Daily LInks
1. How AI Will Accelerate the Circular Economy: Extending the life of products, using fewer materials in production, and using more recycled materials. These tech-enabled strategies promise significant financial returns, but unlocking their full potential will need serious investment. – Read More on HBR
2. Luxury goods: Europe’s joke on the world. “The luxe boom tells you more about world politics than another Henry Kissinger interview will.” – Read More on the FT
3. UK PM Sunak pitches Britain as future home for AI regulation. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday Britain could be the global home of AI regulation as he pitched London as a tech hub to industry leaders and urged them to grasp the opportunities and challenges of AI. – Read More on Reuters
4. RELATED READ: Is the United Kingdom Getting AI Regulation Right? This year, the UK government published a white paper unveiling how it intends to regulate AI, with an emphasis on flexibility in order to avoid stifling innovation. – Read More on TFL
5. Louis Vuitton’s Soulbound Luxury NFTs, Apple’s Expensive Vision. While Apple avoided the term metaverse, it’s likely that Apple has been influenced by competitors like Microsoft and Meta. “It builds upon theories built by the metaverse industry over the past few years.” – Read More on Yahoo
6. Apple’s new AR headset may face trademark issue in China as ‘Vision Pro’ name already belongs to Huawei. The Chinese tech giant’s registration could prove a thorny issue for Apple in China after last week’s unveiling of Apple Vision Pro, which is expected to hit the market next year, beginning in the US before rolling out to other markets. – Read More on SCMP
1. Retailers are gamifying shopping with virtual storefronts to boost engagement, loyalty: Virtual storefronts are on the rise, and Obsess has built platforms for a slew of other retailers and brands, including American Girl, Ralph Lauren, Corona, Crocs, Coach, Dior and Mattel. – Read More on CNBC
2. Microsoft, Google strategy to test AI search ads irks some brands. Testing new ad placements without gaining consent from brands is a concerning practice for advertisers, said Jason Lee, executive vice president of brand safety at Horizon Media. – Read More on Reuters
3. How Fast, Cheap Fashion Is Polluting the Planet. textile production, dominated by apparel, generates as much as 8% of global carbon emissions, according to the United Nations, exceeding the impact of maritime shipping and international flights combined. Polyester and cotton make up 85% of all clothing material. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. European Fashion Alliance Addresses Regulation Concerns at European Parliament. Formed just under a year ago, the EFA brings together the federations of various countries, including France’s Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda, the British Fashion Council as well as Copenhagen Fashion Week and Slovak Fashion Week, among others. – Read More on Yahoo
5. U.S. ‘aspirational’ shoppers are spending less on fashion, jewelry. “Inflation and food and other costs are taking dollars away” from the so-called aspirational shoppers, said Cowen and Company analyst Oliver Chen. Their desire to splurge in prior years represented a growth segment for luxury goods. – Read More on Reuters
6. The recycling idea at Levi’s, Adidas, Zara to stop trillions in fast fashion from going to waste. Recycling efforts so far have not made much of a dent, due to the fact that most garments are made with a blend of textiles hard to recycle. – Read More on CNBC
1. How AI raises challenges to protecting creators’ work. The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on intellectual property held a hearing Wednesday on concerns around patents and innovation, escalating lawmakers’ focus on a wide range of concerns about AI. – Read More on the Hill
2. Yacht maker’s Italy pivot shows the way for Prada. Lorenzo Bertelli, heir to the Prada fortune, has been openly talking about the need to hedge geopolitical risks via a European listing. Shifting winds may force such change sooner rather than later. – Read More on Reuters
