This is Nick. This is Jack. We met our wives the old fashioned way. But we’re intrigued by this new method for meeting the one: HBO Max just came out with a new dating show with a pure concept—naked dating. Choose your partner based on their bare bodies, then put on pants for the date. Sounds like an Emmy winner to us.

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1) Welcome to NERF Mania: Must Have Dart Gun to Ride 

On October 12, Hasbro is opening NERF Mania—the world’s first-ever NERF theme park (complete with a Super Soaker Water Slide)—in Brazil. Think: the Six Flags of Squirt Guns. More Vortex footballs, less Spiderman.

’90s kids know: The NERF Blaster was the weapon of choice for flinging foam at your brother while rockin’ those Ace Hardware clear construction goggles.

• 🔫 Today, NERF brings in $400M in revenue for parent co. Hasbro.

• 🔫 NERF’s family-friendly features put it in the running for the 2022 Toy Hall of Fame…but didn’t end up getting in.

• 🔫 Hasbro got salty and pivoted from material goods to experiences with its first ever NERF experience in 2023.

The Takeaway →

A great brand is a rubber band—it can be stretched. We’ve seen a slew of great brands test the limits of their IP in unrelated industries, but no one does it like toy makers:

• 👷 LEGO earned its cred in the movie industry over the last decade.

• 👠 Barbie just became the biggest box office movie of the year.

It’s NERF’s time to strike. That’s why Hasbro is jumping into the experience industry with plans for US-based parks, too: NERF Action Experience in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (opening next year), and Peppa Pig Land in Florida (already open!).

2) FTC Sues Amazon…for Acting Like a Bully

The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for “illegally maintaining monopoly power.”

It started back in 2017, when FTC chair Lina Kahn wrote Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, which argued that Amazon hurts competition. On Tuesday, the FTC—under Kahn’s leadership and backed by 17 US states—sued Amazon for that very reason.

Here’s their argument: Amazon is a big bully.

• The offense: Amazon punishes companies that undercut Amazon on price. When Tupperware offers a discount on its own website, Amazon buries Tupperware products in Amazon.com search results to the depths of Page 12 (aka oblivion).

• The outcome: Because everyone and their mother is shopping on Amazon, companies are essentially coerced into listing their best prices on Amazon just to stay afloat.

The Takeaway →

The biggest challenge for this lawsuit? Outdated laws. Historically, monopolies have abused power by raising prices for consumers—so Congress wrote laws to prevent that. But those laws are outdated, focusing on monopolies raising prices…while Amazon’s power is actually maintained by slashing prices. That’s why the greatest challenge for the government’s argument is its own laws.

3) Matching Mom Is Cool When It’s Lululemon

Lululemon has made matching your mom cool, no matter your age (or hers), according to the WSJ. Sounds like a rep destroyer, but it’s actually working wonders for Lulu: Teens, parents, and grandparents—no matter their gender—are devoted Lulu loyalists. Lulu has crossed the Generational Chasm—and sales are up 20% annually since the pandemic.

That’s a big deal—for most brands, age groups don’t overlap: When older customers jump in, younger ones jump out (cough, Facebook). But Lulu’s evangelists range from 17-year-old Olympic swimmer Summer McIntosh to TikToker and 93-year-old Grandma Droniak, who says the Lululemon Always Effortless Jacket is a “laid back slay that screams comfort.” How has Lulu found generational harmony?

The Takeaway →

Lulu put function before fashion. Other athleisure brands like Vuori, Alo Yoga, and SKIMS have stood out and caught trends by focusing on fashion before function. But Lululemon’s CEO Calvin McDonald had a different approach: Put function first. Fashion is subjective and differs by age. Function is universal. Because any age will appreciate a truly comfortable slay.

✍️ The Writers’ Strike has ended. After 148 days, writers go back to work today after winning an “exceptional” contract with the studios.

☃️ El Niño is bringing more, heavier snow in the “Frost Belt” region (except for the Pacific Northwest.) Whip out your snowblower, winter is coming…

🍜 Instant noodles demand hits record high driven by inflation. The US has the sixth-highest demand for instant noodles in the world. But the biggest carb-loader is China/Hong Kong (and it’s not even close).

🌌 NASA just got its first-ever sample of an asteroid. It’s 4.5 Billion years old (aka from when our solar system formed).

🦜 OpenAI can talk now. You can probably break up with Alexa soon.

👪 Nearly ½ of young adults live with parents—and like it. We’ll check back in 3 months.

🪧 President Joe Biden joined UAW strikers on the picket line in Michigan. Former President Trump is planning to do the same (they both want workers' votes).

📚 The latest trend for influencers—Publishing a book. #BookTok

And one more thing. What’s a concept for a reality dating show we haven’t seen?

—Nick & Jack