Stretch fabrics are notoriously hard to process. When your old leggings wear out, they will probably end up in a landfilleven if you try to drop them off for recycling. But a Manhattan startup has developed a new material that could finally make this corner of the apparel industry circular.
Theres a reason why billions of pounds of textiles ends up in landfills, says Gangadhar Jogikalmath, cofounder and chief technology officer of the startup, called Return to Vendor. When we dial it down to the microscopic scale, it’s because everything that we wear has blends of yarn put together to create this apparel nylon blended with spandex, wool with nylon, cotton, polyester.
Any fabric blend is hard to disassemble, and stretch fabric is especially challenging. You cant shred it, says Jogikalmath. The spandex melts at a lower temperature, gums up the recycling machinery, and your recycling system really suffers from having even a small amount of spandex in it.
To tackle the challenge, the startup has spent the last four years designing fabric that uses a single materialnylonand transforms it so that a material with fibers that normally wouldnt stretch suddenly can. Then, at the end of its life, since its a mono material, it can easily be recycled and turned into new fabric for new clothing.
[Image: RTV]
Making stretch fabric from a single material
Jogikalmath, who started his career as a protein chemist, took inspiration from the way that proteins are structured. Normally, nylon has tight hydrogen bonds that make the material stiff and resistant to stretching. Using a protein-inspired approach, the startup re-formulated the structure so that the molecules can slide past each other under stress and then spring back when the stress is released.
After making a proof of concept and raising a seed round of funding from Khosla Ventures, the team went through years of R&D. This year, it worked with a mill that specializes in stretch fabric to make samples of the final material. They were equally as excited with the results, says CEO and cofounder William Calvert. And now were putting it through the paces where it can be commercialized.
With the use of the startups chemistry, the material can be made in any mill that makes nylon yarn, not just those that specialize in stretch. After the yarn is made, it can be made into fabric without adding any new machinery or process changes, meaning that it could easily scale up, unlike some other novel materials.
The material is made from recycled nylonturning old fishing nets or carpet into new fiberand is already at cost parity with virgin nylon. But the cost will keep going down the more its recycled; as brands collect their old clothing for recycling, the next generation feedstock will cost even less.
Theres strong demand across multiple categories, says Calvert, from athleisure to intimate apparel and outdoor wear. Brands are now beginning to test it in pilots. When I put it on LinkedIn, the brands started calling, says Jogikalmath.
A bigger vision for circularity
To ensure that final garments are fully recyclable, the company has also redesigned smaller components like zippers and buttons so they’re also made from 100% nylon. (One designer, Willy Chavarria, has already worked with the startup to use some of these materials to make baseball hats, swim trunks, and eyewear.)
The startup’s basic approach for stretch fabrictweaking nylon so that the material has new characteristicscan also be used in applications outside apparel. The company is currently working with a large motorcycle brand to make new injection molded parts, for example.
The company will work with brands to get back the clothing that’s made with its material at the end of life. Brands can include a label so customers know that the garment or other product is fully recyclable. “We want to be the ‘Intel Inside’ of circularity,” says Jogikalmath.
In the fashion world, where brands are continually looking for new ways to cut their carbon footprints, the stretch fabric has the potentially to quickly scale. “When you have a huge carbon savings, when it’s recycled, it’s recyclable, and it comes in at cost and performance parity, why wouldnt they adopt it?” says cofounder and chief recycling officer Adam Baruchowitz. “It’s a complete win for them, and for everyone: for the brand, for the customer, for the planet.”
Tom Freston could easily fill a book with stories from the formative days of MTV and his celebrity encounters Bono would merit a few chapters on his own. Ultimately, though, Freston feels that his life has a more valuable lesson to offer.
His memoir, Unplugged, shows by example that trying to follow a straight line to success is not the only path.
Freston, 80, was at MTV from the start and became its leader, along with sister networks Comedy Central, VH1, and Nickelodeon, at their greatest periods of success. He rose to become CEO of parent corporation Viacom before chairman Sumner Redstone’s impatience led to his ouster in 2006.
Since then, Freston has largely freelanced, advising the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Vice, before its implosion. He made a memorable return to business in Afghanistan, and has been chairman of the ONE Campaign, the anti-poverty organization devoted to Africa that Bono spearheaded, for nearly two decades.
I was improvising, he said. It was like a bebop lifestyle, hitting notes instead of having a long, set classical structure.