3. The Step-Up in Ecommerce Sneaker Fraud. Technology has a significant role to play, with machine learning and AI solutions able to detect patterns to fight popular fraud types. – Read More on Retail TouchPoints
4. TikTok Eyes $20 Billion Commerce Business Despite US Setback. Despite attempted bans the company faced in the U.S., ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok aims to more than quadruple the size of its global e-commerce business to as much as $20 billion in merchandise sales this year. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Senators to introduce a bipartisan AI bill aimed at keeping up with China. The Global Technology Leadership Act comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other members of Congress have made addressing artificial intelligence a key target. – Read More on NBC
6. Scarred by the 2008 Recession and COVID, 48% of Gen Z Frequently Shops at Discount Stores: Four out of five are worried about the health of the U.S. economy, and a significant group, 41%, set aside more money than they spend, compared to 36% who say they spend more money than they save. – Read More on Retail TouchPoints
1. Neiman Marcus Earnings Hit by Steep Discounts, Softer Demand: “Gross margins are challenged due to the highly promotional environment and our own levels of excess owned inventory, which will be back in balance by the end of the fiscal year.” – Read More on Yahoo
2. Consumer fatigue aside, luxury brands still jacking prices: The brands have upped their prices under a marketing strategy to retain their image during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now the prices are rising to make up for the fact that market growth for luxury brands is slowing down globally. – Read More on Korea JoongAng
3. The “Last Mile” in Well-Being and Sustainability: To create a more sustainable future, we need to shift our focus beyond the initial stages of production and address the crucial “last mile” – where consumers also adopt sustainable practices. – Read More on INSEAD
4. ‘Greenwashing’ lawsuit against KLM to proceed, Dutch court rules: A Dutch court on Wednesday allowed to proceed to the next phase a civil suit brought by environmental groups against KLM for commercials that allegedly misled consumers about the airline’s environmental credentials. – Read More on Reuters
5. CEOs Are Rethinking Their Stands on Social Issues. “Not every investor or customer or employee wants a company to speak out. But there is a big enough contingent that do. And in some cases, many executives feel like they don’t have a choice, or in some cases they want to be vocal and out front on issues.” – Hear More on the WSJ
6. Publishers’ group warns that generative AI content could violate copyright law: “Most of the use of publishers’ original content by AI systems for both training and output purposes would likely be found to go far beyond the scope of fair use as set forth in the Copyright Act and established case law.” – Read More on Marketing Brew
1. How Brands Can Sell to Environmentally Conscious Nonconsumers: New research into how consumer attitudes about climate change affect their behavior and purchasing habits find that the largest segment is “Conscious Non-consumers” — that is, people who have changed their behavior to help the environment, but are not purchasing environmentally friendly products. – Read More on HBR
2. How Australian fashion fell to pieces: Even the largest and most established players are suffering. Australia’s prestige department store, David Jones, was bought by a private equity fund for just $100m at the end of 2022, a steep plummet from its 2014 purchase price of $2.1bn. – Read More on the Guardian
3. Binance and Coinbase Show Knives Out for Crypto: US regulators have made it clear that the knives are out for the entire crypto sector, with intent to inflict death by a thousand cuts. – Read More on Bloomberg
*You can find the SEC’s complaint against Coinbase right here.
