Scarcity is humanity's great motivator. This has been true forever, since back when we were basically apes: The most important resources-food, shelter, mates-were the ones that were most in demand. Shortage meant value, and being attuned to value meant staying alive. We learned to focus on the rare thing at the expense of what was around it-psychologists call this "tunneling"-and to prioritize avoiding loss over gaining rewards.
To put that into context, Instagram and industry average engagement rates are two percent to four percent, so the fact that this was 18 is phenomenal. From a brand perspective, Megan is a true archetype. She built her career on being bold, confident and self-made. She's doubling down on a partnership that's already proven it can move the needle with Gen Z, and turn into cultural heat, which drives new customer acquisition and brand loyalty.
Tatum served up a sophisticated layering of Parisian luxury, '90s nostalgia, street swagger, and fire footwear. Examining more closely, there is a lot of beautiful clothing worn around the league, but who is wearing Lanvin with Timberlands? The ensemble, shared and liked everywhere, flashed on maybe millions of screens, and elevated the basketball style conversation.
Patel's bespoke shoes were black, white, and yellow, and featured a number 9 on the side to signify that he is the bureau's ninth director. A "K$H" logo on the tongue is Patel's personal logo (FBI directors have personal logos now), and a skull from the Marvel character Punisher appeared across the back of the shoe, along with the FBI's slogan "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity."
We were not expecting to find so much richness and depth from a physics point of view underneath the sole of a shoe, says Adel Djellouli, a scientist at Harvard University and co-lead of the study. In a new study, scientists explore the physics that give rise to the familiar squeak of basketball shoes sliding on a hard surface.
Squeaking occurs across various contexts including shoes, bike brakes, rubber tires, and biomedical implants when soft and hard surfaces contact each other. Researchers used high-speed photography to study a rubber block sliding across hard acrylic to identify the source of these sounds. The investigation revealed that pulses similar to earthquake dynamics drive the squeaking phenomenon.
Whenever an idea pops into Oscar Rachmansky's head, he whips out a notebook or whatever scrap of paper is closest and writes it down. It's a habit you might expect from a Gen Xer or elder millennial clinging to analog comfort. Rachmansky is neither. He's 24, and the company he founded about five years ago generated $40 million in sales revenue in 2025 (confirmed from documents reviewed by Business Insider).
I remember standing in a boutique in San Francisco, sliding my credit card across the counter for a pair of $400 sneakers I absolutely could not afford. My second startup had just folded-eighteen months of burning through investor money, eighteen months of watching something I built crumble in slow motion-and I was drowning in debt. But there I was, walking out with a shopping bag and a receipt that made my stomach turn, telling myself this was an investment in how people perceived me.
There are certain suitcase staples worth having in your travel wardrobe. An effortless pair of wrinkle-free travel pants is one of them. A comfy pair of shoes is the other. While clogs and flats make a stylish choice, sneakers are our top travel shoe pick, especially when they're known to endure 13-hours on your feet or 15,000 steps without blisters, like two of our editors' favorite Adidas styles.
Even a casual mention of online lottery tucked into lifestyle chatter feels normal because influencers blend interests so effortlessly across posts, creating a steady flow of conversation that pulls you in. Fashion content has a now-or-never feel. Fashion choices are seen as they happen, rather than in a presentation. Fashion influencers are turning mundane environments into instant fashion displays. This authenticity inspires a whole new generation of fashion with a fresh look.
Choosing a particular model does not necessarily mean focusing on excessive colour, but rather knowing how to identify the lines and volumes that communicate a precise aesthetic vision that breaks with convention. This process requires a certain awareness of materials and proportions, as a shoe with a strong design has the ability to transform even the simplest outfit into a sophisticated and modern style statement.
There is every chance that 2026 will be the year you see your first pair of Gardana gardening clogs in the wild. In fact, if you spend much time on TikTok, or live in Brooklyn, you've probably already been seeing them for months, if not years. I saw my first pair a few weeks ago. I watched a dad dropping his kids off at school in head-to-toe Carhartt, a pair of Gardanas peeping out from below his trousers like a shy frog.