The Best One Yet - 🍒 “$200 SmartBra” — Forme’s high-tech bra. Can’t buy house, buy crypto. Fast Casual’s bowl recession.

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Nick is back! And he recaps his health ordeal in the intro. Our 3 stories: A $200 posture-correcting bra?... It’s gone viral, and could be Apple’s next acquisition target.Why are Millennials buying crypto instead of homes?... Because nest eggs are stuck in Bitcoin. Chipotle, Cava, & Sweetgreen aren’t fast casual anymore, they’re slow… And the solution lies in the Olive Garden.Plus, Nick’s back from the hospital… He’s eager to share his prognosis (and 3 stock picks)$CAVA $CMG $SG $LUL $BTCWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… 🏰Disneyland, The Fantasy that Almost Flopped. Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ to listen.NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yeties, this is Jack. And this is Nick. It's Tuesday, August 19th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop-is-us-new stories you need to know today. Oh, Jack, I got a lot of context to sprinkle on about my situation. Let's do that in a second. Let's share the three stories first.

To put this in a cringy LinkedIn post, what five days in hospital isolation taught me about investing. But yeah, what do you say we hit the three stories? What have we got for today's T-boy? For our first story, it's a strange phenomenon. Why are millennials buying crypto instead of homes? The answer? Because nest eggs are stuck in Bitcoin. This story explains the whole stock market and the housing market right now. Yeah, Bitcoin nest eggs, baby.

For our second story, the latest it product, it's a $200 tech-infused bra that corrects your posture. Form is doing $100 million in bra sales because athleisure is become more ath, less leisure. And our third and final story is the bowl recession. Chipotle, like Cava, and Sweet Green are no longer growth companies. Fast casual has gotten slow. And ironically, Sweet Green could be saved by the Olive Garden. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. So good to be back. Fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Nick, I am not a doctor. No, you're not. No, am I not either. But my diagnosis is that you look fantastic right now.

Oh, this feels so good. I mean, this is the best medicine podcasting with you, Jack. I've been extremely lonely without you. But yet, for the last week, Nick has gone through the first real scare, like health scare of his life. This was the first time I had something like this, Jack. This was absolutely wild. It was scary for me, too. I've been very nervous and very scared the last few days, but it's amazing having you back.

Jack, can I sprinkle on some context for him? Dude, I've tried to explain the last few episodes what's going on, but can you play it from the beginning? like what happened? Yeah, I basically got a doctorate in this. So I went to the ER one night with the worst headaches, worst vomiting in my life, and they sent me home. I got the worst headaches and worst vomiting in my life a second time. I went back and I said, I ain't leaving until we figure out what's going on here. And that's when they said it was the shingles, right? Okay. So they realized it was shingles, and then they did a spinal tap because they were like, these headaches are worse than we'd expect. Turns out it was meningitis. The shingles virus had gotten into my spine, which goes up to your brain. And that's why I had the horrible headaches. Early takeaway here, Yetis, if you're feeling badly, go get yourself checked on. Because if Nick hadn't, things could be even worse. And be an advocate for yourself, you know? You got to really push for getting solutions.

So I end up in the hospital for five days getting taken care of by the infectious disease team, who was amazing at the San Francisco Hospital and the Tea Boy team, which was running the podcast show. All right. So just to recap, back to you, Nick. Unlike your third time at the hospital, that's when they realized this isn't just shingles. Yeah. It's meningitis, too. Because apparently you have the chickenpox virus in you if you've had it before,

and it becomes activated if you're getting older or you're stressed out. And that's what happened to me. And then it was just a total fluke. It ended up in my spine and became meningitis, which is really serious. So you were hospitalized for like four or five nights. I know you were so frustrated you couldn't work. But you must have been scared too for your health, right? Yeah, I mean, I did consider sneaking the microphones into the actual hospital.

But I just wasn't in a place to. I was like just in pain all the time. Dude, there was no way you were going to work. Like your health was too important. That's what we needed to focus on. I'm glad you thought about work as little as possible. Well, the prognosis, Jack, was that I could go home if I had a portable IV attached to me 24-7, which I do right here, as you can see. Okay, so you're home from the hospital, but like you're not fully in the clear yet, right? What's this IV machine doing? I've got this fanny pack I'm wearing.

which has an IV in it, pumping medication into my veins, into my heart, 24 hours a day. I call this thing my Aramaise IV because it's like a little bag. Do you pee into that thing? It's my burkin bag for blood, Jack. It's highly, highly fashionable, as you can see. And it's pumping right now. For two weeks after these medications have been pumping into you, you're going to be all better? I will, Jack.

