it to change its name where they combined Castle and Transylvania together to create the US name.
For a month the game is going to be available to download on your phone.
Playing on your phone
There’s also going to be orchestral concerts playing the game series’ iconic soundtrack, taking place in March 2027 in Tokyo, LA, and London.
You can see the history and entire timeline of the franchise here - it’s crazy how many games there’s been.
Speaking of which, a lot of them are on sale from 50-80% off right now!
And my personal recommendation, if you’re looking for a good adult cartoon/anime, goooooooo watch Castlevania on Netflix, it’s so damn good.
No fr fr, I don’t binge anything and I binged the first season accidentally.