4. Zara owner Inditex faces margin test: “The consumer is remaining a bit more resilient than we would have expected last year,” said Ciaran Callaghan, head of European equity research at Amundi, Europe’s biggest asset manager. – Read More on Reuters
5. US corporate bankruptcies tick up in May: S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded 54 corporate bankruptcy filings during May, a slight rise from 52 April. In the first five months of the year, 2023 has recorded more filings than any comparable period since 2010. – Read More on S&P Global
6. Dua Lipa wins dismissal of ‘Levitating’ copyright lawsuit: U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said Artikal Sound System failed to argue that the writers of “Levitating” ever had access to the group’s 2017 song “Live Your Life.” – Read More on Reuters
1. The SEC charged Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations on Monday. It charged Coinbase, Inc. with operating its crypto asset trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency and for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program. – Read More from the SEC
2. Chief executives cannot shut up about AI: So far in the latest quarterly results season, executives at a record 110 companies in the S&P 500 index have brought up ai in their earnings calls. – Read More on the Economist
3. Fast fashion giant with ties to China tries to shake forced labor claims: Shein has hired Washington lobbyists for the first time and is talking up its new status as a Singapore-based company after relocating its headquarters there from Nanjing. – Read More on Politico
4. RELATED READ: As Shein Looks to Lobbying, What is Driving Corporate Political Strategy? “Corporations spend when they are worried about negative media coverage prompting what they perceive to be potentially harmful regulations.” – Read More on TFL
5. A man wants to trademark ‘Trump too small’ for T-shirts. Now the Supreme Court will hear the case. Government officials said the phrase “Trump too small” could still be used, just not registered as a TM because Trump had not consented to its use. But a federal appeals court said refusing registration violated free speech rights. – Read More on AP
6. AI generated content should be labelled, EU Commissioner Jourova says: Companies deploying generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Bard with the potential to generate disinformation should label such content as part of their efforts to combat fake news, European Commission deputy head Vera Jourova said. – Read More on Reuters
7. The AI Hype Cycle Is Distracting Companies: When you unpack the meaning of “AI,” you discover just how overblown a buzzword it is. If it doesn’t mean artificial general intelligence, a grandiose goal for technology, then it just doesn’t mean anything at all. – Read More on HBR
1. Is the luxury sector recession-proof? Part of the reason for the wait for Birkin bags is constrained supply, which Hermès manages with the precision worthy of its stitching. But another part is booming demand for all manner of luxury goodies. – Read More on the Economist
2. We need to keep CEOs away from AI regulation. Executives are trying to get ahead and set the tone, by arguing that they are best placed to regulate the very technologies they produce. – Read More on the FT
3. Urban Dictionary Definition Inadmissible in Trademark Case. Stay You, LLC claims that H&M’s use of the phrase “Stay True Stay You” infringes its trademark “Stay You,” and H&M is arguing (among other things) that “the Urban Dictionary definition of ‘Stay You” is strong evidence that the phrase is in common usage and therefore also diminishes the strength of the mark.” – Read More on Reason
4. The Gap beats shareholder lawsuit over commitment to diversity. The Gap Inc on Thursday beat a shareholder lawsuit claiming the company’s directors breached their duties by making misleading statements in securities filings about the retailer’s commitment to racial diversity in its leadership ranks. – Read More on Reuters
5. Erik Nordstrom Should Unleash His Inner Bernard Arnault: There’s a ton of risk in chasing the aspiring rich. For one, the discount space has become more crowded and competitive in the last few years. Resale companies have consistently outperformed the overall luxury segment even as they too see affluent shoppers squeezed. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Europe’s new success stories are built on high luxury, not high tech. The top European brands now account for a third of global sales, up from a quarter in 2010. Europe’s top four luxury companies, by market cap, are all French: LVMH, L’Oréal, Hermès, and Christian Dior (which is owned by LVMH). – Read More on the FT
1. Firms are bringing production back home because of the Ukraine war, China’s slowdown — and TikTok: Mentions of “re-shoring” in S&P 500 earnings transcripts were up 128% in the first quarter against the same time a year ago, according to Bank of America — seeing higher growth than mentions of “AI”. – Read More on CNBC
2. Getty asks London court to stop UK sales of Stability AI system: Stock photo provider Getty Images has asked London’s High Court for an injunction to prevent artificial intelligence company Stability AI from selling its AI image-generation system in Britain, court filings show. – Read More on Reuters