But this still leaves me with a takeaway. I've got to share with you. I've been very excited about. About, like, wisdom and philosophy? You know, while I was lying there in the hospital bed, and I was looking around at all the equipment, I realized, this could be an ETF. Like, I feel like I can invest in all these companies that are actually helping save my life right now. Oh, like the medical equipment? Yeah, so I put together a little fund of these cool companies that make metal devices

that I was using. So, like, the first, the spinal tap was done by a company called Stryker, publicly traded stock. Nice. Okay. The antiviral medication I'm on is TIVA pharmaceuticals, publicly traded stock. Okay. Okay. This portable IV Made by Medtronic. Oh, yeah. It's a publicly tradable stock. Can we bundle this into the dollar symbol Nick ETF? Well, Jack, I also haven't had a bowel movement in like a week at this point because the medications.

I am so loaded up on Miralax, the actual liquid, that I just bought stock in bear, the company that makes Miralax. Well, dude, it's amazing having your sense of humor back. Yeties, I don't know if that was TMI for you, but it was just enough for me because I've been craving information from this guy. Oh, I feel fantastic. I love being back on the pod with you, Jack. It makes you remember that it's not just that we get so excited to do this and how fun it is, but also that we get to do this. Like you say, we get to do this every day.

And the thank you messages from the Yetis, Yetis, thank you. I just shared a video on Instagram from our account, just so appreciative for everything you said. We don't have to do this show. We get to do the show. And thank you, Jack, for getting the podcast through it all, always having a backup plan. Yeties, we're back to regular programming. This is the best one yet. I'm so friggin pumped.

Let's get to those three stories. Jack, can't wait to hit him. Let's do it. Would it be inappropriate for me to say, I love you, man? Because I do. Jack, I love you too. And I also kind of love Mirlax right now.

Let's hit him, baby. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip.

Tea Boy City on your at. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. The stock market is hotter than ever. But the housing market is colder than ever.

Those two facts are way more connected than you realize. Because crypto is filled with nest eggs. Jack and I will explain. Yet he's ball. Nick was out last week. Another blazing hot IPO doubled. on day one on the stock market. I'm sorry, it's not a stock, and it's not a crypto. It's a crypto stock.

It's like a mythical creature. Backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, it's called Bullish, and it jumped 86% on day one. Bullish. Charles Dickens couldn't have picked a more poetic name for this business. By the way, didn't I text you these guys were going to blow up like a month ago? I mean, everyone could have predicted it. Because stock markets have gone unstoppably up for the last four months. The more crypto-y, the more risky, the more me-y, the higher-e.

going up. We're talking big money mojo, animal spirits, baby. Anytime stocks have fallen the slightest bit, investors have bought the dip and rocketed to new all-time highs. Follow us on this one. After rising 26% in 2023 and 25% in 2024, the S&P 500 is up another 10% so far this year. So there's two questions worth asking right now. The first question, who's buying the dip? And the second question, with what money are they buying the dip? Okay. But, Jack, let's hold those two questions for just a few seconds. First, how about we compare this ripping hot stock market to the icy cold housing market? Because what's happening on Wall Street, it's the opposite situation in the world of real estate. I mean, pump the brakes on that patio.

Jack, the housing market is worse than it's ever been. There are only two types of buyers in the housing market. And who are they, Jack? Boomers and more boomers. Boomer buddies. The 30-year mortgage, the typical standard mortgage in America, it is still at a crippling high rate of 6.6%. And yet these high mortgage rates haven't reduced home prices. The average and median price of homes sold in the United States remains stubbornly at all-time highs. I mean, at the one hand, Jack, nobody's selling. Those with homes don't want to give up that sweet 3% mortgage they got five years ago.

But also, nobody's building. Tariffs and the immigration crackdown are hurting the construction industry the most. So add it all up, Jack, what's the result? The housing market is pretty much frozen. The only one buying homes right now are old people who already have homes. Get this, Yeties. The median age of a home buyer in the United States right now is 56 years old. That's up from an average home buying age of 36 years old in 1981.