His wanderlust unsettled Freston’s suburban Connecticut parents when he took a gap year after earning an MBA at New York University. They had reason to believe he had gotten it out of his system when he took a job at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the early 1970s.
Saying no to a life convincing people to squeeze the Charmin
He soon faced a crossroads when he couldn’t muster enthusiasm for a role on his agency’s important Charmin account. An old girlfriend said to him: All those years of school, that fancy MBA degree, and you are selling toilet paper? You’re better than that.
She had a point. It was January 1972, and the woman invited him to hitchhike through France and Spain, then eventually into the Sahara Desert. He left the agency behind.
Thus began several years of travel, where he particularly fell in love with Afghanistan and India. Freston started a business importing clothing from Asia. The company, Hindu Kush, was successful for a time before restrictions on imports during the Carter administration killed it.
Freston landed back in New York. He read an interview where an executive in the nascent cable television industry talked about starting a music network built on videos and reached out for an interview for a marketing job. He met with a 26-year-old Bob Pittman, who wondered about the appearance of Afghanistan on his resume.
Pittman suspected Freston was a hashish smuggler, but that seemed to make him like me more, he wrote. Hey, it was rock n roll. Freston got the job.
To encourage cable systems to carry the new network, Freston directed film crews that ambushed Pete Townshend on a London Street and David Bowie on a Swiss ski slope to record ads saying I want my MTV. Its rapid rise has been well documented, and by 1987, Freston was running MTV Networks.
Music always played in Freston’s office, giving the young, creative employees the sense that it wasn’t a suit in charge. Former employees say he wasn’t afraid to take risks and empower people. It was almost a requirement particularly
Once, MTV decided it needed to reinvent itself every few years to appeal to young people, rather than follow its original audience as it aged.
His international experience helped him create MTVs for different countries all around the world.
It was irreverent and edgy and nonhierarchical, a lot of creative people, he said. If you tried to run it in a classic MBA style, it would have been rejected.
Looking in on a ghost network
Several factors led to MTV’s demise, among them the rise of streaming that turned many once-popular cable destinations into ghost networks. Record companies wouldn’t grant MTV streaming rights to play music videos online, undermining chances for a digital transformation, he said.
Now, when Freston lands on MTV, its like seeing your old high school burning down, he said.
From his book, Freston is clearly still stung by his sudden ouster from Viacom. He makes it a point to tell of attempts to get him back. But in retrospect, the timing couldn’t have been better.
It was a good thing, because I’m a loyal guy and I probably would have stayed longer, he said. In a way I got fired at the apex of the TV revolution. The digital guys were just starting to have an impact in a big way. So I really didn’t have to deal with those unpleasant facts and challenges.
He was suddenly a free agent, but in demand. Most rewarding was a return to Afghanistan, and working with an entrepreneur, Saad Mohseni, on a television network for the people there. The Taliban put an end to that when they returned to power in 2021 but recently have let Mohseni produce educational programming for girls.
Freston hasn’t been back since the takeover. I had a death sentence put on me by the Taliban, he said. They say we’re all friends now, but I don’t want to take the chance.
I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
It’s hard to resist one Bono anecdote. The singer’s seduction of Freston to join the ONE Campaign’s board was sealed on a late night of partying in the Riviera. It was 5 a.m., closing time at a disco and Bono, a Dublin buddy, and Freston were the only ones left besides a few busboys and a waitress.
On the way out, Bono spied a microphone connected to a karaoke machine. Pick a U2 song, Bono told the server. Any one! She chose I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and the famous frontman channeled Frank Sinatra as he sang his classic. The waitress was the only one left to clap.
Who wouldn’t want to have this CEO’s life?
Readers of Freston’s memoir probably won’t greet the dawn with rock stars. He hopes they appreciate the musical notes of his life and apply it to their own.
Ideally, younger people would find some inspiration in the fact that you don’t have to graduate from college and start the next day at Goldman Sachs, and if you don’t you have a panic attack, he said.
If you’re young, you should take some chances, he said. Take a risk. Go see the world. The world is the best classroom. Look at the United States from another person’s perspective. You’ll make yourself more interesting as a candidate for a job when you come back.”
David Bauder, AP media writer
Christmas at Pemberley Manor and Romance at Reindeer Lodge may never make it to Oscar night, but legions of fans still love these sweet-yet-predictable holiday moviesand this season, many are making pilgrimages to where their favorite scenes were filmed.
