The Best One Yet - 👜 “Louis VuiTexas” — LVMH’s Made in America fail. Dubai Chocolate’s virality. iExports > iPhones.

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Louis Vuitton opened its 1st Texas factory 6 years ago… but we’ll explain why it’s failing (#FooeyVuitton).Dubai Chocolate went viral 17 months ago… It shows why every biz needs a “Trend Team.”Trump’s trade war focus is the “trade deficit”... But America’s economy is Brains & Brands.Plus, tomorrow is tax day… But if you haven’t done yours yet, Pokemon can help.$LVMUY $SHAK $SPY Want more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Susper Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, April 14th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. All right, Jack, how are the greatest hits this weekend? That was your idea. I know, but you're doing it too.

Nick and Molly, after a colonoscopy week, they decided to just stay home and go to all their favorite places. And they called it the greatest hits weekend. Sometimes you've got to do the greatest hits. Jack, three stories for today's show. Welcome back. What do we got on the time? For our first story, six years ago, Louis Vuitton opened their first handbag factory in Texas. So, Nick, how's it going?

Well, Louis Vuitton's Texan handbags are falling apart. And it's all a metaphor for the trade war. For our second story, Dubai Chocolate has become the most viral food of 2025. Even Shake Shack has a version of it. Dubai Chocolate explains why every company needs a trend team. A trend team six. And our third and final story. The two words that Trump is most obsessed with when it comes to the economy, trade deficit.

But while America imports iPhones, we export information. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Whoa, what a fantastic mix of stories, Jack. Love the mix. Happy Tax Day Eve to all those who celebrate. FYI, your taxes are due tomorrow. Now, typically, we celebrate Tax Day with the boring tradition of filling out 1099 forms. Honey, I got a W-2!

Honey, honey, where's your W-2? It's usually how it goes. That's the question, yeah. But have you ever considered combining your taxes, Yetis, with Pokemon? Because we found one accounting firm, OpenLedger, that invented a Pokemon tax service. They gamified the tax system with a hunt for the fictional characters. This startup has raised $3 million in venture capital money. And then they took advantage of Pokemon's open-sourced IP.

Because studies show you're more likely to correct. Do your taxes if you're not bored to death. And if you might catch a Pikachu along the way, well, then you're more motivated as well. So here's how the PokedyTax game works. It divides the tax filing into three components. You got income, you got deductions, and you got credits. And you catch Pokemon as you accurately complete each of those three sections. So to go back to the beginning here, did you submit your W-2 form?

Boom, you snag a snorlax. Did you upload your 1099? Boom! You caught a charmander. Jack, what about this interest expense? What am I going to do with that? Gigily Puff says that's a write-off. Cha-ching, got a file them all so you can catch them all, baby.

If you haven't done your taxes yet, then Japanese anime characters may help you. But besties, if you have done your taxes already, well, then you missed out on a bulbosaur. Pikachu? Peek of me. Pika who? Oh, let's do our three store, Jack. Fifteen 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 a 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 list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Louis Vuitton opened a luxury handbag factory down in Texas.

And Jack, how's it going over there, man? Not well. And that tells us a dirty secret of the trade war that no one is talking about. Actually, Jack, to tell this story, let's travel back six years ago to the lovely town of Alvarado, Texas. Home of cattle, rodeos, and oil. The kind of place where you order on your steak, rare. We said rare, no, rare. I want that filet mignon still beating.

Or you're rare, it's rare, Jack. Well, this town also became home to a surprise newcomer, and that newcomer was the Louis Vuitton Handbag Factory. Because back in 2019, LVMH, the largest luxury company on Earth, cut a ribbon with Domain. Trump to celebrate their first Texas factory. And this factory was focused on mid-range bags. Like, if you own a $500 brown LV-branded purse, probably made down there. It might have been made just outside Dallas, not just outside Paris. And as part of the new factory, Louis Vuitton pledged 1,000 new jobs to stitch them all up.

Texans, we're going to go from stitching horse saddles to stitching handbags. But here's the update yet is six years later, we're looking at the numbers, and there are only 300 jobs. at the factory, not the 1,000 that were promised. And this factory, I quote, it's one of LVMH's worst, according to reports from writers. Yeah, less, Yahoo! A little more, oh, no.

Because here's the news, yet is, Louis Vuitton just gave an update on this Texas factory, and it actually explains a huge unspoken problem in the trade war. Hardener French, but one of our worst is not something that Texas is proud about. Now, LVMH managers did go on the record, calling for patience with this young factory.

