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Remember that scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda Priestly silences Andy Sachs with a perfectly delivered monologue about a cerulean blue sweater? Andy had dismissed it as trivialjust another fashion detail. But Miranda’s lesson wasn’t about the sweater. It was about power: When you think you’re outside the system, you’re actually reinforcing it. You can’t opt out of the fashion system. You can only choose whether you’re aware of it. In an era obsessed with authenticity, what we wear is the first language we speak. Yet most leaders remain unconscious of this language’s strategic power. They treat their closets like personal decisions rather than professional assets. They should reconsider. The Hidden Cost of Misalignment Leaders are increasingly discovering what fashion psychologists have long known: Appearance isn’t superficial. It’s foundational. What you choose to wear tells peoplein millisecondsabout your authority, perspective, and influence. It encodes identity, status, belonging, and intent. For leaders managing organizational stress, navigating role transitions, or recovering from burnout, this matters far more than aesthetics. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking_0b545c.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cem\u003EWonderRigor Newsletter\u003C\/em\u003E","dek":"","subhed":"Want more insights, tools, and invitations from Dr. Natalie Nixon about applying creativity for meaningful business results and the future of work? Subscribe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__figure-2D8-2Dthinking-2Dllc.kit.com_sign-2Dup\u0026amp;d=DwMFaQ\u0026amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM\u0026amp;r=xHenyQfyc6YcuCNMBsOvfYGQILM1d1ruredVZikn4HE\u0026amp;m=F383gnrChFhYKPhcpNHI1hY3o58IHIn_LkB5QJDrs3G5Wfft-DcucUO4UEmGO7GZ\u0026amp;s=JlJm7GyKCJvPW0jyrsfTFtinteKDitN13vfPZiuJnP8\u0026amp;e=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for the free WonderRigor newsletter at Figure8Thinking.com","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"http:\/\/Figure8Thinking.com","theme":{"bg":"#3b3f46","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#6e8ba6","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470060,"imageMobileId":91470061,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Jennifer Heinen, a fashion psychologist who works with organizational leaders, puts it plainly: Clothing functions as a semiotic system. Your wardrobe sends signals whether you intend to or not. As Heinen likes to remind us, Clothing is not the solution to everythingbut it is the first layer of contact. The question isn’t whether you’re communicating through fashion. It’s whether you’re doing it consciously or by default. The problem emerges when there’s friction between your internal reality and external presentation. When someone emerges from burnout but is still wearing the costume of their old role, for instance, they create internal discord. The nervous system feels the mismatch. They perform coherence while experiencing fragmentation. This triggers constant self-monitoringthe exact nervous system stress that deepens burnout. The 3 R’s: A Framework for Intentional Alignment Heinen has developed a recognition-regulation-repair framework that gives leaders a practical road map. It’s designed not as a makeover strategy, but as a nervous system intervention. Recognition addresses identity. It’s about feeling seen and contextually understood rather than misread or self-edited. When a leader transitions into a new role, the first step is recognizing what’s no longer accurate about how they’re being perceived. Often, they’re still dressed for the identity that once kept them safe. Regulation focuses on the nervous system itself. This is where fashion psychology becomes a strategic tool. By intentionally shifting clothing choicesremoving restrictive or sensory-overloading pieces, choosing fabrics and fits that support rather than stress the bodyleaders can influence their own emotional stability and cognitive clarity. When a leader feels supported by what they’re wearing, decision-making under pressure improves. Fatigue decreases. Emotional resilience strengthens. Repair addresses transition. It involves intentionally marking the end of one phase and the beginning of anothernot just cognitively, but physically and emotionally. This prevents the kind of liminal anxiety in which people aren’t quite ready to let go of old identities. By curating a new look that reflects who they’re becoming, leaders give their nervous system permission to integrate change rather than resist it. Moving From Performance to Presence Here’s the tension most