That’s because Connecticutthe location for at least 22 holiday films by Hallmark, Lifetime, and othersis promoting tours of the quaint Christmas-card cities and towns featured in this booming movie market; places where a busy corporate lawyer can return home for the holidays and cross paths with a plaid shirt-clad former high school flame who now runs a Christmas tree farm. (Spoiler alert: they live happily ever after.)
Its exciting just to know that something was in a movie and we actually get to see it visually, said Abby Rumfelt of Morganton, North Carolina, after stepping off a coach bus in Wethersfield, Connecticut, at one of the stops on the holiday movie tour.
Rumfelt was among 53 people, mostly women, on a recent weeklong “Hallmark Movie Christmas Tour,” organized by Mayfield Tours from Spartanburg, South Carolina. On the bus, fans watched the matching movies as they rode from stop to stop.
To plan the tour, co-owner Debbie Mayfield used the Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail map, which was launched by the wintry New England state last year to cash in on the growing Christmas-movie craze.
Mayfield, who co-owns the company with her husband, Ken, said this was their first Christmas tour to holiday movie locations in Connecticut and other Northeastern states. It included hotel accommodations, some meals, tickets, and even a stop to see the Rockettes in New York City. It sold out in two weeks.
With snow flurries in the air and Christmas songs piped from a speaker, the group stopped for lunch at Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre, where parts of the Hallmark films Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane” and Rediscovering Christmas” were filmed.
Once home to Americas oldest seed company, the store is located in a historic district known for its stately 1700s and 1800s buildings. It’s an ideal setting for a holiday movie. Even the local country store has sold T-shirts featuring Hallmarks crown logo and the phrase I Live in a Christmas Movie. Wethersfield, CT 06109.”
People just know about us now, said Julia Koulouris, who co-owns the market with her husband, Spiro, crediting the movie trail in part. And you see these things on Instagram and stuff where people are tagging it and posting it.
Christmas movies are big businessand a big deal to fans
The concept of holiday movies dates back to 1940s, when Hollywood produced classics like It’s A Wonderful Life,” Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas in Connecticut, which was actually shot at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.
In 2006, five years after the launch of the Hallmark Channel on TV, Hallmark struck gold with the romance movie The Christmas card, said Joanna Wilson, author of the book Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made-for-TV Movies.
Hallmark saw those high ratings and then started creating that format and that formula with the tropes and it now has become their dominant formula that they create for their Christmas TV romances, she said.
The holiday movie industry, estimated to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year, has expanded beyond Hallmark and Lifetime. Today, a mix of cable and broadcast networks, streaming platforms, and direct-to-video producers release roughly 100 new films annually, Wilson said. The genre has also diversified, with characters from a wider range of racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as LGBTQ+ storylines.
The formula, however, remains the same. And fans still have an appetite for a G-rated love story.
They want to see people coming together. They want to see these romances. Its a part of the hope of the season, she said. Who doesnt love love? And it always has a predictable, happy ending.
Hazel Duncan, 83, of Forest City, North Carolina, said she and her husband of 65 years, Owen, like to watch the movies together year-round because they’re sweet and family-friendly. They also take her back to their early years as a young couple, when life felt simpler.
We hold hands sometimes, she said. It’s kind of sweet. We’ve got two recliners back in a bedroom that’s real small and we’ve got the TV there. And we close the doors off and it’s just our time together in the evening.
Falling in love again… with a state
Connecticut’s chief marketing officer, Anthony M. Anthony, said the Christmas Movie Trail is part of a multipronged rebranding effort launched in 2023 that promotes the state not just as a tourist destination, but also as a place to work and live.
So what better way to highlight our communities as a place to call home than them being sets of movies? he said.
However, there continues to be debate at the state Capitol over whether to eliminate or cap film industry tax credits which could threaten how many more of these movies will be made locally.
Christina Nieves and her husband of 30 years, Raul, already live in Connecticut and have been tackling the trail little by little.”
It’s been a chance, she said, to explore new places in the state, like the Bushnell Park Carousel in Hartford, where a scene from Ghost of Christmas Always was filmed.
It also inspired Nieves to convince her husband not quite the movie fan she is to join her at a tree-lighting and Christmas parade in their hometown of Windsor Locks.
I said, listen, let me just milk this Hallmark thing as long as I can, OK? she said.
___
This story has been corrected to reflect that the film title is Christmas at Pemberley Manor, not Christmas at Pemberly Manor,” and the co-owner of Heirloom Market at Comstock Ferre is named Spiro Koulouris, not Spiros Koulouris.
