 |
|
|
|||||
In the former textile hub of Roubaix, northern France, a new school just opened. VEJA, the French sneaker brand known for its transparent supply chains, has opened L'École de la Réparation. This vocational academy pays twenty students a minimum wage for ten months of intensive training in design, cobblery and textile repair in-demand skills in a country that reimburses consumers for getting items fixed instead of buying new ones.The project stems from a decade-long partnership between VEJA co-founder Sébastien Kopp and Stéphanie Calvino, founder of the Anti_Fashion Project collective. Since 2015, the pair have been placing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into roles at VEJA's shops and workshops. Their latest venture takes that commitment further: students are paid a salary while taking 1,400 hours of coursework across thirty-five-hour weeks. Thirty fashion brands have already signed on as partners and sponsors.TREND BITETraditional CSR often treats social problems as external issues requiring charitable intervention. L'École de la Réparation demonstrates how brands can instead build systems that create value for all stakeholders. By paying students while training them in increasingly valuable repair skills, Veja has developed a model that simultaneously addresses youth unemployment, environmental waste and skills shortages.As consumers increasingly scrutinize corporate purpose claims, initiatives that redistribute resources and create lasting infrastructure are likely to resonate more deeply than surface-level campaigns or token donations. And that goes double for Gen Z, speaking to their intersectional view of sustainability: environment + social equity + personal empowerment.Viewed through a wider lens, repair is a cultural metaphor. We live in a time of fractured politics, social inequality and climate anxiety. A brand championing the art of repair taps into a deep emotional desire: if we can fix shoes, maybe we can fix bigger systems, too.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Sperm counts have dropped 59% since 1973, testosterone levels are declining, and men now father their first child four years later than they did in 1980. Yet despite men accounting for half of all infertility cases, the fertility industry has largely overlooked them. SwimClub is betting that a science-first approach can change that. The supplement brand launched in September 2025 with what it claims is the first sperm performance formula combining evidence-based ingredients at clinically effective doses. Developed with Dr. Michael Eisenberg, Director of Male Reproductive Medicine at Stanford, the daily regimen targets all four key sperm parameters: count, motility, morphology and DNA integrity.The brand emerged from personal experience rather than market research. Co-founder Osman Khan watched his wife juggle over 20 different pills daily during their fertility journey, while CEO Steve Zanette searched for male-focused solutions after multiple miscarriages. Their answer is the Spermatogen Complex, which packs 12 studied ingredients (including omega-3 fatty acids, coenzyme Q10 and L-carnitine) into a single daily dose. SwimClub is the first launch from Squared Circles, a consumer health venture studio backed by L Catterton.TREND BITEInfertility has long been framed as a "women's issue," even though men are a factor in about half of all cases. As declining sperm counts move from research journals to mainstream conversation, that imbalance no longer holds. Companies that meet men where they are with clear, science-backed solutions that acknowledge their role without shame or silence stand to capture a market that's been hiding in plain sight.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Positioning itself as both a roadmap and a rallying cry, the Climate Tech Atlas is a free, authoritative guide to where the most significant decarbonization breakthroughs are likely to emerge. Launched this month by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, McKinsey & Company and other partners, the platform identifies more than 60 "Innovation Imperatives" and 39 "Moonshots" across six sectors, from buildings and manufacturing to food systems and carbon removal.The platform's timing is deliberate. Historical precedent suggests breakthroughs often flourish during periods of uncertainty startups founded during the 2008 financial crisis showed better long-term survival rates than those launched in calmer waters. By directing attention toward solutions that move the needle at scale, the atlas aims to help students, innovators, investors, policymakers and philanthropists cut through the noise and focus on what actually matters.TREND BITEThe Climate Tech Atlas reframes climate innovation from existential burden to trillion-dollar growth frontier. It's a shift that gives businesses permission to tell a bolder story: "We're not tinkering on the margins; we're building the future infrastructure of human prosperity."
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Mars Petcare's Temptations brand is teaming up with People magazine to introduce a Sexiest Cat Dad category in the annual Sexiest Man Alive Readers' Choice Poll. The initiative follows research showing that 63% of Americans think cat-owning men face unfair stereotypes, while two-thirds of Gen Z believe Cat Dads make better partners.The campaign builds on Temptations' earlier collaboration with cultural figure Kordell Beckham. Readers can vote for their favorite Cat Dad in People's poll, with results revealed in the October 31st print issue and additional coverage in the November 7th Sexiest Man Alive edition.TREND BITEMasculinity markers have been shifting for years, with Millennials and Gen Z increasingly valuing emotional intelligence, nurturing behavior and vulnerability over stoic independence. Men who care for cats animals historically associated with femininity represent this cultural pivot toward softer masculinity.As younger generations push for broader definitions of what it means to be masculine, brands across categories have an opportunity to reframe traditionally "feminine" associations as universally appealing traits. What outdated stereotypes does your brand inadvertently reinforce, and how could challenging them unlock new market segments?
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Refurbished electronics marketplace Back Market has turned Microsoft's planned obsolescence timeline into a provocative marketing moment with The Obsolete Computer. The initiative spotlights a stark reality: when Microsoft ends Windows 10 support in October 2024, nearly 400 million functional laptops will effectively become electronic waste overnight not because they've stopped working, but because they won't receive security updates.Rather than simply critique the system, Back Market is offering these soon-to-be-discarded devices a second life. The company professionally refurbishes Windows 10 laptops and installs alternative operating systems like ChromeOS Flex or Linux Ubuntu, then gives them away through a contest running until 20 October 2025. It's part stunt, part education campaign and part genuine attempt to redirect perfectly good hardware away from landfills.TREND BITEBack Market is taking sustainability messaging beyond abstract environmental promises toward concrete action that consumers can see and understand. By positioning planned obsolescence as "Big Tech's dirty trick," the company frames refurbishment not as a budget compromise but as an act of defiance against wasteful corporate practices and invites consumers to see themselves as part of a bigger movement.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Sites : [1] [2]