leaders live in: They invest heavily in mental health and physical fitness, yet they largely ignore emotional recovery. During times of economic uncertaintywhen leaders manage layoffs, absorb team stress, and navigate complex organizational changethe emotional toll is significant. Yet corporate wellness conversations rarely address it. Fashion psychology fills that gap. Clothing choices become a strategic intervention for emotional resilienceone of the most accessible tools available. When appearance and identity align, you eliminate the energy drain of code-switching. You move from constant self-monitoring to coherent presence. You show up as yourself rather than performing a version of yourself. This is what I call “inside-out leadership.” It’s an authentic way of guiding teams in which leaders tap into personal experience and intuition, and encourage their teams to do the same. It requires vulnerabilitya willingness to signal, through how you show up, that you’re genuinely aligned with what you’re doing. Your wardrobe either supports this or undermines it. The Real Power: Magnetism Over Beauty Tina Turner distinguished between beauty and magnetism in a way that reframes this entire conversation. In the mid-1980s, she spoke openly about self-confidenceowning her attractiveness and presenceas her source of power in an industry shaped by sexism and racism. Attractiveness, she understood, isn’t about conventional beauty standards. It’s about magnetism: the pull that comes from excellence and authentic confidence in your craft. Fashion psychology operates the same way. It doesn’t create something false. It amplifies what’s already true about a leader’s capability. The real power isn’t in looking good. It’s in looking aligned with what you actually do well. Your wardrobe strategy becomes a competitive advantage rooted in authentic capability, not superficial polish. 3 Actionable Steps for Leaders If you’re ready to treat your closet like a strategic asset rather than a personal preference, start here. 1. Audit for alignment. Spend a week noticing which pieces make you feel most capable, clear-headed, and present. Which ones trigger self-monitoring or discomfort? Which ones feel congruent with who you’re becoming (not who you were)? Document patterns. Your nervous system already knows what’s working. 2. Identify your identity markers. Work with a stylist or simply journal through three words that represent the essence of how you want to show up as a leaderconfident, accessible, bold, precise, or whatever resonates. Then test every wardrobe decision against these markers. If a piece doesn’t align with all three, it doesn’t belong. 3. Mark your transitions intentionally. If you’re moving into a new role or emerging from a difficult period, resist the urge to stay in old uniforms. Curate one or two anchor pieces that signal the new phase. Make it physical. Make it visible. Let your nervous system know you’re really moving forward. The wardrobe you choose is a form of leadership communication. Make sure you’re saying what you mean. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2026\/01\/i-16x9-figure-thinking_0b545c.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cem\u003EWonderRigor Newsletter\u003C\/em\u003E","dek":"","subhed":"Want more insights, tools, and invitations from Dr. Natalie Nixon about applying creativity for meaningful business results and the future of work? Subscribe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__figure-2D8-2Dthinking-2Dllc.kit.com_sign-2Dup\u0026amp;d=DwMFaQ\u0026amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM\u0026amp;r=xHenyQfyc6YcuCNMBsOvfYGQILM1d1ruredVZikn4HE\u0026amp;m=F383gnrChFhYKPhcpNHI1hY3o58IHIn_LkB5QJDrs3G5Wfft-DcucUO4UEmGO7GZ\u0026amp;s=JlJm7GyKCJvPW0jyrsfTFtinteKDitN13vfPZiuJnP8\u0026amp;e=\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for the free WonderRigor newsletter at Figure8Thinking.com","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"http:\/\/Figure8Thinking.com","theme":{"bg":"#3b3f46","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#6e8ba6","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91470060,"imageMobileId":91470061,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
Category:
E-Commerce