Susan Haigh, Associated Press
In theory, AI should have transformed manufacturing by now. From predictive maintenance and fatigue detection to real-time quality control, the promise has always been smarter, faster, and safer operations. But in practice, the factory floor is still a place where AI ambitions often run into real-world limitations.
Thats a huge problem, especially because the size and weight of this industry are hard to ignore. U.S. manufacturing alone contributes $2.9 trillion to the economy, accounting for over 10% of total output and supporting nearly 13 million workers, according to the National Association of Manufacturers. Globally, manufacturing represents 16% of world GDP and a total market value well over $16 trillion, per a new report from Cargoson.
Now, as AI advances even further and policymakers push for reindustrialization in the U.S.aiming to restore domestic production capacity, regain supply chain control, and modernize strategic infrastructurethe spotlight is back on factories. Theres momentum and money behind the movement, but without restructuring the fragmented digital systems that dominate most production floors, that momentum may stall. An estimate by MarketsandMarkets projects the global AI in manufacturing market would grow to $155 billion by 2030, up from $34 billion in 2025 — but that growth will remain theoretical unless companies solve the bottlenecks slowing down adoption.
Outdated infrastructure
According to a 2025 survey of more than 500 manufacturing leaders, 92% say outdated infrastructure is holding back GenAI progress. Another report on the state of AI infrastructure by A10 Networks found that 74% of global IT decision-makers believe their current infrastructure is not fully prepared to support AI workloads. For all the talk of digital transformation, many factories are still running on architecture that predates smartphones, most of which cannot support new AI capabilities.
The hype around AI in manufacturing is real, but so are the technical barriers, Shahid Ahmed, EVP of New Ventures and Innovation at NTT DATA, tells Fast Company. Modern connectivity is unlocking the next wave of AI-driven innovation in manufacturing. Private 5G and next-gen Wi-Fi give manufacturers the speed and reliability to finally turn AI into a productivity engine.
However, better connectivity is just one part of the big problem with getting AI to produce optimal results on the factory floor. Whats really stopping AI from working on the ground isnt just weak networks but also a mismatch between how factories run and how AI systems think.
At aiOla, a conversational AI company that works with Fortune 500 manufacturers, Assaf Asbag sees a common pattern: data silos, fragmented systems, and little end-to-end accountability. Even when manufacturers bring in advanced models and top-tier talent, the results rarely scale.
Even with expensive AI talent, teams cant generate value if they dont have clean, connected data, explains Asbag, aiOlas Chief Technology & Product Officer. You need aligned data, integrated workflows, and clear accountabilityotherwise pilots never scale.
Thats because many manufacturing systems were never built to support AI in the first place. Legacy enterprise systemslike outdated ERP (enterprise resource planning) tools, old-school CRMs (customer relationship management platforms), and manual data entrystill dominate much of the landscape. When critical insights are buried across disconnected platformsor worse, written down in logbooksit becomes nearly impossible to feed AI models the context they need.
Ahmed points to a recent deployment with materials manufacturer Celanese, where private 5G and edge AI were introduced to improve worker safety and equipment monitoring. They were able to identify fatigue risk factors and detect hazards in real time, he claims. It was only possible because the infrastructure was there to support that intelligence.
For him, the key to successful AI deployments in manufacturing isnt just having data but also having the right data, in the right place, and at the right time. Without that, he warns, factories will keep seeing failed pilots, no matter how powerful the model.
Not all use cases are built the same
While the buzz often centers on predictive maintenance and visual inspection, those arent plug-and-play features. They require reliable data flow, ultra-low latency, and hardware compatibility that many plants simply dont have. In remote or offline environments, traditional cloud-based systems cant keep up.
Use cases that demand real-time decision-makinglike voice-enabled workflows or autonomous quality checksare especially sensitive to network and system performance, Asbag notes. Thats why edge computing matters. It allows speech recognition or LLM-driven tasks to happen on-site, without depending on cloud access.
Picture a factory line that shuts down every time it loses Wi-Fi. Without local processingmeaning the ability to run AI tasks on devices in the factory instead of sending them to the cloudeven a short loss of connectivity can stop production and make AI tools more of a problem than a help.
For factories operating with limited or unreliable connectivity, edge AI offers a way forward. By processing data locally, companies can cut lag time, protect sensitive data, and reduce downtime. But again, these benefits only materialize if the surrounding infrastructurefrom sensors to routersis up to the task.
Think of it like trying to run a modern electric vehicle on outdated roads, Ahmed says. No matter how powerful the engine, if the path is broken, youre not going anywhere fast.