3. How — and When — Should Companies Engage in the Political Process? A new set of principles from the Erb Institute of the University of Michigan suggests some guidelines based around responsibility, legitimacy, accountability, and transparency. – Read More on HBR
4. A slew of countries are asking fashion companies to pay for recycling programs as clothing waste becomes overwhelming: Regulators in the US and Europe are waking up to the mounting clothing waste problem that’s clogging local landfills and overwhelming countries such as Ghana and Chile. Increasingly, they’re asking brands to pay for it. – Read More on Fortune
5. eBay Deepens Luxury Push With Streetwear Authentication: The program will start with brands including Aimé Leon Dore, Bape, Fear of God, Kith, Off-White, Palace, Stone Island, Supreme and Vetements. The company plans to add brands such as Adidas, Balenciaga, Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Prada and Nike by the end of September, according to the release. – Read More on PYMNTS
6. Redesigning apparel manufacturing in Asia: A pattern for resilience: Given the hyperinflation in Europe and the United States, big fashion brands have seen a drop in margins of between two to five percentage points in the last year. – Read More on McKinsey
7. Luxury spending focus shifts to travel, savings: 57% of Millennial respondents plan to spend the same or more on luxury in the next three months, down from 64% in the January survey. – Read More on Yahoo
1. Stop dumping your cast-offs on us, Ghanaian clothes traders tell EU: With 100 tons of clothing from the west discarded every day in Accra, ‘fast fashion’ brands must be forced to help pay for the choking textile waste they create, environmentalists say. – Read More on the Guardian
2. EU tech chief sees draft voluntary AI code within weeks: Vestager said the U.S. and European Union should push a voluntary code of conduct to provide safeguards while new laws are developed. – Read More on Reuters
3. I Asked AI Chatbots to Help Me Shop. They All Failed: “Without the input of real humans writing about using real gear, generative AI will increasingly generate bad recommendations.” – Read More on Wired
4. Greenhushing & Metawashing: How Fast Fashion Obscures the Web3 Carbon Footprint. The buzzword “metawashing” – coined last year by Simon Whitehouse, former CEO of sustainable consultancy Eco-Age – defines the process by which a brand spends more time puffing up its virtual product marketing and metaverse projects than minimizing its sustainability impact. – Read More on Jing
5. The fashion industry has timidly approached circularity, individually investing in, exploring, and executing relatively small-volume plans, rather than establishing formal collaborations aimed at bringing meaningful levels of scale and efficiency to circular initiatives. – Read More on SSIR
6. Diddy Accuses Diageo of Abandoning His Tequila: Diddy alleges that the spirits company has neglected the DeLeón tequila brand it co-owns with the music mogul, while poured resources into two other tequilas, including Casamigos, the George Clooney-backed brand. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Fast Fashion’s Curious Comeback: While Shein’s tech-enabled test-and-scale model is compelling, it probably doesn’t work for higher-quality apparel that takes longer to make. But its biggest advantage so far might be its nonpublic status, which means less scrutiny on both its profitability and business practices. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Further Reflections on Fashion’s Circularity Reckoning: Circularity has emerged as the latest corporate win-win strategy, and, with an industry that is all about the latest trend, it was but a matter of time before fashion brands capitalized upon it to appeal to environmentally conscientious consumers. – Read More SSIR
3. Delta Air Lines faces proposed U.S. class action over carbon neutral claims: The complaint, filed on behalf of a California resident who bought Delta tickets to engage in “more ecologically conscious air travel,” alleges violations of state consumer protection laws and laws prohibiting unfair and fraudulent business practices. – Read More on Reuters
4. Unlocking Luxury: Prada’s Exclusive NFT-Backed Tank Tops. Each exquisite piece of clothing will be accompanied by an exclusive non-fungible token (NFT), granting holders privileged access to the esteemed Prada Crypted community on Discord. – Read More on NFT Culture
5. News execs weigh deals with AI companies: “I don’t think there’s going to be any real regulation of AI anytime soon,” News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson told a group of news executives. – Read More on Axios
6. A lawyer used ChatGPT to cite bogus cases. What are the ethics? Perlman envisions duty of competence rules eventually requiring some level of proficiency in artificial intelligence technology. AI could revolutionize legal practice so significantly that someday not using it could be akin to not using computers for research. – Read More on Reuters