The New Consumer

The 25 brands consumers most identify with — and the 25 they aspire to: newconsumer.com/2026/07/the-25… Nike is who they are. Gucci is who they want to be.

A third of Americans say they’re in “optimization mode.” They exercise four days a week. They also drink. They chase protein, and they’ll wait 30 minutes in line for a bagel. Meet the Optimizers. →

Meet the Optimizers: newconsumer.com/2026/07/meet-t… In our Consumer Trends research, a third of Americans identify as being in ‘optimization mode’. They want max health and max pleasure, and are willing to pay for it.

Introducing the Consumer Trends 2026 Mid-Year Report: newconsumer.com/trends/consume… Peptides, protein, and meet the Optimizers! My latest collab w/ Coefficient Capital. 93 slides, free to read and download.

Smart water →

Loonen is the bottled water that hot-girl influencers, Volvo moms, and detail-obsessed product nerds can agree on: newconsumer.com/2026/06/loonen… “I might be 90% plastic at this point,” founder Clara Sieg says, “but my daughter isn’t.”

In our latest @newconsumer / Coefficient Capital survey of 3,000 Americans, high-protein pasta hit the rare "good idea" quadrant. One of the few categories that people in our survey both see as a natural fit for protein and actually want to try:

One of my favorite slides from our @newconsumer reports is this one where Shein shoppers claimed to be more environmentally conscious than the average American in our survey:

Why everyone’s launching a beverage brand: newconsumer.com/2026/05/why-ev… It’s easy to enter, hard to win, and the prize is huge. Sounds like Powerball, but it’s the $250+ billion US beverage market.

The Claude Code / OpenClaw prosumer effect: Claude has a fraction of ChatGPT’s paid users, but they're spending ~3x more on a per-user basis. In March, the average paid Anthropic customer spent $63 — real money! — vs. $22 for paid OpenAI customers, according to consumer card transaction data from @ConsumerEdge. The gap in per-user spending widened last year as Claude Code and OpenClaw drove a prosumer wave, accelerating user and spending growth for Anthropic. Meanwhile, OpenAI is moving in the opposite direction w/ a cheaper ChatGPT plan and ads. More at @newconsumer: newconsumer.com/2026/05/claude…

Claude is getting consumers to spend real money on AI: newconsumer.com/2026/05/claude… ChatGPT and Claude look like the same product. They’re becoming very different businesses.

It’s actually pretty easy to make a list of brands generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue — even more than a billion — in DTC e-commerce sales. @wearehims reported $2.2 b in US revenue last year, up 53%. @onequince said its total revenue passed $1 b last year. @hungryroot announced $700 mm. Here’s how a broader set of brands performed last year. This is each brand’s estimated online sales for 2025, as provided by @ConsumerEdge, which tracks US consumer credit and debit card spending. I’ve indexed Quince to 100, so you can get a relative sense of how the following brands performed last year. The truth is more complex and nuanced than “DTC brands didn’t work.”

DTC isn’t dead — it’s just different now: newconsumer.com/2026/04/dtc-is… I wrote about what’s actually working, what didn’t happen, and why distribution wins championships.

DTC isn’t dead: newconsumer.com/2026/04/dtc-is… It’s just different now.

Grüns built a successful omnichannel distribution network on the way to its acquisition by @Unilever for a reported $1.2 billion, with more than 7,000 retail doors in addition to Amazon. But its DTC site has also grown rapidly, and is about to overtake the OG daily greens brand, @drink_AG1, according to Consumer Edge card spending data. "Why @grunsdaily won" at @newconsumer: newconsumer.com/2026/04/the-ne…

On @Whatnot, the live shopping platform, snacks and candy sales have grown ~30% m/m since last July, while transactions grew 2.5x. @garyvee sold out 1,055 units of “Heat Wave” gummies in minutes. More in the Live Shopping Update, presented by Whatnot: newconsumer.com/2026/04/the-ne…

The next 40 million GLP-1 users: newconsumer.com/2026/04/the-ne… How they’re different and what it means for food businesses. Also: Why Grüns won. @grunsdaily

I think this is a good example of why "trends" are so confusing As Dan points out, there is no significant change in broad consumer behavior around smoking. But you could argue that smoking has restored some of its *cachet* because of its return to a few high status contexts

Is smoking really back? Sorry to disappoint… (No.) newconsumer.com/2026/03/is-smo…

With Opening Day on deck, now's a great time to read my piece on @Obvious_Shirts, your favorite sports fan's favorite t-shirt company. PCA has been extended by the @Cubs, so paywall lifted! Enjoy: newconsumer.com/2025/10/obviou…