Getting real ROI
One of the biggest traps in AI adoption is mistaking model accuracy for business success. Just because a model performs well during testing doesnt mean it will drive positive outcomes on the floor.
The most successful AI initiatives begin with a clear visionimproving quality, boosting efficiency, or unlocking insights, says Ahmed. From there, quick wins build momentum.
Asbag agrees with him. ROI in AI is not about proving that the modelworks or that accuracy improves on a benchmark. Those are technology goals, not business goals, he notes. Companies should avoid fluff by defining ROI in clear, specific business termsfaster processes, better decisions, or measurable savings.
That means tracking metrics like how many more inspections a worker can perform with a voice assistant or how predictive maintenance reduced unexpected machine downtime. When AI is tied to concrete, operational KPIs, it becomes a tool for transformationnot just a tech experiment.
And thats the big difference between the hype-induced claims of faster operations in the AI space and real measurable impact. Its one thing to say your model is 96% accurate in a test environment. Its another to show that it actually helped to cut defect rates by 12% in real production. While the first might get a nod from the technical team, the second gets leadership to sign off on a bigger rollout.
The path forward
Getting AI to work in manufacturing isnt about chasing the most advanced model. Its really about understanding the problem, cleaning up the data, modernizing the systems, and making sure every deployment serves a real business need.
Too many companies fall into endless discussions, pilots, and meetings without ever delivering value, says Asbag. Success with AI comes from being precise about the problem, aligning with the business outcome, and giving teams the autonomy to execute.
Ahmed puts it even more directly: AI without infrastructure is like trying to build a smart city with no roads. You need the foundation in place before you scale. Sateesh Seetharamiah, CEO of Edgeverve, also agrees. Without a defined set of use cases and outcomes, manufacturers will be stuck without a clear strategy to prioritize the right emerging tech capabilities for business success, he says.
Conversations about building AI infrastructure in manufacturing often stall because leaders assume it means ripping everything out and starting from scratch. But meaningful progress rarely requires a full overhaul. Some of the biggest wins come from small, targeted changeslike installing local edge devices to reduce lag, connecting isolated systems, or clarifying who owns what data so teams can move faster.
Manufacturing may be one of the toughest environments for AI, but its also one of the most rewarding. The factories that get it right wont just optimize how work gets done. Theyll also lead a new era of industrial work, while the ones that hesitate may fall behind. This isnt the time to sit on the fence, says Seetharamiah. Manufacturers who delay risk missing out on enormous opportunities to create digital experiences for their customers.
A lot has been written about how AI is coming for your job, but EY’s latest AI survey found some surprisingly results. Out of 500 top executives at major U.S. companies who said artificial intelligence was boosting productivity at their companies, only 17% of those polled actually turned around and laid off workers or cut their jobs.
Instead, the new survey found they are reinvesting those gains back into the company.
“Executives are plowing productivity gains right back into more AI tools and more talented people,” EY America’s consulting leader Colm Sparks Austin said. “The real breakthrough isnt automationits amplification. Leading companies are using AI to scale human capacity at a pace weve never seen before.”
The EY US AI Pulse Survey, the fourth in a series of polls, surveyed 500 key U.S. business decision-makers across sectors (either senior vice presidents and above) and found nearly all organizations investing in artificial intelligence are experiencing some amount of AI-driven gains in productivity (96%), including 57% that say their gains are “significant.”
However, among those organizations experiencing AI-driven productivity gains, only 17% say these gains led to reduced headcount; far more reported reinvesting those gains into existing AI capabilities (47%), developing new AI capabilities (42%), strengthening cybersecurity (41%), investing in R&D (39%), and upskilling and reskilling employees (38%).
While AI readily raises the floor by improving efficiency, the transformative potential comes from raising the ceiling, according to Dan Diasio, EY global consulting AI leader. Organizations that shift from a productivity mindset to a growth agenda are using AI to drive innovation, create new markets and achieve what was previously considered impossible.
Diasio said the survey results reveals that successful companies are reinvesting their gains today to build the businesses of the future, not just optimizing the current operations.
The survey also found the amount of money a company invested in AI, influenced how much productivity gains it saw in 2025. For example, senior leaders at organizations currently investing $10 million or more in AI across all business units or teams (71%) were more likely than those investing less than $10 million (52%) to say their organization has seen significant AI-driven productivity gains over the past year.
Finally, when asked about the impact of AI investments on their financial outcomes, a majority of the senior leaders (56%) who have seen positive ROI from AI investments report it has lead to significant measurable improvements in overall financial performance.