Americans are likely to have spent a record $1 trillion-plus this holiday shopping season alone, and about $5.5 trillion in retail sales in all of 2025, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation. That includes many unhappy returns for retailers: And when it comes back to them, a lot of the $850 billion in returned merchandise is often cheaper to discard than to inspect, sort, and reselladding millions of tons to landfills every year. “This is a massive ecological problem, as well as a financial problem for these companies,” says Ryan Ryker, CEO of rScan. Based in South Bend, Indiana, the startup has developed software and logistics services to help transfer these products from the beleaguered original sellers to resellers more eager to do the work of making money on a returned product. “Theres a lot of people who are looking to make side cash,” says cofounder and chief logistics officer Julian Marquez about their small-business clients. But it’s not easy. Instead of getting, say, a shipping pallet of all the same product, such as a power tool, resellers have to sort through a mishmash that can contain dozens of different itemsincluding many one-offs. rScan’s offering for them sounds simple: a barcode-scanning app. But behind that is an entire data infrastructure to help resellers understand what they’ve got and how to sell it. Scanning the UPC barcode on a box pulls up the item’s product name and brand, images, detailed descriptions, and manuals. Resellers can first ascertain the product’s condition and whether everything that should be in the box is. If they decide it’s worth selling, rScan can pull from its database the dozens of product attributes required by online marketplaces and format complete product listings tailored to venues such as Amazon, eBay, or Shopify. The company regularly scrapes these sites to survey what products are selling for and estimate a price for the reseller’s listing. rScan charges 30 cents per month per unique item that is scanned and in their catalogue for as long as its listed for sale online. (So selling 10 of the same product would cost 30 cents per month, total.) The company also takes a percentage of monthly sales, from 1% to 3.9% on a sliding scale that ramps up as vendors sell more. Clients range from newbies working out of a garage to what Ryker calls, “sellers that are doing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Retailers from High School For Ryker, rScan was tailored to the challenges he’d personally encountered. “Resale is something I previously dabbled in prior to the pandemic. From there, there was a lot of returns going on with COVID, the rise in e-commerce sales, things of that nature,” he says. But his retail experience goes back to high school in the 2010s when he and Marquez established their own apparel brand, called Culture Clothing, which ran for a couple years and grossed about $45,000 in its best year. They mostly sold at concerts and show venues, but also called on another classmate, Rod Baradaran, to set up an ecommerce site. In 2021, the three reunited to cofound rScan. Baradaran reprised his tech role, coding the app and the online services, developing the price-setting algorithm, and serving as COO. (A fourth cofounder, Michael Altenburger, joined a few months later.) The companywhich was bootstrapped by the foundersnow has 36 employees. Taking on a Clunky System It’s not that returned goods would all go into the trash without rScan. “The real advantage of being able to get this online faster and on ecommerce [platforms] is that you have a much wider market where these products can be distributed and actually used, says Baradaran. The three seem especially proud of helping side-hustlers make ends meet. Marquez also works in the RV manufacturing industry around South Bendwhich has taken a hit in recent years, with hundreds of layoffs in 2025 alone. He helped one of his coworkers get into online resale as a safety net when his earnings dropped. “If he didn’t have rScan at the time, he would have had to either sell something or lose a part of the lifestyle that he was already used to living with,” says Marquez. He was able to take advantage of rScan’s physical as well as virtual services. The company runs a warehouse to receive returned goods from retailers, hold them for small clients who don’t have their own storage space, and help arrange shipping to buyers. It was also a chance to test and refine the software by running their own resale business. “We kind of dogfooded our own product when we first started,” says Baradaran. In May 2025, rScan upgraded to a 53,000-square-foot warehouse in South Bend. Living Up to Values While they have eschewed outside investors so far, rScan recognizes it may need to go that route to scale up. “We want to make sure that they share the same vision as us, and as long as that’s alignedabsolutely, says Baradaran. Helping not just sellers but the planet is a key part of that vision. By its own accounting, rScan says it has saved over 840,000 pounds of products from going into the trash. After rScan scales more, the founders plan to seek independent verification of their ecological impact in the process of becoming a Benefit Corporation. To be certified as a B Corp, a company has to pass an initial and ongoing evaluation by the nonprofit B Lab of its environmental impact, social responsibility, transparency, and accountability to all stakeholdersnot just investors. “Ultimately, our goal is to democratize entrepreneurship,” Baradaran says in an email. “In doing so, we drive sustainability by extending the lifecycle of consumer goods that would otherwise end up in landfills.