A 20-year difference, Nick. I mean, Jack, the housing market is supposed to be exciting for 20 and 30-somethings out there, you know? Yeah, you finally stop being a renter and you buy your first house. You're a first-time home buyer. Condos, they're cool. But that's completely not happening anymore. Nope. Because our housing market is dominated by retirees trading from one Del Boca Vista condo to another.

And I'll see you on the shuffleboards in five. All right, so let's get back to those two questions we posed earlier. First, who's buying this stock market dip? The answer? 20 and 30-somethings who can't afford a home. And second question? With what money? are they buying the dip? With the money they had saved to buy a home. Bingo. So Jack,

what's the takeaway for all our buddies staring at the hot stock market, cold housing market? Crypto is filled with our nest eggs. We'll explain. So yetis, what's driving stock and crypto markets higher? It's us retail investors. And you know what? We got new data to prove it. According to Sherwood, non-professional stock investors now make up 20% of all stock trading volume on any given day. These everyday investors with a Robin Hood account are now influencing stock prices more than hedge funds are. That's right. Regular retail investors like you and Nick and me and all of us. We represent 20% of trading volume. Hedge funds? Just 15%. So here's the interesting theory originally from journalist author Derek Thompson. You see, 20-30-somethings want to buy a house. And they've

saved money to buy that house, but they can't afford it right now. So what are those 20-and-30-somethings doing? with that down payment they saved up, they're not just letting it sit there, Nick. They're buying stocks and buying crypto and buying crypto stocks, hoping it'll double in value so they can afford a house. I guess you can put it this way, Jack. 2021 meme stocking was funded by stimulus checks and boredom.

2025 meme stocking is funded by nest eggs and frustration with the housing market. That besties is how the ripping hot stock market is explained by the ice cold housing market. We're buying bitcoins, not bedroom. And the crypto, it is filled with our nest eggs. For our second story, $200 for a sports bra? Yet he's forms, posture correcting bras and shirts are going viral for their record-setting prices.

And it's a sign that the athleisure pendulum is swinging back from leisure to ath. More ath. You know, Jack, half of our listeners out there, half of the besties, they are men. So should we start by sparkling on some context here? Oh, on sports bras? Yeah, I got you, I got you, Jack. A Nike sports bra, average price, $40. I didn't know that.

Lulu Lemon, average price of their sports bra, $50. That makes sense. Jack, I discovered a Versace luxury Italian fashion sports bra $95. What is that for, like, elite country club golf only if you have to ask, you're not allowed inside that tennis club, Jack. But the fastest growing sports bra, right now cost $200, and it's produced by a startup called Form.

We're talking the Birkin of Braziers. Jack, this bra is priced like a top shelf bourbon. And form sales are surgeon. 500,000 buyers have bought this $200,000 bra in the United States. This company is on pace for $100 million in revenue this year, mainly on sports bras. And a big moment for this company, shocker, was Taylor Swift. When she became Person of the Year in Time Magazine, in one of the photos, she was wearing this sports bra during her era's tour. Boom, forms $200 sports bra, sales surged to a new era.

They jumped 400%. Just do it? Yeah, they just did it. But yet easy here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this $200 sports bra. They're not positioning it as apparel. They're positioning it as tech. The category isn't Lulu Lemon. It's Apple Watch.

So Yeties, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. Here's the deal. Form was co-founded by an orthopedic surgeon and his MBA son, who was at Warden. The family grandmother suffered from cancer that caused her to hunch over, and because she was hunched over, she struggled to breathe. So the solution here? They developed a sports bra to fix her posture. Reverse the hunch, open her shoulders back up, you know, like that. So she could breathe more easily.

The sports bra is made up of eight different panels of technical fabric that gently correct the posture. like braces gently correct the straightness of your teeth or those little baby helmets gently correct the shape of a skull. But here's the strategic move they made. Here's the key. They got FDA approval for the design and then they marketed it as a wearable. And they got 35 patents for the technology.

Now they make a bra for women. They make t-shirts for men. Form even makes socks to nudge that arch up on your flat-footed foot right there. In each case, the fabric kind of squeezes and pushes just the right points to make your buck. just the right straightness. But the bra has become the hero product.