As a result, that performance is leading to increased planned AI spend by companies. While 27% of respondents investing in AI currently commit a quarter or more of their IT budget to AI, that figure is set to roughly double to 52% in 2026; and the group spending half or more of their total IT budget on AI is expected to quintuple, jumping from just 3% in 2025 to a whopping 19% in 2026.
In short, those businesses investing the most in AI today, will likely be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in the future.
The companies out in front on AI investment are pulling farther ahead, Whitt Butler, EY Americas vice chair of consulting explained. The magnitude of investment matters: the organizations committing more funding to AI are seeing the strongest productivity gains, showing that AI is moving beyond pilots to become a true driver of enterprise value.
Across the internet, eagle-eyed sleuths are crying “AI slop” after Saturday Night Live aired segments with what looks like AI-generated imagery.
The first instance, from Saturday’s cold open, shows an illustrated Christmas storybook. The images feature a hazy, yellow-ish hue and an image of streets that don’t connect. The next, in “Weekend Update” showed an image of a woman playing a slot machine in an otherwise empty casino while using an oxygen tank with tubes that weren’t connected.
[Image: NBC Universal]
While the images were on screen for a fraction of the episode, they have led to some very vocal backlash by fans, who are convinced they are AI-generated.On Reddit, viewers called them “gross” and “a shame” while a Bluesky user said simply, “Booooooo.” “That Week In SNL,” a podcast, was having none of it.
[Image: NBC Universal]
AI fatigue is real, and the accusations against Saturday’s episode landed amid a wider conversation about AI-generated media. McDonalds Netherlands pulled an AI-generated ad from its YouTube page last week following widespread negative comments. Meanwhile, the studio behind Coca-Cola’s widely criticized new AI-generated holiday ad admitted it wasn’t 100% ready. Merriam-Webster on Sunday named “slop” its 2025 word of the year.
Slop in an ad is one thing. But slop on a show like SNL strikes a nerve considering how well known the long-running show is for its intricate human-made sets and costuming. This is a show made by hand, and the janky Photoshop jobs during Weekend Update are part of the joke.
SNL has joked about AI in sketches this year, including one in January starring Timothée Chalamet and Bowen Yang that poked fun at AI’s proclivity for producing images of people with extra fingers. And in a sketch last month, Glen Powell played a grandpa pictured in old photos brought to life in an AI app gone wrong.
NBC, which airs SNL, has not confirmed that the images are AI-generated, and the network did not respond to a request for comment.
SNL‘s visual effects workers unionized in July, and their contract included AI protections that VFX artist Richard Lampasone said at the time was “a worker-centric AI policy that will help us keep doing our best work as our craft evolves.”
The holidays are the perfect time to show people that you appreciate their time, their effort, and the value they bring. But when it comes to giving gifts at work, most people are confused about what to do.
Should you, or shouldn’t you, buy your boss a present? What about your coworkers or direct reports? How much should you spend for the office gift exchange? What about your office bestie?
We asked the experts to weigh in, and here’s what they had to say.
Is it acceptable to give holiday gifts at work?
“To gift someone in the workplace is always acceptable, Alyse Dermer, founder of Mr. Considerate, a luxury gift concierge service, tells Fast Company. “Gifting can reinforce positive working relationships, strengthen team connection, and create moments that feel personal in a world that often feels transactional.”
“People work hard,” Dermer adds. “You spend a lot of time with your coworkers, and they want to be seen. Its different from a company bonus. It doesnt need to be expensive, it just needs to be thoughtful. And thoughtfulness really lands.”
Dermer says a good gift shows you appreciate people’s work and pay attention to their interests: “You work with these people everyday, you depend on them, they depend on you”and a gift should reflect that.
Ask yourself: “Where are they in their life?” For example, is someone getting married? How about matching mugs or luggage tags? Or, does your coworker want to learn how to cook? You could get them a cookbook.
Should I get my boss a gift?
“If you feel compelled to gift your boss, it should be something modest,” national etiquette expert Diane Gottsman tells Fast Company. “Something they can use, such as an inexpensive office gadget, baked goods, or a box of fruit. Not wine, cologne, or a tie.”
Choose a minimal price point to show you aren’t sucking up to the boss, or trying to get special treatment from a supervisor or a colleague.
What about colleagues?
“Many offices have a Secret Santa or White Elephant exchange. Always stay within the price range,” Gottsman advises.