But off the record, others said that the skilled labor needed for fancy bags just isn't possible in the United States. I think they said, Jack, it is not possible. And this isn't the French being arrogant about American workers. They share data to prove their claim. Here are the numbers. 40% of the leather being used at this Texas Louis Vuitton factory was being tossed out because of mistakes. And that's a waste rate, true stat, by the way, that is double as high as other LVMH factories. We actually could go even deeper.

Jack, let's talk about the famous. Louis Vuitton opera bag that is notoriously hard to make, but they made it this factory. Workers in Texas, with no sewing experience, are being caught melting canvas to hide imperfections in the leather. You know, Jack, I'm kind of picturing the scene in Derek Zoolander when he goes to the coal mine and he gets the black lung. It's just not working for him over there. Exactly.

It's kind of the reverse of that. Or as one LV executive put it, it took them years to start making the simple pockets on the bags. So, Jack, what's the take? for all our buddies over at Louis Vuitton. It's a dirty secret about the trade war. Humans are not commodities. Yeties, we are all for getting more high-skilled jobs into the hands of Americans.

Jack and I are rooting for this factory. We love the idea of it. But Americans have certain skills, and you can't always just switch to a completely new role in a completely new industry. Like working on a ranch, first working on an oil drill, versus working in a luxury handbag factory, those are all a very different range of skills.

We keep hearing about bringing bringing back jobs to America. In general. For certain industries, that can happen quickly because we have trained workers. But for other industries, a lot of industries, it'll take years, decades, to get the workforce ready for those jobs. It can actually take entire generations for a region to pivot their workers. Like, it starts with parents telling the kids to focus on certain skills in school,

and then they have to learn them over decades. That's why products are typically made in manufacturing hubs. In hubs, yeah. They focus on one craft or one skill, from kindergarten, all the way to corporate. These hubs of expertise, that's what drives global trade, and that's what creates great products. Louis Vuitton's struggling Texas handbag factory is a visual reminder that jobs are not commodities.

For our second story, the hottest food trend of 2025 is official. It's Dubai chocolate. Brown on the outside, green on the inside. We'll share how this viral Middle Eastern candy craze went from TikTok post to ShakeShack. So Yeti's look, we all hate inflation, but a little thing Jack and I like to say to each other, sometimes inflation can cause innovation. Because necessity is the mother of invention. Like during World War II, when chocolate prices spiked, it became unaffordable, so what did Italians do,

Jack? They mixed in hazelnut, a much more available nut, to lower the price of making chocolate. And we got Nutella. Well, last year, cocoa prices jumped again, 150% to... their highest point since World War II. And what happened, Jack? Once again, that inflation gave us innovation. That's because pregnant British Egyptian woman Sarah Hamuda, a baker, invented a bar that was only one-half chocolate. The other half was pistachio. Yeah, actually a mix of pistachio, cream, tahini, a little bit of cheese and canoffa. It's called Dubai chocolate. Dubai chocolate. A Middle

Eastern chocolate nut combo. Think of it kind of like a Nutella of Arabia. And she was selling it for seven bucks a bar in Dubai. I was going to say Reese's peanut butter cup of Arabia because it's got chocolate on the outside and a crunchy goodness on the inside. Jack, I think you mean it's the Reese's of the Tigers and Euphrates. Because this thing is crunchy on the inside. It's milk chocolate and the outside.

It's not for the lactose intolerant. Actually, you know what, Jack, you kind of can hear it better than you can taste it or you can see it, right? It's one big ASMR experience. That audio is from Sarah's original post introducing Dubai chocolate to the world on TikTok. which went viral with 122 million views. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story.

We learned the timeline of a trend going from TikTok post to grocery shelf is 12 to 18 months. That's right. With this chocolate, we have confirmed how long it takes to go viral and end up on a store shelf. Because taste-wise is an AI food trend tracker that studies the speed of viral dishes. So the speed of a viral product going from the first post on Instagram to the supermarket shelves, where we all end up seeing it. And it takes, on average, 12 to 18 months for that to happen. To go from initial creation to final packaged grocery product.

And why does it take so long, Jack? Because I've got to say, that is slower than I expected. I mean, first, the marketing team probably isn't as plugged into TikTok as you might expect. True. But then they actually have to test the versions, create a prototype, come up with the packaging, get the packaging into the stores, create the supply chain, build up the relationship, start the sales process, the marketing. It takes 12 to 18 months.