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Every January, were bombarded with resolutions rooted in consumptionbuy this, try that, subscribe to something new. For Gen Z, this consumer-first vision of the New Year feels outdated and hollow. Instead, Gen Z is turning to peers for a community-driven soft start to the year ahead. Popularized on TikTok, January resets offer a modern alternative to the outdated idea of resolutions. This shift from consumer-driven goals to community-supported resets is especially visible in how Gen Z is approaching health and wellness in 2026. Its not surprising either. Earlier in 2025, millions of young people took to social media to publicly document their quit journeys using #QuitNic. The content didnt resemble traditional wellness influencer culture. It wasnt polished or aspirational. It was candid and raw, discussing withdrawal, setbacks, cravings, and the emotional work of quitting. The transparency resonated. Comment sections became support networks. More and more young people posted their own progress. Quitting nicotine became a shared, communal wellness actnot a private health struggle. GEN Z PLANS TO QUIT As we enter this new year, this momentum continues. Truth Initiative data shows that 67% of nicotine users ages 1824 plan to quit in 2026, with 60% planning to quit within the next year. Their primary reason: to improve mental and physical health. The trouble is that quitting has never been more urgent or more complex. Todays nicotine market has been deliberately engineered for dependence. Nicotine products are larger, cheaper, and more potent than ever before. Even as unit sales declined, the total amount of nicotine sold in e-cigarettes surged by 249% from February 2020 to June 2024. From disposable e-cigarettes to high-potency nicotine pouches, and smart vapes with screens, games, and Bluetooth connectivity, these products are flooding the market illegally. Its happening faster than oversight can keep up. Its no wonder that quitting often feels like trying to outmaneuver an industry designed to restrict freedom and undermine agency. The result? Millions of young people remain trapped in a cycle of nicotine addiction. New research shows that the share of daily middle and high school e-cigarette users who attempted to quit but were unable to rose from 28.2% to 53% between 2020 and 2024, and a Truth Initiative study of teens who vape indicated that 76.2% vaped within 30 minutes of waking up, pointing to signs of growing nicotine dependence. For young adults aged 18-24often dubbed the JUUL generationnicotine use remains stubbornly high, with many dual-using cigarettes or newer pouch products, like ZYN, VELO, or on!. THE NEED FOR EVIDENCE-BACKED TOOLS A wide body of evidence shows that young adults make more quit attempts than any other age group, yet they are the least likely to use evidence-based quit support. Why? Many arent aware of quitting resources available to them. Leaning into this Gen Z social movement, Truth Initiatives Quit Collective pulls together influencers who are acting on the #QuitNic trend. By supporting them with real resources, like EX Program from Truth Initiative, our organization is bringing light to the conversations about nicotine that have otherwise been stigmatized or ignored. While Gen Z is listening to social influencers online, we also know from focus groups and qualitative data that they are looking for evidence-based tools. Truth Initiatives approach is to pair advice from experts and experienced quitters in a free and confidential program. It guides users every step of the journey, from understanding triggers to coping with cravings. It meets young people where they already areon their phones, online, and on social platformsmaking support accessible in real time. Gen Z is absolutely walking into 2026 with goals and aspirations. By prioritizing genuine connections and well-being, theyre redefining what it means to set intentions for the year ahead. In the process, they are offering a lesson for organizations and brands alike: Authenticity beats aspiration, connection matters more than consumption, and wellness cant be built on systems that profit from dependence. Kathy Crosby is CEO and president of Truth Initiative.
