Punk designs and the cafe with a fight club

Plus, the brands giving condoms a fresh look.

Friday 4 August 2023 View in browser   /   Sign up Public service announcement – punk's back! Following the success of businesses like Liquid Death, lots of smaller brands are suddenly leaning into the punk aesthetic. Elsewhere this week, the restaurant with no menu and no opening hours, yet more football-fashion collabs and making money from products without mass producing them.  01. Instant-noodle brand Omsom, run by sisters Kim and Vanessa Pham, has a 'proud-and-loud' Vietnamese identity (check out the spicy rave it recently threw). Here's why it's crucial to their business: 'For a long time, there's been a lot of Asian food products [in the US] but they've felt made for consumption "by the other", as opposed to being rooted first and foremost within this third-culture Asian-American experience,' Kim told us. 'That is like our North Star: this idea of reclaiming and celebrating the multitudes within Asian Americana by us, for us.'  02. Punk designs are in 🤘. This trend stems from the viral success of punk-inspired brands like Liquid Death, which turned canned water into a $700-million business. (Yes, really.) Now smaller brands like Perverted Ice Cream are turning to punk aesthetics and messaging in a bid to give seemingly vanilla products an edge.  ADVERTISE WITH US. Looking to get your business in front of Courier's 2 million-strong global network of subscribers? We're introducing advertising and sponsorship opportunities into this newsletter. Email partnerships@couriermedia.com for more info. 03. Also punk: starting a fight club in a cafe basement. In his community cafe BeauBeaus in London, artist SLAWN has been getting people to box for the chance to own his art 🥊. Rapper Central Cee and Clint, the founder of streetwear brand Corteiz, have already been down, but not yet to fight.  04. We've mentioned the rising popularity of skin oils before, but now we're starting to see more solo-product companies focused only on skin oil, from founders with serious credentials. Subsystematics is from a former Aesop employee, while Mount Sapo was created by an art director. 05. While there have been a lot of brands overhauling sexual wellness products targeted at women, emerging brands are now focused on improving products for men. Take Champ and Cake, two brands giving the condom a fresh look. 06. Another fresh approach, this time to words. The just-launched biannual Whitney Review of New Writing reviews anything put into words, from memoirs and novels to tweets and IG captions. It's run by writer Whitney Mallett. TRY IT. Here's how this keratin hair treatment brand went from a one-woman business to a million-dollar company. 07. Hattie Crowther is a UK-based designer who made her mark during the men's World Cup with custom corsets from football shirts emblazoned with slogans like 'Human rights' instead of commercial sponsors. Taking a stand is paying off – she just released a collection with Nike for the current women's World Cup. 08. Another football and fashion collab to know about: 032c, a Berlin-based magazine and fashion label, just teamed up with Italian soccer club Juventus on a shirt, scarf and cap. Juventus also collaborated with Palace Skateboards a few years ago. Both go to show how the connection between the two industries is deepening. 09. You don't have to mass-produce products to make money from sport. Since last year Jon-Paul Wheatley has built up a career through sharing videos of his process making handmade footballs in his living room. He's now launching 12 Pentagons, a new ball company that wants to 'elevate the craft of ball-making' through exclusive limited-edition drops ⚽. 10. People of color now represent 38% of the US tennis-playing population, but inclusive spaces are lacking. Black Girls Tennis Club is changing that with a community and clinics, so far in Virginia and London (plus very cool classic crewnecks). DIG DEEPER. Here's how new indie tennis brands, like Palmes and Furi, are also taking an inclusive approach to the sport. 11. Nick Morgenstern already runs a traditional ice cream parlor, but his new venture, BANANAS, focuses exclusively on dairy-free soft serve. It takes a 'fun, weird and wacky' approach, with unique combinations like coconut Thai tea, and ube cookies 'n' cream.  12. Elsewhere in ice cream: BonBot is Stockholm's first robot-powered soft-serve cafe 🤖. Customers choose flavors and toppings via an app and a green robot arm prepares your treat.  13. Mapu is an 'experimental kitchen' that doesn't want to be known as a restaurant at all. Based just outside Christchurch, New Zealand, Mapu promises an intimate dining experience with just six seats, but has no menu and no opening hours. At least you can book. BRAND PARTNERSHIP Start Smart: Balancing art and business with Pottery West Pottery West is a hand-thrown tableware brand based in Sheffield, UK, run by Matt and Catherine West. What started as a hobby soon became a full-time job for the couple, and they quickly had to learn how to stay creative while managing a small business. The business has deployed two tools to help them get organized: Mailchimp, to share a behind-the-scenes look at their work with an engaged audience, and QuickBooks, to make accounting tasks and VAT returns a lot more straightforward. Read the full article here. 14. HAGS, the East Village queer-run restaurant, is also breaking the mold in fine dining – think pay-what-you-can nights and shared washing duties. Co-founder Telly Justice, an Atlanta native, shouted out two businesses from the American South that are also changing the food industry. 'Chico is a project from a chef in Atlanta named Maricela Vega. She has such an enthusiasm for communicating a distinct vision of self and food through her cultural and familial inspirations, and her food is some of the best I've tasted,' Telly says. 'Another major influence are Mike and Shyretha Sheats of the very popular pop-up The Plate Sale. I really learned how to center community in my cuisine by working with and observing the impacts of this duo. The way they incorporate their histories and stories and the generational practices of the black community in rural Georgia is really beautiful. I think they are going to change the game with their forthcoming bricks-and-mortar Mule Train.' 15. Edy Massih, former Courier coverstar and founder of Lebanese deli Edy's Grocer, is bullish on cross-cuisine collabs (like this one with food influencer Pierce Abernathy): 'To be able to fuse [Lebanese food] with Korean or Mexican is really fun,' he says. 'Some people will be very petty and say, "This is not how this is made," or whatever. But I'm not here to make authentic Lebanese food – I'm not your Lebanese grandmother.' 16. Besides, who says working in food is only about food? Paris-based Jah Jah isn't just an Afro-vegan restaurant: it's a hiking club, music community and creative studio (through which it recently collaborated with Salomon on an exclusive RX Moc 3.0 sneaker).  DIVERSIFY. Ever thought about diversifying your income? Here's how custom-made furniture brand Fyrn went beyond its initial business model. 17. Edibles are really going to the next level: we've seen an uptick in cannabis tasting menus. Examples include The Herbal Chef in California (where the menu has included weed-infused foie gras shumai and lamb neck flatbread) and Cannabis Fine Dining NYC, which includes nine courses and will set you back $420 👀. Elsewhere in Courier: 🤳 On TikTok: How this founder went from sketching doodles to diamond jewelry.  💻 Online: 'Weird' custom orders are driving this up-and-coming ceramicist's business. 📰 In print: How Drew Joiner is making his rapid viral fame last. Advertise with us Drop us a line any time at hello@couriermedia.com. Update your preferences here. Unsubscribe here