u/sprodoe

Ralph Lauren posted first-quarter revenue of $1.96 billion against $1.87 billion expected and adjusted EPS of $4.59 against $4.32, lifting its annual revenue forecast and sending shares up about 7 percent. Asia sales jumped 24 percent with China up more than 40 percent, helped by the brand's first Polo Cup in Beijing in May, while North America rose 13 percent. Europe grew 7 percent, a slowdown, with CFO Justin Picicci taking a prudent view on the region citing macro uncertainty, the Iran war and weaker tourism. The structural story is a decade-long premiumization push that began with the company's first outside CEO, and it continues: Ralph Lauren plans to accelerate cuts to off-price sales and exit lower-tier full-price stores in the second half of fiscal 2027. Analysts credit the breadth of the price ladder, from $118 polos to $498 leather bags to $5,295 Purple Label cashmere jackets, for holding sales up while inflation-wary shoppers pull back. GlobalData's Neil Saunders points to a broader lifestyle position, plus nostalgia and structured formal styles pulling in younger buyers.

A price ladder that wide is usually treated as brand dilution risk, and here it looks like the hedge that is working. For CPG brand architects: does a portfolio spanning that much price range actually protect you in a trade-down cycle, or does Ralph Lauren pull it off because of equity most brands cannot replicate?

Source - The Business of Fashion

Lululemon's chief AI and technology officer Ranju Das has left after less than a year, the second senior departure ahead of incoming CEO Heidi O'Neill's September 8 start. Das joined last September as the first executive at the company to hold that title, sat on the senior leadership team, and the company is now searching for a replacement. Chief strategy officer Rachel Acheson also recently exited. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts led by Poonam Goyal said the departure adds to concerns the turnaround has not found stability, noting the issue is not AI but repeated leadership resets when the company needs sharper execution. Shares are down more than 40 percent this year, with see-through tights and competition from upstart brands eroding a once-dominant position. Former CIO Julie Averill added a pointed footnote, writing in a New York Times guest essay that companies are quick to put AI in job titles without explaining the strategy, and noting Das got the AI title when she left even though deploying new technology was already part of her job.

Executives leaving right before a new CEO arrives is usually a signal they were told what is coming, or decided not to wait to find out. If you are O'Neill, is a partly cleared bench an advantage because you get to pick your own people, or a hole you have to dig out of in your first two quarters?

Source - The Business of Fashion

I was reviewing some old commissions as I was sending an appeal and stuff to ShopMy about my ban. And as I was going through, 95% of my commissions/sales from Rag & Bone (which mind you was a few thousand in commissions) were cancelled/reversed by the brand.

Anyone had this happen? Or were my shoppers just finicky?

OLIPOP has a new chief executive. Christian Patiño Webb takes the role after roughly four years running Electrolit, the Grupo PiSA sports drink brand that distribution partner Keurig Dr Pepper described as the fastest-growing scaled brand in sports hydration. He picks up business operations, distribution, organizational execution, brand expansion and strategic growth.

Founder Ben Goodwin becomes executive chairman and head of innovation, keeping the long-term vision and the innovation pipeline. In his own words, he is moving to the areas where he has strong natural talent and motivation, and where he can be a source of differentiation for the brand.

This is the second Big CPG operator OLIPOP has seated in two years. Mel Landis joined as president in 2024 after integrating BodyArmor into the Coca-Cola system. A founder who steps out of the operating seat while two veterans of scaled beverage systems take the wheel is a familiar sequence, and it usually precedes a conversation with an acquirer rather than another round. My firm, Protis Global, ran the CEO search, so I had a front-row seat to how deliberately they built toward this.

The timing is worth sitting with. Prebiotic soda has gone from two brands to a crowded set, and Poppi's post-acquisition integration into the Pepsi system has been rough enough that Pepsi's own earnout liability has been marked down. OLIPOP is making its structural moves while still independent.

If you were advising OLIPOP, does watching the Poppi integration make you more inclined to sell now or to stay independent longer?