So Sarah posted her Dubai chocolate on TikTok in December of 2023. Well, Jack, that was 17 months ago. And only now are big brands launching their own versions of Dubai chocolate. It took 17 months for Aldi, Lint, ShakeShack, even, each to bring Dubai chocolate into the mainstream. And because that trend timeline is valuable information, we whipped up a takeaway. Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies trying to stay on?

on top of the trends. Every business needs a trend team six. Now, yeah, it is the virality of Dubai chocolate. It's been known for 17 months now. And yet it took 17 months for Shake, Shaq and others to launch their own version. From Starbucks to Taco Bell, companies are increasingly turning to TikTok trends

to create mainstream products. But dropping a limited time-only Dubai chocolate, that can mess with the daily operations of a big food chain. And that's why Jack and I think big food brands need to dedicate an entire team to track viral trends, kind of like the Navy SEALs of tracking trends. We call it Trend Team 6.

They should dedicate a section of the kitchen, apart from the usual operations, and give them the best of the best Gen Z young workers. Like Shake Jack, they don't want to mess with their daily burger operations. That's the profit puppy. That's where they make money, man. So Trend Team 6 handles that month's special TikTok-inspired menu item. Every single month.

Otherwise, capitalizing on a trend would mean either taking forever to put it into the kitchen or disrupting the flow of the rest of the business. Given the value of launching culturally relevant products, every business needs a trend team six. Trend Team six reporting for duty. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, President Trump has become obsessed with two words, trade deficit. But that ignores what American is.

is best at. While we import iPhones, we export information, and the world pays us $2 trillion a year for it. Yet is, open up the book, Trade War Almanac Day 12. How tariffs are messing with the economy. Jack and I have been keeping track for you in the tariff trenches. The top term that Trump has been focused on for the last two weeks, the trade deficit. The trade deficit, it has basically become President Trump's economic scoreboard. Jack, could you sprinkle on a definition for us? The trade deficit is a simple formula. It's the difference between what a country exports and what it imports. Now, President Trump thinks that if we import more from others, we are losing.

And if we export more to others, we're winning. That's how he sees the world. And for the United States, we've actually been negative for decades. We've been running a trade deficit for a long, long time. And he interprets our trade deficit as us perpetually losing. This is the context, Jack and I want to sprinkle on. By measuring trade in this way, we're focusing only on our weaknesses and ignoring our strengths. Because America is a brains and brands economy.

We import iPhones, yes, but we export information. And therein lies the problem with the trade deficit calculus. It only measures physical things. Our economy, however, is 72% services, non-physical things. And none of those services are included in Trump's assessment. his calculation of our economy. Exhibit A, Hollywood. Nick, all but one of the top 25 grossing movies of all time

are made in America. Talk to your buddies over in Belarus, and yeah, they're enjoying the Minions movie for like the 50th time. Get this, 60% of box office revenues from those top 25 movies came from overseas. But none of that is included in President Trump's trade deficit calculus.

Exhibit B, music. Two-thirds of the Spotify global top 50 right now are American artists. We're talking Made in the USA music. Taylor Swift, she's boosting GDPs wherever she tours. But none of that counts in Trump's trade deficit calculation. Jack, it feels like Exhibit A, Exhibit B, we got an exhibit C here, don't we? Tech, meta-social networks, Google's online search, Android, and Apple mobile phones all dominate

the world with Made in USA software. If it moved fast and broke a few things, yeah, we exported it. It was software. and it didn't get included in the trade deficit calculus. America puts movies into Chinese TV sets and music into European speakers. And we're pumping software into the world's smartphones across every single line of longitude. But since none of that is physical, none of it counts in our trade deficit equation. So add it all up, besties, and looking at goods without looking at services,

is kind of an incomplete picture. And there's actually one more thing that the trade deficit ignores. It's a big one, and it's our takeaway. Capital T. So Jaggle, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone buying things in America? America is the capital of the world. Literally, we'll explain. Yet he's capital. Capital. It is a fancy word for money. And every year, foreigners invest two trillion dollars of that capital, that money into the USA. Foreign investors invest in American companies. They lend to us. They buy in our stock market and they buy our bonds. That is why our stock market is more valuable than the rest of the world. worlds combined. I repeat, the stock market in the United States is more valuable than the stock

markets of all of the rest of the world. So what President Trump bemoans about physical goods we make up for in finance. Now, we're not defending the status quo. There are plenty of issues with our economy, like inequality, for example. The gains the U.S. has made in capital and services have mostly stayed at the top. They could be better shared across the country. But to ignore those gains is to ignore the things that the U.S. does best. The music, the software, the Hollywood, the innovation. The brains and the brands. America is the capital of the world, literally.