But what if you want to gift your office bestie or “work wife” something special?
“Anything else should be given out of the office, if you are only going to gift a few people and not others,” she says. “It avoids hurt feelings.”
What are some expert-approved gifts?
Gottsman recommends a thermal tote bag, a multi-prong cell phone charger, a beautiful bottle of olive oil, or a warm scarf.
“One thing I have been gifting is games,” Dermer says. “Chess, checkers, Rummikub, or a Majong set. Games are fun and they bring you together.”
Some of Dermer’s favorite gifts include:
Flamingo Estate olive oil and vinegar set
Leatherology tech organizer
Aura digital frame
Rummikub set
Backgammon set
Coffee table book
Blunt umbrella
Airbnb may finally pay the price of long-simmering tensions about overtourism in Spain.
The Spanish government announced on Monday that it has fined the online rentals giant 64 million euros ($75 million) for advertising unlicensed rental listings in the country. This decision is the latest in several months of back-and-forths, as the government previously ordered Airbnb to remove more than 120,000 listings it identified as unlicensed.
While Spains Consumer Affairs Ministry said the fine was a final decision and couldnt be appealed, San Francisco-based Airbnb is reportedly planning to challenge it in court. The company didnt immediately respond to a request for comment from Fast Company.
ADDRESSING HOUSING CRISIS
A record 94 million foreigners visited Spain last year, a 10% increase from 2023, making it one of the most-visited countries in the world by tourists. But the proliferation of private tourist accommodations has contributed to a housing crisis and there have been several, large anti-tourism protests in the country in recent years.
Tasked with addressing the housing crisis is Pablo Bustinduy, the consumer affairs minister.
“There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing situation, while a few enrich themselves with business models that force people out of their homes,” Bustinduy said in a statement. No company in Spain, however large or powerful, can be above the law.”
AIRBNB RESPONDS
Airbnb issued a statement to several news organizations indicating that it has been working with the Spanish government since short-term rental rules changed in July to enforce a new registration system. On its website, Airbnb also has a lengthy explanation about responsible hosting in Spain.
“Airbnb is confident that the ministry actions are contrary to applicable regulations in Spain and we intend to challenge this fine in court,” a company spokesperson said in a statement published by Reuters.
Rental listings in Spain are still available for booking on Airbnbs website. While other companies similarly facilitate private rental agreements, this particular platforms popularity has made it a target of anti-tourism sentiment in Spain and beyond.
In the southern beach town of Tarifa, for example, Airbnb indicates there are more than 800 listings available for a one-week, off-season rental in January. Whats more, there are also dozens of hotels in the area. The town has a population of less than 20,000 people.
For the three months ended in Sept. 30, Airbnb reported quarterly revenue of nearly $2 billion for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, its second-largest market behind North America. That marked a 14% gain from the same period a year ago, more than the companys revenue growth of 10% across all regions.
For a company with a market cap of more than $79 billion, investors dont seem too concerned about the prospect of a $75 million fine. Airbnb shares rose more than 2% in mid-day trading Monday, even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell about 0.5%.
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After announcing another 25-basis-point cut to the Federal Reserves short-term rate, Fed Chair Jerome Powellwhose term ends on May 15, 2026was asked about the U.S. housing market.
Powell acknowledged that recent rate cuts wont restore affordability to the U.S. housing market. He suggested that the country needs to build more housing unitsand noted that central bankers don’t really have the tools to address it.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters on December 10, 2025:
So the housing market faces some really significant challenges, and I don’t know that, you know, a 25 basis point decline in the federal funds rate is going to make much of a difference for people.
You know, housing supply is low. Many people have very, very low, low, low rate mortgages from the pandemic period, and they kept refinancing and caught the really low. So it’s expensive to them to move. And you know, we’re a ways away from that changing.
Also, we’re just, we haven’t built enough housing in the country for a long time, and so a lot of estimates suggest that we just need more housing of different kinds. So housing is going to be, you know, a problem, and you know, really the tools to address it are we can, we can raise and lower interest rates, but we don’t really have the tools to address, you know, a secular housing shortage, a structural housing shortage.
While Powell appears to suggest that a structural housing shortage is the underlying issue in the U.S. housing market, he acknowledged back in October that the Fed may have kept purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for too long during the Pandemic Housing Boomthough he added that its challenging to determine if and by how much it actually helped overheat the housing market during that period.
