Smells Like Endurance Culture Trail running. Hyrox. Ultra events. Long-distance challenges. Recovery metrics. Electrolytes becoming a personality trait. According to recent reporting from Fit Insider and wider wellness trend forecasting, endurance culture is having a real moment right now. Maybe it’s a Covid hangover. People started walking more. Running more. Spending more time outside. Endurance…
The Devil Rides Peleton There’s a scene in The Devil Wears Prada where Andy laughs at fashion. She thinks she’s outside of it all. Above it. Unaffected. Then Miranda Priestly calmly explains that the “random” blue jumper Andy is wearing was actually chosen for her years earlier by the fashion industry itself. Trends trickle down.…
The Flat Cap: The Costume of Spirituality in Modern Wellness In the north of England, the flat cap wasn’t originally fashion. It was practical. It kept rain off men working long days outdoors. Men grafting in factories, fields and shipyards. Men hunting because they needed food on the table, not because it was a leisurely…
What Are We Really Selling? A coffee shop sells coffee. Or does it? Of course, there is coffee involved but people also buy a pause between meetings. A familiar face behind the counter. A place to sit alone without feeling lonely, a reason to leave the house. The beauty industry sells products and treatments. Yet…
The Return of Old Things “In times of economic, geopolitical and general uncertainty, consumers are drawn to nostalgia because it’s easy to romanticize the past as ‘safer’ or ‘happier’ when the future is uncertain.” Alice Crossley, The Future Laboratory If that quote is true, it might explain quite a lot about what’s happening in the…
A hairdresser explained why highlights don’t cost £60 anymore. Not because of the cost of living. Not because salons have suddenly become more expensive to run but because no one is asking just for highlights anymore. They’re asking for something that sounds simple – but isn’t. Effortless colour Soft blends. Something that grows out naturally.…
What if your discipline is just your anxiety in a nicer outfit? One of the stranger things I’ve noticed in yoga is how often tidiness becomes a moral virtue. Teachers jokingly shame students who don’t put props away. Mats must line up perfectly. Blocks must be stacked just so. Somewhere along the way someone quotes,…
Why are some wellness businesses booming… while SoulCycle is closing studios? At first glance, it doesn’t make sense. One report says that for the first time, service businesses now lease more retail space in the US than traditional retailers. Fitness facilities account for nearly a third of those new leases. Wellness, it seems, is booming…
Ahhh the wellness summer super yacht. Yep, we’ve all seen it. Alo the active wear brand has turned a 72 metre luxury yacht into its floating headquarters for the summer, filled it with celebrities and influencers and described it as ‘an elevated expression of wellness’. Brands have always sold aspiration. Chanel, Dior and Rolex aren’t…
The Curious Case Of Yogas Favourite Villain: Lululemon Every few months, the yoga side of the internet rediscovers its hatred of Lululemon. The matching sets, the prices, the branding, the commercialisation of yoga and yeah some of those criticisms are very valid. However, I’m interested in why women associated wellness brands attract such uniquely moral…