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This week: LS:N Global's new look, Prada designs spacesuits, New phygital theme parks in Saudi Arabia, Nostalgic cereal snack gets a protein-packed makeover, TikTok travel agents, Back to the F**kture, and Home States Futures.

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13 October 2023

Author: The Future Laboratory

Image: HyperSpace

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1. LS:N Global is changing...

Global – Get ready for an enhanced website experience. We are dedicated to inspiring new product, service and brand innovations, and giving our members an ever-evolving suite of tools to enter the hearts, minds, homes and pockets of consumers.

So our new look and feel and improved navigation make it easier for our members to explore all of our trend reports and analysis. We want to make sure you can access the insight and analysis you need, at speed.

: Homepage – a brand new hub allowing you to see at a glance what’s new every day, customised to your preferences and with recommendations from our editorial analysts

: Behaviours – the go-to for consumer insights, now with dedicated generational analysis

: Sectors – now also tracking innovations and trends in technology, design, and pop culture and media

: Topics – formerly Series, tracking the 10–12 issues we think are the most important for businesses to be fluent in for the year ahead

: Experts & Opinion – thought-provoking discussions, viewpoints and big ideas with innovative thinkers, plus our webinar and podcast collection

This is just the beginning. Over the coming months you’ll see more enhancements as LS:N Global evolves into the essential futures channel.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Start exploring!

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Axiom Space, US

2. Prada to collaborate with Axiom Space on lunar spacesuits

Global – Italian fashion giant Prada is venturing into space fashion through a partnership with commercial space firm Axiom Space. They will be working on creating lunar spacesuits for NASA’s Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2025.

The collaboration aims to develop NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuit design, enhancing wearers’ capabilities and comfort in the challenging space environment. Prada’s technical expertise in raw materials, manufacturing techniques and innovative design will contribute to the development of advanced spacesuits and shows the relevance of cross-skill collaboration in the luxury industry, as revealed in our Luxury Recrafted macrotrend report.

Prada’s venture into spacesuit design highlights its commitment to nurturing a forward-thinking ethos. It is also a great addition to the growing number of innovative space products, as tracked in our Innovation Debrief 2023–2024 report.

3. Phygital theme park start-up HyperSpace is revitalising retail spaces

Saudi Arabia, UAE – Saudi Arabia has invested millions in digital theme park start-up HyperSpace, in the Gulf Kingdom’s latest attempt to reduce reliance on oil profit and become a global gaming hub.

Riyadh Season, Saudi Arabia’s government-backed entertainment initiative and annual arts and culture festival, provided the majority of the £45m ($55m, €52m) in debt and equity raised in the start-up’s latest funding round.

HyperSpace designs, builds and operates ‘future-forward’ theme parks in shopping centres that mix physical and digital entertainment, including gaming. The company’s first site, AYA, opened in Dubai’s Wafi Mall in December 2022, with House of Hype set to follow in The Dubai Mall at the end of 2023.

A new space is set to open in Riyadh soon, but HyperSpace hopes to expand into the US and beyond in due course.

‘Shopping centres must find that ‘cool factor’ to draw consumers in,’ HyperSpace co-founder and CEO Alexander Heller told the Financial Times. ‘Today, within that eco-system, you’re looking at something that’s much more experience driven.’

HyperSpace’s vision for the future of entertainment and shopping experiences ties in with our The Rise of Retail’s Third Space Storefronts travel report. Brands are increasingly commodifying retail destinations to foster play, exploration and community in an attempt to revitalise in-person shopping experiences.

4. Nostalgic cereal snack bars get a protein-packed makeover

US – Magic Spoon, the brand behind lower-sugar and higher-protein alternatives to classic breakfast cereal, has introduced a range of better-for-you protein-packed cereal bars.

As consumers become ever more health-conscious, a host of food brands are re-imagining breakfast cereals as less sugary and more nutritionally balanced products. Magic Spoon originally launched its healthier version of childhood breakfast cereal in 2019, and has now introduced another convenient comfort food to its product range in the shape of cereal snack bars. Available in marshmallow and chocolatey peanut butter flavours, Magic Spoon Treats contain 11g of protein and only 1g of sugar per serving – a far cry from conventional bars.