Over the past year-plus, as the U.S. labor market has softenedwith the last published U.S. unemployment rate (4.4%) a solid clip above the cycle low in April 2023 (3.4%)and as the Federal Reserve has sought to move from restrictive toward neutral policy by making several cuts to short-term rates, weve also seen long-term yields and mortgage rates come down from their cycle highs.
While Powell may be right that Fed policy changes right now alone are unlikely to return the U.S. housing market to average levels of affordabilitywere currently in the upper bandits worth noting that the recent mild decline in long-term interest rates, which the Fed does not directly set but which are influenced by financial markets expectations for the economy and future Fed policy, has been one of the levers that has helped nationally aggregated housing affordability improve a little this year.
Indeed, last week the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, as tracked by Freddie Mac, was 6.22%well below the cycle high of 7.79% reached in October 2023.
“The bottom line is it appears 30-year mortgage rates will be in current range for some time barring a recession or a crisis,” wrote housing analyst Bill McBride earlier this week.
Mortgage rates could still drift modestly lower next year, particularly if the spread between the 10-year Treasury yield and the 30-year fixed mortgage rate continues to compress. But the easiest mortgage-rate declines may already be behind us.
To see a truly material downward shift in mortgage rates next year, many analysts believe it would take a more significant weakening in the labor market.
Hypothetically speaking, if the unemployment rate were to spike and the economy weakened, financial markets could respond with a flight to safetydriving up demand for Treasuries, which would push bond prices higher and yields (including mortgage rates) lower. At the same time, the Fed could respond with emergency cuts to the federal funds rate and, if the downturn were severe enough, potentially resume purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), adding further downward pressure on mortgage rates.
There are boy aquariums all over the United States,” a TikTok creator explains in a recent post.
The video then shows a clip of someone carrying a bucket filled with hockey pucks. Come feed the fish at the boy aquarium with me, the closed captions read. The person tosses the pucks onto the rink as players skate past.
On TikTok, ice hockey arenas have been rebranded as boy aquariums.” Videos show women tapping against the battered Plexiglas, filming the players warming up and encouraging others to go on a girls night to the rink.
The players themselves are in on the joke. Earlier this year, the official TikTok of the Canadian junior ice hockey team Moncton Wildcats posted: So were calling this the boy aquarium now? as the players skate around the enclosed rink. Another video, posted last week, shows the University of Cincinnati mens ice hockey team on a field trip to an actual aquarium.
Fans are encouraging others to go and watch the sport. You look happier, the on-screen text reads on one clip, Thanks, I went to the boy aquarium with my besties.
The National Hockey Leagues fan base overall is young, diverse, and online. Over half, 54%, are under the age of 44, according to Sport Radar, the second-youngest among the four major U.S. leagues. And the new legion of overwhelmingly female fans filling stadiums can be traced, in part, back to the popularity of BookToks favorite ice-hockey romance genre.
The uninitiated may be surprised to learn there are thousands of novels in this niche subcategory, the most popular being Hannah Graces romance bestseller Icebreaker, which went viral in 2022 with the story of a competitive figure skater and hockey team captain forced to share a rink (cue romantic entanglement).
Capitalizing on the hype, social-media teams regularly publish videos of players reading spicy chapters of Icebreaker or Pucking Around, another hockey romance bestseller by Emily Rath.
“Heated Rivalry”, currently airing on HBO Max, has only added to the hockey fever, spawning thousands of reaction videos on TikTok and Instagram. With its steamy gay hockey romance storyline, based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novels, the Canadian import has topped the streaming charts following the release of episode 4.
While tongue-in-cheek, the boy aquarium trend also risks playing into harmful stereotypes of female sports fans. The puck bunny insult has long been levelled at young female hockey fans, just as groupie has historically been used to belittle female music fans.
Ice Hockey UK and The Elite League recently condemned a Financial Times article about British romance readers discovering ice hockey. The tone of the article is not just absurd and inaccurate in relation to ice hockey, but also to women who watch sport in general, Ice Hockey UK CEO Henry Staelens said in a statement. Something that shouldnt even be a talking point in todays society.
Female sports fans have long fought to be taken seriously, and social media trends – while harmless on the surface – risk erasing their passion and knowledge of the sport, replaced instead by a backdrop for a fictional trope.
Whether lifelong fans, or recent BookTok converts, ice hockey as an industry is heating up. The NHL league’s 32 clubs average valuation climbed 15% year-over-year to $2.2 billion, Forbes recently reported, more than double where they were just three years ago.
While some may come for the fictional hockey players, they stay for the sport.