Category:
E-Commerce
Investors are feeling less hot about the makers of cooling systems for data centers after the CEO of Nvidia Corp. stoked concerns that demand for their products could dry up. Shares of Modine Manufacturing Co. led declines in this sector, tumbling as much as 21% Tuesday before recovering some of those losses to close about 7.5% lower. Other makers of water-cooled systems and similar productsincluding Johnson Controls International PLC, Trane Technologies PLC, and Carrier Global Corp.also fell as much as 6.2% on Tuesday. To blame? The next generation of Nvidias computer chips, announced on Monday, which won’t require the same type of cooling systems. Thats because the new Rubin platform will feature extreme codesign that integrates chips, trays, racks, and more, Jensen Huang, the chipmakers CEO, said during a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Monday. 100% liquid-cooled system Describing the 100% liquid-cooled system thats now in production as a breakthrough, Huangs brief remarks in a hourlong-plus presentation managed to rattle investors, as chillers have previously been a crucial component in data centers. The comments create some questions/concerns about the longer-term positioning of chillers within data centers over time, particularly as liquid cooling becomes more prominent, Baird analyst Timothy Wojs wrote in a note to clients, as Bloomberg reported. Liquid cooling allows systems to operate at higher temperatures, Wojs added. More fallout from CES And makers of cooling systems werent the only victim of Huangs CES comments: Shares of Amphenol, which makes cables, sensors, and other connectors for data centers, fell as much as 6.6% on Tuesday before ending the day 1.1% higher amid worries that its products would no longer be needed, as Barrons reported. While Huangs comments caused turmoil in other parts of the stock market, Nvidia stock also fell even as the S&P 500 notched a new record high on Tuesday. The stock closed nearly 0.5% lower.
Category:
E-Commerce
Nvidias Jensen Huang is one of the tech industrys longest-serving chief executives, leading the chipmaker since cofounding it in 1993. Now hes the recipient of a long-standing technology award: the IEEE Medal of Honor, established by a predecessor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1917. Huang was named the recipient of the medal (and an accompanying $2 million prize) at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 6 in recognition of his lifetime of work in accelerating computingthe technique of using specialized chips like Nvidias graphics processing units to speed specialized operations such as rendering images for video games, crunching numbers for scientific research, or, critically for the industry today, powering artificial intelligence. Nvidia reached an unprecedented $5 trillion market valuation in October, with its chips providing much of the computing power behind todays AI. It just is so important to have this kind of compute power at our fingertips, to be able to make advances so quickly, says Mary Ellen Randall, president and CEO of IEEE. Nvidia released what it calls the first GPU, the GeForce 256, in 1999. At the time, the chip was principally recognized for advancing computer gaming, letting developers and artists add unprecedented levels of graphical detail without compromising speed. Under Huangs leadership, the company soon began work on CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture), a system that enables developers to harness the parallel processing capabilities of its chips for a variety of computational tasks. That proved to be critical for recent advances in AI; Nvidias chips and development platforms today power AI technologies such as ChatGPT and other large language models, as well as autonomous vehicles and industrial robots. Nvidias market capitalization has fallen since its October high amid questions about a possible AI bubble, including concern about Nvidias investments in AI firms that in turn purchase its chips. But the company maintains a valuation of more than $4 trillion as huge swaths of the economy seek to harness artificial intelligence software that its chips are optimized to run. We’re in unprecedented times where AI is accelerating everything, says Randall. Advances by Huang and his Nvidia colleagues build on the work of previous winners of the Medal of Honor, first awarded by the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1917 to Edwin Howard Armstrong, who was pivotal in developing radio-related technologies including FM broadcasting. Other early recipients included Lee de Forest, whose work with vacuum tubes paved the way for todays transistor-powered electronics; Claude Shannon, known for his groundbreaking work tying mathematics to electronic circuitry and digital computation; and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi. The Institute of Radio Engineers merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1963, forming IEEE, a nonprofit that in November announced its membership had grown to 500,000 across 190 countries. Today Medal of Honor recipients are selected by IEEEs board of directors based on consultation with a team that includes past IEEE presidents, previous award winners, and other esteemed members of the organization, Randall says. Several recent recipients of the IEEEs top award have been innovators in computer and internet technology, including Ethernet cocreator Robert Metcalfe, recognized in 1996, and Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, instrumental in developing the internets core TCP/IP data routing protocol, recognized in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Other Medal of Honor winners from the chipmaking industry include former Intel CEO Andrew Grove, recognized in 2000; Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, awarded in 2008; Morris Chang, founder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), recognized in 2011; and Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli, last years award recipient. Randall says Huangs work builds upon the innovations of previous Medal of Honor recipients while helping to pave the way for tomorrows technologies. All those types of things are fundamental to how we got to today, she says. And this is certainly a very important step in the transition of technology for the future.
Category:
E-Commerce