‘We wanted to bring people back to the nostalgia of the quintessential ’90s-style cereal treats,’ said Gabi Lewis, co-founder of Magic Spoon. ‘Our Treats are the 2.0 version of these with the same approach to quality, nutritious ingredients people love in our cereal.’

At LS:N Global, we are monitoring how food innovators are re-engineering indulgence for changing palates and dietary preferences, creating an alternative confectionery market in the process.

Magic Spoon, US

5. Back to the F**kture : Sarah Wilson

Life is f**ked – then you make it happen. And this epithet seems to embody the life of Australian author, broadcaster and entrepreneur, Sarah Wilson.
 
Not that her life has been fu**ed –if anything, the opposite is very much the case - but that her journey through it is a constant reminder to us all that when the chips are down the only person who can save the game is you. With, of course, a little help from your friends – and in Sarah’s case we’re talking the Dalai Lama, Michelle Obama, and Beyonce – and yes, you can imagine who I was most impressed with – Beyonce. 

In her latest book, 'This One Wild and Precious Life', we encounter many such friends and experts, a thousand of them to precise, and all helping Sarah - and us, as it turns out, to do one thing – make a meaningful life happen. Spiritually, physically, but crucially in terms of how we build up our resilience to the many slings and harrowing moments life itself can throw at us. 
 
But harrowing in Sarah’s case doesn’t mean failure, in the Noughties she was at the top of her game, everybody’s game for that matter. She had been hallowed editor of Australian Cosmopolitan, went on to present Masterchef Australia,  launched one of the best food-addict platforms ever, I Quit Sugar, wrote a best-selling book about depression, First We Make the Beast Beautiful, and then, in 2018, as the anxiety and depression she describes in her book took hold, she ‘sold her company, donated the proceeds to charity, packed a rucksack and set out on a three year global journey or reflection, discovery, resilience, and looking to nature,’ as a way to reboot and mend her soul.

Tune in to hear more from Sarah as she shares wisdom and insight on this episode. 
Left: Adidas and Rimowa, Germany. Right: Six Senses, Vana.

6. Micro Trends : TikTok Travel Agents

Social globalisation and pandemic-postponed life experiences have created a wanderlust generation. But while older consumers are Revisiting Travel Agents, the decline of companies such as student-focused UK company STA Travel has left a gap in serving the needs of diverse younger audiences.

With one in three TikTok users specifically using the app to seek creator content for travel inspiration, according to TikTok, the social media platform has become a hotbed of travel-related videos; #travel has been viewed more than 214bn times.

Looking for new ways to monetise their followings and replicate their viral travel experiences for their followers, entrepreneurial travel content-creators are filling the gap and hosting paradisiac trips tailored towards groups under-represented in the traditional travel industry.

These innovative new-era ‘travel agents’ blur the line between tour operator and travel influencer, sleeping, eating, hiking and partying side by side with their followers. Fuelled by algorithms, this growing wave of social-first travel collectives are fulfilling Gen Z’s desire for adventure, community and authenticity.

Read the full article on LS:N Global.

7. Macrotrend Preview
Home States Futures : Residential Retail

With hybrid working becoming the new normal, global retail footfall in decline, and the evanescence of third spaces, there truly is no place like home for brands.

As our offices become more social, intimate and personal, our homes are becoming more collaborative, corporate, commercial and hybrid.
 
But our living spaces are also becoming the real battleground for brands – with consumers demanding new kinds of intimacy, service and regenerative practices, and brands delivering these through transformative experience and superlative service. 

Our Home States Futures macrotrend will highlight a new approach to viewing the home as an active and concentrated retail and lifestyle eco-system. It will become a hub that brands must target, woo and win over in precise and interconnected ways. To conquer this home-centric market, brands may appoint chief household officers and businesses will need to coordinate conversations, find synergies and create clear cross-selling strategies.

Join our in-house team, invited experts and global panellists at our Home States Futures online event on 19 October 2023 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm BST as we examine the future home – in terms of how we broker time, maximise wellbeing, re-assess usage, reduce waste, embrace data and develop new ways to side-hustle revenues from our sitting rooms.

Ketut Subiyanto
 

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