Yes, this medical grade sports bra outsells the t-shirts four to one. And here's what's fascinating about the positioning. The target is white-collar workers, you know, the ones like you who are probably hunched over a MacBook 24 hours a day. The company actually cites this wild statistic. They say that 75% of the world has posture issues because we all look down at tech devices all day. So that's wild. But what we find wilder is that there's no electronic technology in this sports bra,

and yet it is marketed like a tech wearable. Form is using the $200 price tag to align with like AirPods or Fitbits. But its high price is only driving more demand. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies with the $200 sports bra? Tech is fashion's new muse. Ah, a muse. Yet he's a muse is a muse is a muse. term in the art industry for a source of creative inspiration. Speaking of Taylor.

Yeah. She has a muse. Her boyfriend Travis Kelsey was the muse for her latest album. Cute. But we think the tech industry is becoming a strategic business muse to the fashion industry. Remember that story we did last month on Skechers? Yeah. Designing a new sneaker built and designed to hold air tags?

Yeah, that is tech being a muse for fashion. Or how about Zuckerberg wearing his $300 meta-ray band sunglasses every day? And now they're the best set. selling AR wearable. Tech being amused for fashion. Form could be the sign of a shift. Since the pandemic, the Athleisure category has been more leisure than Ath. But a $200 techie sports bra, that is the biggest example yet that Ath leisure could become more ath, less leisure. Tech is becoming amused for fashion. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, first it was Sweet Green. Then it was just,

Chipotle, and now it's Kava. Fast casual bowls are shrinking. We're in a bowl recession. To save itself, fast casual has to look to the one restaurant they never dine at. Oh, yeah. The Olive Garden. Oh, no. My alma mater.

Oh, yet he's back in May. Jack and I covered Kava on the podcast. Kava! The Mediterranean fast casual restaurant chain offering 12 variations on Horissa hummus. Because millennials. We sit at our desks and we eat Bouda bowl. for lunch while we keep working. Now, Jack, back in May, what was our observation?

Kava was beating Chipotle and Sweet Green. While Chipotle and Sweet Green were both suffering shrinking sales, Kava's Mediterranean-style fast casual was still growing strong. But here's the update. Now, even Kava's epic fast-casual growth has slowed... They are barely growing right now. Revenue at each Kava location rose just 2% last quarter, down from 14% growth the year before.

And Jack, what's the... the result. Kava stock started tanking just like Chipotle and Sweet Green did. Kava stock fell 20% in one day last week. It's now down 38% this year. Chipotle is down 27% this year and sweet green is down 70% this year. Let me just spat out my sweet potatoes. Yeties, it is a falafel fatigue. It is a hummus holdup. Gwark is extra and you're not buying it. Like we said, it's a bowl recession. So what does this bowl recession say about the economy? Well, look who buys fast casual bowls. Nick, high-income white-collar workers do. That's right, or as we like to call them, kale-collar workers.

True. You see, Yetis, over the last week, fast casual CEOs have cited economic fog and general anxiety about their jobs and future about these kale-collar workers. 25-year-old white-collar workers, they're less concerned about a recession right now. They're more concerned with artificial intelligence. People are spending half their day practicing using chat cheap. to make sure chat sheet PT doesn't use them. Especially those Jen Zaniels who sit at desks and binge those shumami bowls for lunch.

You know what, besties? This has caused a surprising new phenomenon, a brown bag rebound. Concerned about money and their future paychecks, people are bringing their lunch into work. In fact, we are now seeing the highest level of cooking at home since the very first months of the pandemic when you were forced to cook from home. So the fast casual industry has to convince nervous white. collar workers who are worried about losing their job that they're worth the $17 buck price tag. But right now, those fast casual brands are stuck in a value trap.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the bowl recession? Fast casual needs to pick aside, like the Olive Garden did. Yeties, back in 2014, the Olive Garden actually faced a similar situation as sweet green, Kava and Chipotle do today. They just weren't perceived as good value. How do you solve that? You either improve the product or you improve the price. Well, the Olive Garden improved the product. An activist investor took over, replaced the board, and went back to basics. They started assaulting the pasta again, right, Jack? Right. And in the 10 years since then,

Darden, which is the Olive Garden's parent company, has saw its stock quadruple. Well, today, Sweet Green now says they're going to improve their product. They announced their increase in the portions of chicken and tofu by 25%. And Chipotle has pledged to improve. their price. They pledge to not pass on the cost of tariffs to us consumers. And both those brands are testing Robo Kitchens to eventually improve both the price and the product. Yet these fast casual bowls aren't dead. No, they ain't. They're just stuck in a value trap right now. I do eat it three times a week. So Kava, Sweet Green, and Chipotle, they need to do something they've never done before. And what is it, Jack? Dine at the Olive Garden. Because when you hear, you're pivoting.