While we import all our iPhones, we export information. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Louis Vuitton's Texas handbag factory is struggling, and it reveals something key about this trade war. Jobs ain't commodities. They can't always be moved. from Tulum to Texas. For our second story, it's Dubai Chocolate. The viral sweet de jour.

But actually, it's been trending for 17 months. And that is why companies like Shake Shack need a trend team six, a special operations unit dedicated to the trend of the moment. And our third and final story. Trump's trade deficit focus measures physical things,

but it ignores what the U.S. is best at. We may import iPhones, but we export information. But Yeties, this pod's not over. yet. Here's what else you need to know today. Live from London, it's Saturday night, because SNL is officially expanding to the UK. Lauren Michaels is the executive producer for the same concept in Britain that he's been doing in New York for a long time. And few know this, besties, but SNL actually has expanded to other countries before, right, Jack?

S&L, Italy, France, and Japan all failed, but S&L South Korea has been going great. Not too shabby, there you go. And congratulations to Morgan Stanley, which announced solid earnings, which were actually boosted, though, by Elon Musk. Three years ago, Morgan Stanley lent Elon a bunch of money to acquire Twitter, which, of course, he renamed to X. And when Elon merged X with his AI company last month, that Morgan Stanley loan got paid back. Plus, Morgan Stanley was the investment bank representing both X and XAI in the merger, which is highly unusual to represent both sides.

Over on Wall Street, this is some serious financial drama. So basically Elon showered Morgan Stanley with fees and repayments, and that helped boost Morgan Stanley earnings a solid 26%. And finally, stocks actually ended the week up last week in one of the most volatile weeks for the stock market ever. Although despite rising last week, the S&P 500 is still off 13% from its all-time high. Nonetheless, investors bought the dip like a bowl of hummus last week.

Now, time for the best fact yet. This one, some trivia whipped up by Jack and me. Trivia. In 2015, this toy was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. It was actually invented by a man who worked for NASA, a rocket scientist, literally. But he invented it in the bathroom of his home by accident. Because like rockets, this product requires force. But unlike rockets, this product is safe for children.

Do you know the name of this viral product? drop a guess in the comments on YouTube or Spotify. The answer is the next episode of our weekly deep dive show, the best idea yet. And we'll reveal it tomorrow. Yiddies, you'll look fantastic over there. Jack, for your birthday, do you want a Louis Vuitton or you want a Foui Vaton? Which one am I going to get you over here?

You want Made America, Made in France? What can I do? What are you feeling, man? I mean, I'd like Made in America. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Manbag, Made in America. There may be a couple holes in it. Okay, but hey, remember that story we did.

That's the explanation. I want Texas-raised leather, baby. Well, we can get it in your pocketbook, Jack. Besties, remember to tell a friend, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y, that is how we grow the show. Have you had the best one yet? If you know, you know, and I will see you, as always,

enthusiastically, mania. Hey, Trey, let's play that Dubai chocolate one more time before we wrap. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti E.J. Dwyer down in Charlottesville, Virginia, celebrating like a wadu. Happy birthday to Zachary Thornburg

in Wichita, And a shout out to Yeti, Shelby Howard, who found an even more expensive baby carrier than the one we covered on last week's show. Jack, we covered the $4,000 artopops. She sent us a $7,400 competitor. It was made of unobtainium. And Emily Harrison in White Plains, New York wants to give us some credit for clearly stating not to choose Duke in the March Madness Brackets. So, Emily, thank you for the shout-up. By the way, go Gators.

My mom was raised in Gainesville, Florida. I can't believe I haven't said go Gators yet. I forgot you owe us a chomper to, Jack. I just gave him. And Dylan Kikano has got a new job after graduation in accounting. Taxation over odd. It's great timing, baby. And a big shout out to Claire B and her dog's guy,

who were wearing the T-boy hat in the marina of San Francisco. Claire, that puppy sky was looking fantastic in the slamming salmon. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack, nickel and stock of ShakeShack. both on stock of Apple, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.