Source - BevNET

Needed has launched Women's Creatine, a $24.99 30-serving creatine monohydrate supplement positioned around female physiology rather than sports performance. The framing is a data gap: of more than 4,500 creatine studies published, roughly 4 percent focused on women alone, and only one randomized trial has examined effects during perimenopause. The brand also cites that women naturally produce 70 to 80 percent of the creatine men do, and that 7 in 10 consume less than the recommended amount due to lower intake of red meat, while still needing 5 grams daily. Co-CEO Julie Sawaya argues creatine has been marketed almost exclusively through a sports lens despite its relevance to muscle, brain energy and metabolism across a woman's lifespan, and co-CEO Ryan Woodbury frames it as one instance of a broader underrepresentation problem in nutrition research. The product delivers a clinically studied 5g dose, Biomicronized to dissolve without grit or bloating, developed with women's health practitioners, third-party tested, NSF Certified for Sport and Clean Label Project Certified, with more than 2,000 quality checkpoints per batch. Needed is also funding research on creatine in pregnancy and lactation, and this year ran a 25,000-signature petition to Congress and a full-page New York Times ad calling for nutrition standards reflecting women's biology.

Creatine is the most commoditized active in supplements, and Needed's differentiation is entirely research posture and formulation experience rather than the molecule. Is "same ingredient, different physiology" a durable positioning, or does it get flattened the moment a mass brand slaps "for women" on a tub at half the price?

Source - Business Wire

I was a creator for ShopMy for around 18 months. I made a good amount of money promoting products in my newsletters and on my websites. I was banned from the platform in May with zero explanation given.

Go read their Trustpilot reviews, this company is sketch and scammy.

Go checkout their subreddit and mulitple FB groups.

They will all have horror stories of them banning creators (usually right before they due a huge payout/have huge Pending commissions - for example I was at $45k in pending payouts) and then they offer no reason as to why, leave the profile active and still collect the commissions or at least accept the new orders from the banned creators active links. They also routinely miss their Friday payouts with zero communication from the team. They have zero support help for creators on the weekends.

I tried my best to remove as many of their links as possible but I was on the platform for 18+ months. That's a lot of links across a ton of social platforms.

Additionally I reached out to support 25+ times before getting a response 2.5 months later which was just regurgitated corporate speak of the original message with no reason for the ban.

I also reached out to Harry Rein (the CEO) as well. And to date he has NEVER responded. I have dealt with many CEOs in my career and not a single one has ever ghosted me. Plenty of them have said "no thanks" but none have ever ignored me straight up.

ShopMy is scam company and they will steal your commissions and I am sure they are screwing the brands on their platform one way or another. If you use their platform I would recommend you move to LTK or another network that at least can pay their creators on time and communicate effectively and on time.

I never wanted to post this, I asked for a phone call, I asked for an explanation, and yet, was met with nothing but unprofessionalism. Do not work with or for ShopMy, their Glassdoor reviews aren't much better than TrustPilot.

If you'd like to support my effort to put them on blast and also try and get a resolution/response from Harry please check out my post on LI and help me by liking/reposting and if you have also been effected leave a comment with your story! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/larsmillermedia_i-was-a-creator-for-shopmy-for-around-18-share-7492582900983549952-mL7i/?utm_source=social_share_send&utm_medium=member_desktop_web&rcm=ACoAAASJJPABEwrOcybLW4K83y8Zdph4hz0_1X4

I have had multiple ShopMy execs review my LI profile since I made the post and when I first left my review and sent it to support (when I was waiting 2.5 months for a response) that's what prompted them to FINALLY respond.

I have my doubts it will change anything, but I encourage anyone who feels like it to leave a review - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/shopmy.us

If I could get ANYONE to come and do an AMA with yall, who would you all like to hear from?

You can be vague - founders, formulators, etc.

Or you could be super specific and name someone directly!

Let me know and I will see if I can get them come and join us!

Bubble has appointed Diana Rubin as its first chief marketing officer, reporting to founder Shai Eisenman. Rubin is a L'Oréal veteran with years at Kiehl's, YSL Beauty and Lancôme, most recently VP and head of marketing at Sol de Janeiro under L'Occitane. The hire comes with a strategic reveal: after retaining Centerview Partners in late 2025 to explore deals, Eisenman confirmed the Gen Z skincare brand has decided to stay independent, with the stated ambition of building one of the most influential brands in beauty on its own.

Pulling out of a sale process and immediately staffing up the C-suite is a statement, especially in a market where most founder brands are hunting for exits. Do you read staying independent as strength, or as a process that did not produce the number they wanted?

