7 minutes estimated reading time
Yeezy
In 2020 Forbes magazine described Yeezy’s rise as “one of the great retail stories of the century”. Yeezy influenced and inspired a multitude of other fashion brands. Kanye West and the Yeezy brand has been a phenomenal power in street wear. West collaborated with BAPE early on his career and Yeezy took off with the famous Nike collaboration output: Air Yeezy sneakers. Adidas reached out to West, after
Adidas has a plan to sell Yeezy sneakers without Ye – Because the company owns the designs it made with Ye, it can—and it probably will—sell the shoes, chief financial officer (and interim CEO until Dec. 31) Harm Ohlmeyer said on the company’s Nov. 9 earnings call. – They can’t use the Yeezy name though. Given that Yeezy is responsible for up to 40 percent of adidas properties according to some sources, this could end up being the best of both worlds for adidas. Kanye West was unhappy for a long time with the adidas deal, so unlikely to complain, and he may yet be able to use the Yeezy brand with another sneaker maker, for instance in China.
China
Nvidia hobbles A100 chip to meet US export control rules | EE Times
Opinion | How China Lost America – The New York Times – interesting piece by Thomas Friedman – the big take out for me is that China thinkers don’t realise that Xi Jinping doesn’t care due to his Marxist dialectic world view. Read also: The Return of Red China: Xi Jinping Brings Back Marxism – China is now breaking from decades of political, economic, and foreign-policy pragmatism and accommodationism. Xi’s China is assertive. He is less subtle than his predecessors, and his ideological blueprint for the future is now hiding in plain sight. The question for all is whether his plans will prevail or generate their own political antibodies, both at home and abroad, that begin to actively resist Xi’s vision for China and the world. But then again, as a practicing Marxist dialectician, Xi Jinping is probably already anticipating that response—and preparing whatever countermeasures may then be warranted – Kevin Rudd on China
Consumer behaviour
PR emails: I said yes to every single one for a day. Oof. | Slate – Could it be possible that the publicists are on to something? Is the daily flood of hopeless pitches actually a secret window into American ingenuity, optimism, and desperation—not to mention a very interesting line of scientifically tested sex toys?
In repressive Qatar, hotels are a haven for sex, booze and more | Financial Times
Design
Really interesting commentary on how Adidas designed the mesh used in the 4DFWD running shoe that provides a similar energy transfer to the carbon fibre shank in Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% shoes that completely changed long distance running
Who Will Replace Evans Hankey as Jony Ive’s Successor as Apple’s Design Chief? – Bloomberg – this looks like a potential crisis for Apple. They don’t seem to have built up a design team culture in the way that Dieter Ram did at Braun
Is CGI getting worse? Yes and no. The reason why it seems to be worse is down to worker exploitation
Economics
China unveils new policies to solicit foreign investments in manufacturing operations – implies a point of weakness in the Chinese economy. This also explains China slashes quarantine time for international arrivals to 5 days | South China Morning Post in the hope that senior executives will be bothered to turn up. These policies might be needed due to the multitude of down sides in sourcing from Chinese factories:
- COVID-zero
- Brand China
- Coercive technology / process transfer
- Restrictive outbound capital platforms
Automotive supply chain saw component demand revival despite macro headwinds | DigiTimes
Morgan Stanley (MS) Cuts China Annual Inflow Estimate as Risks Mount – Bloomberg – slowing foreign investment
Expect a global economic recession in 2023: Report: TSMC takes action in response to falling demand | EE Tiimes
Finance
Sam Bankman-Fried is not very good at League of Legends | Financial Times – parody meets real life personified. Read in conjunction with What if crypto just…dies? – by Noah Smith – Noahpinion
China given advantages in loan for Kenyan rail project, contract shows | South China Morning Post
FMCG
‘Grave of the Fireflies’ candy-maker goes bust as costs soar | The Japan Times
Gadgets
Inoreader – Take back control of your news feed – new RSS Reader, though I find Newsblur better for my needs
Germany
Scholz in China | Franco-German tandem | Supply chains – Chancellor Scholz’ China visit has cost him dearly in every other arena but China
Hong Kong
38,600 Hongkongers under 18 have applied for Britain’s special BN(O) visa scheme, but most requests come from residents in prime working years | South China Morning Post – Nearly a third of 142,000 Hongkongers who have applied for a special visa that leads to British citizenship are under 18, while those aged 25 to 54 make up the majority – Hong Kong already has an ageing population. You will also find that the leavers are likely to skew much higher in certain professions and skills sets such as nursing, social work, business management, accountancy and teaching
Health
‘I miss eating’: the truth behind the weight loss drug that makes food repulsive | Food | The Guardian – this is a mess for Novo Nordisk. (Disclosure: I worked on the global launch of Wegovy®)
Innovation
NTT claims it can stop the noise leaking from headphones • The Register
Bosch taps IBM quantum computers in hunt for new EV materials | DigiTimes and IBM think they’re on to something big: IBM sees 2023 as quantum inflexion point | EE Times
Infineon, X-Fab join Fraunhofer DNA memory project | EE Times
Japan budgets $2.4 billion for chip R&D hub with US, Europe | EE Times
Eliyan raises $40m to shake up chiplet interconnect | EE Times
Japan
Honda and Nissan move financial forecasts upward as Yen stays weak | DigiTimes
Germany finishes first again with Japan and Canada rounding out the top three nations | Ipsos
Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo now selling flowers online, they’re way better than we imagined | SoraNews24 – interesting brand extension by Uniqlo
Luxury
Hermès, L’Oréal bounce back in China despite ongoing lockdowns | Advertising | Campaign Asia
Marketing
Life and work post Covid – production and post | shots
Materials
Great video on how additive manufacturing’s unique properties can result in innovation. This heat exchange was printed from laser sintered aluminium alloy powder. The weight savings and increased thermal efficiency figures claimed are very impressive. The problem is using this technology at scale, or will it be niche like carbon fibre fabrication is now?
Some machines combine CNC milling machines with additive manufacturing capability, this hybrid expertise makes a lot of sense.
Online
TrustCor Systems verifies web addresses, but its address is a UPS Store – The Washington Post
Deception Is a Weapon in Russia’s War in Ukraine – The New York Times
Retailing
China’s Singles’ Day 2022 sellers aim for quality over quantity | Quartz – similar to what’s been said on Campaign Asia – I think it will be difficult due to platform power
Security
China Recalibrates Its Strategy in the Pacific Region – The China Story
Microsoft links Russia’s military to cyberattacks in Poland and Ukraine | Ars Technica
Australian police reveal Russians behind Medibank medical record hack | South China Morning Post
Software
Signal >> Blog >> Reflections: The ecosystem is moving – interesting discussion on federated versus centralised systems
Taiwan
TSMC and UMC report double-digit October sales growth; no 3nm for Arizona yet | DigiTimes
Technology
The US used shell companies during the Cold War to secure titanium from Russia. Now it seems that Russia has done similar things with electronics components for its smart weapons obtained from US manufacturers.