the weekly roundup (week of 7.24)

hello i am working on a real article i swear

1. How Aimé Leon Dore Took New York

Great article about ALD’s rise, its business strategy, and its relationship with LVMH. I particularly loved this bit that dove head straight into the Nolita Dirtbag memes

“The looks have also inspired a seemingly endless supply of memes, a suite of online punchline discourse. Many of the most viral ones were created by Alex Hartman, ALD’s de facto antagonist-in-chief, who posted them to his (then anonymous) Instagram page NoLIta Dirtbag.

“Someone needed to put a name on what was going on there — it seemed almost cultish,” Mr. Hartman said of the crowd that would loiter outside the store. An early hit: a mock New York Post headline reading “Man stands outside Aimé Leon Dore store in NoLIta for 48 hours straight, dies.”

ND responded on twitter here. As much as I love the memes, I can also appreciate what ALD is doing and I’m not gonna pretend like I don’t try to buy their most sought-after pieces only to be cart-jacked. Read the NYT piece here, it’s a good one.

2. What Happened When 15 of Twitter’s Top Celebrities Joined Threads

Surprise! People aren’t using threads that much. And it seems that a lot of celebs/brands are simply cross-posting identical content to both Twitter and Threads. Now I can’t say that I don’t use it since it’s my job to be poisoning my mind with as much social media crap as possible but it doesn’t seem like Threads is able to recreate the magic that still exists on Twitter. I think positioning the app as “not Elon” isn’t very convincing for most people, especially those that have already built a platform on Twitter. Not to mention the fact that being good at Twitter is a very specific skill that most IG users don’t possess. Unless threads can change the content output on the platform to be less bottom-of-the-barrel jokes or recycled viral tweets, to more high-quality engaging content then I’m not sure what incentive anyone would have to actually spend time on it. Read here.

3. ADRIFT IN A SEA OF SAMBAS, IT'S DIY OR DIE (OF BOREDOM)

Ah, the curious case of the Sambas. Now usually the social value from a shoe that goes through this violent of an upswing would come crashing down quickly as the inevitable counter-signaling coming from taste-makers clamoring to retain their individuality would shortly follow. But Sambas have retained their hype, and the continuing success of the Wales Bonner edition shows that there’s still some runway left with this sneaker. Read the Highsnobiety piece about how people are keeping some kind of coolness associated with it.

4. Gap, Looking for Barbie Magic, Hires Mattel’s President as C.E.O.

GAP, in desperate need of reviving its brand portfolio, hires the former president of Mattel. I’m curious to see how he does and what GAP’s next moves will be. I felt like they were on the right track with the Kanye collab until you know what happened, but regardless, it’s a tall task in order. Read here for the NYT take.