A New Shoe for Silicon Valley
By: Emily Menken

Michael Jordan had Air Jordans. Kyle the Venture Capitalist has Cole Haan.

In a truly unexpected move, Slack has announced their first branded apparel partnership with footwear brand Cole Haan. Per a video announcement, the two icons have come together to create “functional, fashionable footwear for the modern age”.

The limited edition footwear is decidedly kindercore in style with 4 colorways -- Slack colors, of course. The piece-de-resistance of the shoe design is the Slack logo, located at the heel cap. According to interior design website the Spruce, kindercore aesthetic is a hold-nothing-back, “decidedly happy-go-lucky movement which centers around primary colors and almost childlike pieces”. 

Collaborations between brands aren’t net-new: we’re reminded of the famous Kanye x GAP or Kanye x Adidas or Kanye x Balmain partnerships. With that said, time will tell on how the Slack shoes perform in the marketplace. (Editor’s note: we haven’t worn shoes since March, so we might not be the target demographic.)

Unfortunately, the 2020 x Satan collab still reigns supreme as the most impactful collab of the year.

Gay Twitter Trumps the Proud Boys
By: Ben Thomas

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”

These were the words that echoed across social media and news coverage of last week’s bin fire presidential debate, in which President Trump failed to denounce the far right extremist group. It was a shocking moment amidst the cacophony of noise that came from Trump during the debate that immediately trended on Twitter.

Days later, #ProudBoys was trending again albeit for a much different reason. As a counterpoint to the hateful and discriminatory views of the Proud Boys, the LGBTQ+ community flooded the #ProudBoys hashtag with images and messages of love, pride and acceptance. Photos of men kissing men, women kissing women, rainbow flags flying and people celebrating their authentic selves were shared, liked and retweeted as a way to change the conversation from one of hate to love. A longstanding ban from Twitter meant that Proud Boys couldn’t respond, but they took to the conservative social media platform, Parler, to vent their frustration with the hashtag hijack. 

The whole thing is incredibly symbolic of an administration led by Donald Trump who has failed to denounce white supremacist groups on more than one occasion. And while taking over a hashtag is a small act compared to voting, it sends a clear message that hate should never be tolerated, whether it’s from the Proud Boys or the President.

The Clock is Tik(Tok)ing on Shoppable Videos
By: Natalie Chaney 

If you’ve ever watched a TikTok and seen something that made you think to yourself “wow, I absolutely need that and I’m not sure how I’ve lived life so far without it”, you’re not alone. 

Though we are strong stans of TikTok in this house, one area where the platform is lacking in is it’s shop-ability.  Though TikTok has confirmed they are testing shoppable videos, as of right now there is no way for users to easily click out and explore a product featured in a video. And now, *Reels has entered the chat*. 

Instagram launched their TikTok competitor, Reels, back in August and we’ve had high hopes for the implementation of Shopping given the platform’s focus on e-commerce. Sure enough, this week Instagram announced they would be expanding the Instagram Shopping IGTV experience globally, and will begin testing on REELs as well. 

According to Sprout Social, 79% of people search for more information after seeing a product or service on Instagram, and 46% end up making a purchase on or offline.   In the prominently digital world in which we’re currently living, making it easier to shop from videos is more important than ever for both creators and brands alike. 

We look forward to seeing how Instagram will implement this, and whether or not this will speed up TikTok’s future e-commerce plans. In short, this is one arms race we’re particularly excited for.