Jack, I've been wanting to say this for a week. Can you? whip up the takeaways for us for Tea Boy Tuesday. Amazing having you back, Nick. The hot stock market is connected to the cold housing market. One is funding the other. Because crypto is filled with the nest eggs of would-be homebuyers. For our second story, it's form. They make a $200 sports bra that's techie and doing $100 million in sales to correct your posture.

Fashion, it's finding its muse in tech. To charge really high prices, like $200 for a sports bra. like tech does. And our third and final story is Kava. They're following Chipotle and sweet green. Sales have stopped growing. They're stuck in a value trap. It's the bowl recession. Fast casual needs to pick aside just like the Olive Garden. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Soho House, the network of private social clubs is going private. Four years ago, Soho House went public with an IPO. Even if the club rejected you, you could buy the stock. We got you. We got you, Soho House. Well, the stock's been down ever since then.

So a hotel group is buying the whole thing for $2.7 billion. And leading this new hotel group of Soho House is Ashton Coucher. Yeah. Who reportedly is going to rename it. Dude, Where's My Soho House? And second, MSNBC is rebranding to MS Now. And even bigger, they're losing the Peacock logo. MS now is an acronym. The MS stands for My Source. and the now stands for news opinion world. I feel like they overthought it, Jack.

So it's my source for news, opinion, and world. Nobody understood what MSNBC stood for, so I guess, like going back to HBO, this is an improvement. And finally, the Cambridge Dictionary just added 6,000 new words. It's the biggest increase in the modern era. Which is another term for years, by the way. One of the new words? DeLulu, Tradwife, Brologarchy, and Luke.

All those Gen Z terms you don't understand, they're now in the dictionary. Apparently, they only add words now where they think they will have staying power. Apparently, Skibbidi is a word. It's Skibbitty, Jack. It's skibbity. You ruined it. You just blew us up. Are you sure it's skibbitty?

It's skivety. I've only read it. I've never heard it. Well, it means like everything. Yes, it has staying power. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in as a voicemail from Amit Ome, from lovely sharp. in North Carolina. Push and play. Hey Nick, I hope you feel better soon. It's Dr. Oam here again,

and as your resident dermatologist, I'm here to break down a fun fact about shingles. So normally we think of shingles as what's on your roof, but the same word also names the disease because in Latin, it means belt. And as you know, the rash often wraps around your body like a belt, and the blisters overlap just like roof shingles. So yes, your house and that rash actually do share the same name. Amit, great fact. And Nick, I think we're done talking about shingles. Yeah, I do, I do. My chest does look like a roof right now. I will say that. Although Amit is a dermatologist. Yes. And we got his phone number with his submission. I'm going to ask him about that thing on my file.

Thank you, Jack, for doing that. And also, Jack, I just got to say thank you for everything you did last week. You know, yet he sent me a text when I was sleeping and in the hospital. And he just said, don't worry about this. I got it. Call me whenever you're awake. And I think that says it all. Well, the Yetis were wildly supportive. All the comments, I read them too. It is a wonderful, wonderful community. Besties, thank you. Celebrate the wins and celebrate your health. We'll see you tomorrow, as awesomely always. There's only one word to describe everything Nick just said. Skibbitty. Oh, Jack, the deepest of thank yous to my wife Molly, who is nine months pregnant, is still working,

and taking care of Maxie at home and still managed to come to the hospital every single day. And she brought enough food that I think each time she actually made me more sick. Molly, thank you for everything. And before we go, a happy birthday to Pearl turning 14 years old in Texas.

Pearl is actually a chicken and she's now officially the world's oldest chicken. At age 14? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In chicken years. Cool. And a happy birthday to Molina Flabion. from New York City, congratulations Malina, the legend of e-commerce.

And happy 26th birthday to Molly Giles in the West Village of New York City. And a congratulations to Canaan Daffin, a summertime Yeti after carpooling every day with his girlfriend's stepdad. He just finished his summer internship with Corrigan down in Dallas, but this guy's got CEO ridden all over him. And to all those yetis who sent us all those DMs, seriously, thank you so much. You know what? I really did get to read them all. This is Jack. I own stock of Kava, nickel and stock of Lulu Lemon, and we both on stock of Apple, Chipotle, Robin Hood, ETFs of the S&P 500, and some Bitcoin. Name Ben.