After School by Casey Lewis

After School by Casey Lewis

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After School by Casey Lewis
After School by Casey Lewis
Black Nail Theory and Voice Memo Leo

Black Nail Theory and Voice Memo Leo

after school weekend edition

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Casey Lewis
Nov 05, 2023
∙ Paid
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After School by Casey Lewis
After School by Casey Lewis
Black Nail Theory and Voice Memo Leo
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Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition. Think of the Monday-Thursday letters as the CliffsNotes; this is the extended version for paid subscribers. Thanks for reading — your support makes this possible! 💫


TODAY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:

  • Flip and the future of live commerce

  • Emma Chamberlain’s PR blitz for Levi’s

  • Alo Yoga and Vuori and Lululemon, oh my!

  • Equinox’s luxury athleisure collab

  • eBay’s streetwear retail shop on Canal Street

  • AEO’s 15,000-square-foot SoHo pop-up

  • Gen Z hates Vans :(

  • Panic Panties

  • Dior Beauty for Gen Alpha

  • Meredith Blake bob

  • Black nail theory

  • A24-ified Gossip Girl

  • Charli D’Amelio’s Walmart controversy

  • Justice for Cheesecake Factory 

  • New West Elm Caleb just dropped

  • Scooped bagel cinematic universe

  • Gen Z has discovered The Beatles

  • Ghostface masks are trending and it’s not because of Halloween

  • The 504 plan meme

And everything else that happened this week in youth culture. This email is so very long, so you may need to click “view entire message” to read the whole thing.

Before we jump in, my favorite TikTok of the week:

@hotmamas555I have a sense of urgency this morning
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Happy Starbucks holiday menu season to those who celebrate (which, according to my FYP, is everyone).


FLIP AND THE FUTURE OF LIVE COMMERCE

For the last few years, I’ve been fascinated by and closely following the livestream shopping world. There have been many, many “QVC for Gen Z” contenders vying for market share, from Whatnot to NTWRK to Popshop Live to Shop Shops to Supergreat…and that’s just off the top of my head. In 2021, McKinsey published an article optimistically titled, “How Live Commerce Is Transforming the Shopping Experience.” McKinsey’s usually pretty good at this stuff — that’s why people pay them the big bucks — but two years later, our shopping experience has not been meaningfully transformed by live commerce.

Last week, news broke that NTWRK was in talks to buy Complex from BuzzFeed for $140 million (hard to say which industry is worse off right now: live commerce or media) and Supergreat announced it was being acquired by competitor Whatnot (the actual language used was “Livestream Beauty Shopping App Supergreat To Shutter, Fold Team Members Into Whatnot” — unclear whether it’s an acquihire or what, but it’s certainly not the outcome the investors were hoping for).

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