What Happens in Vegas… Gets Published

Full Glam, Full Throttle. 

Ahead of the 2026 season, Sephora has been named an Official Partner and Official Beauty Retail Partner of F1 Academy. Through the partnership, Sephora will sponsor a new end-of-year drivers’ celebration and formally support driver Natalia Granada, who is in her rookie season in the F1 Academy. She will compete in the ‘SEPHORA operated by PREMA’ car, inspired by the brand’s black-and-white stripes and bold red accents. Sephora’s brand will permeate the entire racing experience, bringing immersive fan activations to select races and setting up glam bars in 18 F1 Paddock Club luxury suites. 

Formula One is the new “it” event for brands. While Sephora aims to communicate its commitment to elevating and supporting female talent, there’s a clear commercial play at work. In 2025, F1’s annual revenue rose 14% YOY and saw a record-breaking season in global fan engagement. When you look at the numbers and the revenue potential, it’s obvious why brands as large and established as Disney are launching unique campaigns and collections for the season. 

Our Take: Sephora wasn’t the first, nor will it be the last beauty brand that embraces the evolving sports market to reach passionate fans. E.l.f. Beauty is expanding its partnership with the National Women’s Soccer League and sponsoring a series of athletes, including its latest addition, Ally Sentnor. Our article on why beauty brands are scoring with women’s sports has never been more relevant. 

Labor Talks. 

It’s been an eventful week for labor unions, for worse and (possibly) better. Earlier this week, REI walked away from months of negotiations with the REI Union and implemented sweeping cuts to wages and benefits packages, including retirement and healthcare. The Co-op declared an impasse and plans to apply these changes as of July 1. The Union argues that such a move is illegal. 

Starbucks will kickstart negotiations with its union, Workers United, after the union presented a formal agreement to the coffee giant. Key facets of the proposal include annual 4% raises, a starting wage floor of $17 per hour, a union-approved dress code, and a requirement that at least 3 workers be on the floor at all times. 

‍Denim Delusion. 

Consumers are returning to the office and going out more, which means they’re exchanging their soft pants for trendier ‘fits. The sports apparel market is expected to grow 2.3%, down from 3.1% between 2023 and 2024, according to Euromonitor International. Conversely, denim is projected to grow 2.1% this year, up from 0.7% growth in the prior period. Fabletics has taken notes and launched its own denim collection, including skirts, jackets, and pants.

As Fabletics Co-Founder and CEO Adam Goldenberg noted to CNBC, Fabletics is no stranger to category expansion. It has ventured into dresses, skirts, and outerwear, breaking beyond basic workout gear and into lifestyle apparel. Operating with an “and” mindset has helped the brand maintain market share in an increasingly competitive market.

Quiet Luxury Gets a Loud Valuation.

‍After exceeding $1B in revenue in 2025, Quince has closed a $500M Series E funding round led by investment firm Iconiq. The brand is now valued at $10.1B.

Famous for luxurious dupes, Quince has managed to fend off trademark infringement accusations and achieve triple-digit annual growth since its founding in 2018. (It launched out of beta in 2020.) Needless to say, the copycat claims didn’t stop customers from grabbing the brand’s vast assortment of cashmere sweaters, linen pants, and leather handbags. Hopefully they’ve stayed away from the caviar, though.

Popcorn Buckets for Spring? Groundbreaking. 

We’re still more than a month out from the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2, but it’s already going viral. Fans are losing it on social media over the film’s red commemorative popcorn bucket shaped like a luxury handbag, complete with a cluster of bag charms. AMC initially promoted the snack souvenir, but it will launch in other major theater chains, including Cinemark and Regal. Fandango is even offering a special “Runway Ready Bundle” for $50, which includes one movie ticket, a popcorn bucket, and a promotional edition of Runway magazine. 

Our Take: Limited-edition popcorn buckets have long been a go-to for amusement parks. Disney rolls out new variants for every holiday and special event, and in 2022, fans waited six hours to get their hands on one. Movie theaters started hopping on the bandwagon around 2019, with the R2-D2 bucket coinciding with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Since then, every major blockbuster, from Wicked to Scream, have joined the fray. If commerce is culture, then popcorn buckets are the artifacts we never expected to want or need so badly. 

The Court of Calories. 

Has David Protein made you fat? You may get some money out of it. A new class action lawsuit claims the company has intentionally misled consumers about the calorie and fat content of its popular bars. The complaint includes test results from an “accredited laboratory” that found each serving (bar) contained between 268 and 275 calories, 100 more than what’s promoted, and between 11 and 13.5 grams of fat per serving, a staggering increase from the 2 grams promoted. 

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, restitution, and injunctive relief. Vanity Fair questioned David Protein founder Peter Rahal about the suit, and he noted that the claim “fails to understand how the FDA measures the calories for EPG, one of our key ingredients.” Rahal also did an AMA with Emily Sundberg's Feed Me Substack as the company issued an official statement on Instagram to put customers at ease, but that certainly hasn’t stopped the media machine from humming.

A Media Dethronement. 

The week’s most unexpected news? YouTube has become the world’s largest media company, outpacing Disney for the first time. Financial research firm MoffettNathanson concluded that YouTube’s estimated $62B in revenue during 2025 allowed it to surpass The Walt Disney Co.’s media business, which raked in $60.9B last year. In total, the entire YouTube business has a valuation of between $500B and $560B. The closest competitor is Netflix, with a $409B market cap. 

What’s driving YouTube’s growth? Creators. Alphabet has shelled out $100B to creators over the past four years, and YouTube shares more than half of its ad revenue with them, creating a highly valuable cycle of media creation, advertising, and amplification.  

🔎 Dig deeper into the creator ecosystem. Our coverage of the SoCom event in LA showed just how integral creators are to this new world of media and brand storytelling. They aren’t just sharing items they love, they’re participating in identity exchange and building community through digital channels. Get our analysis here. 

Gen Z’s Rush to Analog Has a Caveat. (*Cough* It’s AI.)

The Wall Street Journal published a piece this week on how Gen Z is the “new generation of mall rats.” (Glad you got the memo, guys.) And our survey of 1,000 consumers showed that Gen Z was the demographic least likely to say their use of AI would make them visit stores less (35% versus the 40% average). 

That doesn’t change the fact that these consumers are using AI to shop and that it’s rewiring their expectations. Brick-and-mortar stores, and more specifically shopping malls, aren’t commerce destinations…they’re community destinations. Cultural destinations. Escapes from the screens and hyper-connectivity of everyday life. We explored these nuances in our webinar with Cimulate this week, including what they mean for brands attempting to resonate with this cohort across all channels. You can watch it here.