Source - WWD

Prequel Skin, the dermatologist-developed brand founded by Dr. Samantha Ellis, has appointed Nathalie Kristo as CEO and Toral Patel as CMO. Kristo spent nearly two decades at L'Oréal, including SVP of marketing for L'Oréal Paris USA and global brand president of NYX, where she led the brand's transformation from digitally native breakout to global success after the acquisition. She later served as CEO of Huda Beauty. Patel, who takes marketing, creative and e-commerce, was most recently SVP and head of marketing and e-commerce at Kopari. Ellis stays as founder, with the three forming an all-female leadership team, and the stated priority is scaling without losing the clinical credibility that built the brand.

Founder-dermatologist brands usually stall when the founder's clinical authority cannot scale past her own content. Bringing in the NYX playbook this early is a clear bet on mass-style growth. Does professional-operator leadership this soon accelerate a founder brand, or start sanding off what made it credible?

Source - PR Newswire

Summer Fridays is launching a Body Fragrance Mist and Body Butter Balm, its entry into body care, following its move into fragrance earlier this year. Founders Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Ireland, both influencers when they launched in 2018 with the viral Jet Lag mask, are explicit that the goal is to become a global legacy brand measured in decades. Ireland's definition of longevity is operational: whether customers reorder in year five and whether the company has the supply chain, forecasting, field team and operators to deliver it. The founders deliberately launched with Sephora rather than DTC-first, a connection made through Ouai's Jen Atkin to Artemis Patrick, specifically to avoid being typecast as an influencer brand with weak formulas. The body care category itself is heating up, with L'Oréal's Bold and Advent investing early in the space.

Eight years in, the influencer-brand discount has mostly burned off and the question is durability. What's the honest indicator that a founder-influencer brand has become a real beauty company: the reorder rate, the bench of operators, or surviving its founders' relevance?

Source - Vogue

SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness has made a minority investment in Merit, the minimalist cosmetics brand founded in 2021, a business that remains highly profitable. The deal is led by Vasiliki Petrou, who founded Unilever Prestige in 2014 and drove the acquisitions and growth of Dermalogica, Paula's Choice, Hourglass, Tatcha and K18. She joins Merit's board to work with CEO Philippe Pinatel on globalizing the brand. Petrou called out Merit's edited, timeless approach and its focus on millennial and Gen X consumers, which she described as significant white space in an industry chasing younger shoppers.

The thesis is the interesting part: while everyone fights over Gen Z and tweens, the buyer with the deepest prestige M&A track record in the industry is betting on the demographic with actual disposable income. Do you buy the argument that millennial and Gen X beauty is underserved white space, or is it just a slower-growth segment dressed up nicely?

Source - PR Newswire

Nestlé has agreed to sell a 50 percent stake in its Waters and Beverages business, home to Perrier and San Pellegrino, to Tom Gores' Platinum Equity for €3 billion in cash, about $3.42 billion. The new joint venture, called Peranel, is valued at €4.9 billion including cash and debt, with closing expected in the first half of next year. The deal comes as Nestlé shoulders heavy restructuring costs and continues pruning its portfolio.

Water was once core enough to Nestlé that it built a whole division around it; now half of it goes to private equity in a JV structure that keeps one foot in the door. Is the 50/50 JV the smart way to monetize a mature asset while retaining upside, or just a slow-motion exit that leaves the brands under-invested in the meantime?

Source - The Wall Street Journal

Whoop has named Kyle Leahy chief commercial officer. She ran Glossier from 2022 to 2025, taking the brand into Sephora, spent nine-plus years at Cole Haan before that, and keeps her Glossier board seat. Whoop, founded in 2012 by Will Ahmed, recently passed three million members and has grown wholesale more than 150 percent year over year every year since 2022. Its screenless band starts at $149 a year on subscription, and its biggest rival is Oura, valued at $11 billion in 2025.

A beauty retail operator moving into wearables says a lot about where that category thinks its next buyer comes from: retail shelves and lifestyle positioning rather than sports performance. Is the recovery-tracker war going to be won on hardware and data, or on the kind of brand and channel playbook Leahy ran at Glossier?

Source - The Business of Fashion