Tecovas wants to be more than just about cowboy boots. The ten-year-old company has big plans to become a high-end Western wear lifestyle brand. "Initially, it sort of was known as the Warby Parker of cowboy boots, if you will," said CEO David Lafitte on the Modern Retail Podcast. "We've tried to sort of migrate the positioning of the brand into more of a premium lifestyle brand." Lafitte -- who previously held C-suite positions at Deckers -- has been leading Tecovas for the last two years, and his mandate has been to expand beyond its cowboy boots roots. That includes expanding the brand's ap ..read more

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the numbers behind this year's Prime Day, and what people bought during the two-day Amazon sales event. Following that, we’re talking about Limited Too’s comeback as it relaunches in Kohl's this week. Finally, mall-based retailer Pacsun is expanding further into activewear with a new men's athleisure line called ARC ..read more

A little over a decade ago, energy drink brand Celsius was being delisted from many of its retail partners. Now, it's become one of the hottest beverage companies on the market. According to CEO John Fieldly, it took time and effort, but the company was able to rebrand itself as a lifestyle beverage associated with health and wellness. When it first launched, "it was positioned as a negative calorie drink. It got tons of interest from retailers," he said. The brand, however, "just couldn't get that connection or that conversion with consumers." So what helped Celsius rebound? It was a newfound ..read more

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest funding round raised by NA beer company Athletic Brewing in an effort to meet demand. Meanwhile, Nike announced it's bringing former executive Tom Peddie back to be vp of marketplace partnerships as the company refocuses on wholesale. Lastly, in September, Costco is raising its annual membership fee by $5 -- the first increase since 2017 ..read more

Lucky Energy wants to take on the Red Bulls and C4s of the world. The company's drink line, Lucky F*ck, launched last year and has been slowly building out its distribution. It's now available in around 2,000 store doors in Texas and California and is also sold on Amazon. According to CMO Hamid Saify, the strategy of growing Lucky Energy has been to get people's attention. Thus, the name of its product. The company has also launched some splashy guerrilla campaigns -- including a Coachella activation that involved a billboard asking people to call a phone number if they're looking for a "quick ..read more

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses Amazon's next move to compete with cheap marketplaces like Temu and Shein. The Information reported this week that the e-commerce giant is planning to launch a program for sellers to ship cheap goods directly from China. This week, the Fancy Food Show also took place in New York City, and we review some of the buzziest trends from the event. Finally, Walgreens announced plans to close its underperforming stores and focusing on profit-driving locations ..read more

Babylist is making moves to be more than just a registry for soon-to-be parents. The company has been building a media business over the last four years, becoming its fastest-growing revenue stream. "The original business model was affiliate," said Lee Anne Grant, Babylist's chief growth officer. "So it was working with a ton of different retailers and getting paid a commission. And then, fast forward 13 years later, we are now this platform with a bunch of different offerings like health, e-commerce, content -- anything a family needs." Grant joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about h ..read more

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses what May's slowdown of U.S. retail sales could mean for consumer spending -- and, in turn, the economy. Meanwhile, Amazon aggregator Thrasio lays out its comeback plan after filing for bankruptcy. Lastly, the team talks about updates at the subscription vitamin brand Care/of, which was acquired by Bayer in 2020 ..read more

Venture studio Squared Circles has lofty plans to launch the next big health, wellness and food products. The project first began a little over three years ago when Lukas Derksen, who hailed from the creative firm Sid Lee, began angel investing in brands alongside entrepreneurs Alexander Gilkes and Osman Khan. One of its early investments was in the hair wellness brand Nutrafol. They decided to formalize the program into an incubation studio. Over the years, however, Squared Circles decided to take a more hands-on approach -- instead of acting as an incubator and investor for external brands ..read more

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff starts off discussing Shein's strategy to quietly raise its prices ahead of its anticipated IPO. Meanwhile, TikTok Shop is beginning to compete with Google and other platforms by testing a new image search. Finally, a new report by The Vitamin Shoppe shows a spike in sales of nutritional supplements like protein and meal replacements thanks to the rising popularity of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy ..read more