The Best One Yet - 🥽 “Mickey’s Metaverse” — Disney’s Fortnite investment. Build-A-Bear’s adults-only website. America’s new trade bestie.

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Fortnite, the world’s biggest video game, just got a whopping $1.5B investment from Disney — Because when it comes to innovation, evolution is easier than creation.Build-A-Bear newest teddy bears are laughably for 18+ — It shows the power of the “Velvet Rope Effect.”And America’s newest bestie? It’s Mexico — China has been replaced by Mexico as our top trading partner, so we’re going to break down friend-shoring, near-shoring, and re-shoring.$BBW $DIS $SPYSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I don't know what my yawning is all about. I've been working out really hard, full disclosure. When you see me, dude, you're going to be like, whoa. Whoa. Well, as a result, today I'm feeling a little physical toll. So let me just understand. That workouts were supposed to be. You're saying you've gotten so strong.

It's caused you to become tired. Like your body can't physically pump enough oxygen to all those muscles. So it's exhausting. I should have eaten a bigger burrito at lunch. Such a funny day of a hunger bag. back. I'm so tired because I'm so huge. You're like all these biceps are really messing with my brain. Dude, it's exhausting being this fit.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, February 12th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. I'm sorry, Eddie's one second. Jack just told me he's too tired because he's too strong right now.

Is that correct? I said, I said I've been working out a lot recently and I'm kind of exhausted right now. So Jack may not be at his best right now because his biceps are too huge. I'm still trying to put this together. I'm not math in it, man. I've been working out and getting so strong that I'm feeling weak right now. Yeah, that's the, that's the irony. Jack's in such good shape.

He's in terrible shape. First story for today's show. I know you can fill it together. What do we got? For our first story, Fortnite. The Blockbuster online video game just got a one and a half billion dollar investment from Disney. Barry, the Metaverse isn't dead.

The Metaverse is Fortnite. For our second story, Build a Bear, the childhood teddy bear company just launched an adult's only website. Yiddis, if you want to buy a naughty teddy bear, you must be 18 or older. And our third and final story, we have a new bestie. America's top trade partner isn't China anymore. It's Mexico. So Jack and I are going to talk about offshoring and near-shoring and friend-shoring and reshoring.

All the shores. We're covering them all. Are we sure we're going to talk about all those shores? But besties, before we hit that wonderful mix to start the week. We're sure. And what a fantastic mix to kick off the week, Jack. Love it. We know where you're listening right now.

You're at home sick, aren't you? You're at home. You're sick. You need a flonex, a tissue, and a whole box of ibuprofen, baby. Because today, February 12th is one of the sickest days of the year. Today, 16 million Americans are calling in sick. In fact, 10 million Americans already requested the day off. 11 million Americans are also showing up late today.

So what is the sudden sickness afflicting the country and preventing us from being at work? Jack, what is the sudden variant that is hitting our immune systems today? It's Super Bowl sickness. 37 million Americans will be late to work or not at work today because of the Super Bowl flow. The day after the Super Bowl, it's the second biggest sick day of the year every year. Because the day after the Super Bowl party is the Super Bowl hangover. That seven-layer dip needs another day to. to digest.

Those light beers, they don't feel so light right now. The guac was a little too extra. Jack, why can't the NFL just do the Super Bowl on a Saturday? It makes so much sense. I don't know. Tradition. Dr. Goodell, he said so. The NFL's pretty big on old-school traditions, Nick.

So yeah, it is your secret today? It's safe with us. Besties, rest up today for the team so you can play tomorrow. Cough, cough. I think I'm getting the black lung pop. Talk to me in 22 years. It's not very well ventilated. this podcast, Jack.

Yeah, it is whether you're working today, not working today, or plan as a backup starting today because the starter's at home sick. Just put some ice on it, and we got your back. Let's in our three stars. Doctor's note, sign of Jack. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm.

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. For our first story, last week, Disney, shockingly invested one and a half billion dollars into the biggest video game on Earth.

Why do they do it? Because evolution is easier than creation. Jack, can we open up the book of Bob? In the first two minutes of Disney's earnings call last week, CEO Bob Iger announced a magic kingdom of updates. There were so many updates. I almost choked on a turkey leg, Jack. There was tinker dust everywhere. Tinker dust is a great luck. It's not, but that was perfect.

First, he announced that former Alabama football coach, Nick Saban, is joining ESPN's college football coverage. Then he announced that Taylor Swift's Erez tour movie is going to be exclusive on Disney Plus, starting March 15th. Finally, he announced that Moana, which was the most streamed movie of 2023, is getting a sequel, Moana 2. surprise out of all those announcements by far what was it jack disney has invested one and a half billion dollars into epic games they now own nine percent of the video game technology company yet he's epic games happens to be the owner of fortnight and fortnight happens to be the biggest video game on planet earth the new bob is the old bob wall street was excited about those disney announcements so excited

they boosted disney stock 13 percent for its biggest day in the market in years but Nick and I should point out, Disney isn't just investing in Fortnite. It's basically adopting Fortnite into the family. Disney is going to be sharing all of their Disney IP, their entire Disney family, with Fortnite. And it's got quite an IP collection. Oh, it does, because remember, Eddie's Disney owns Marvel superheroes and Star Wars action and Pixar movies and Avatar. Indiana Jones, also owned by Disney. The Mighty Ducks owned by Disney.

The Simpsons owned by Disney. Tinker dust everywhere. It's still recovering from the Tinker. sink or dust inhalation. What we're saying yet is that Disney's greatest asset. The characters from their famous movies can now be included in Fortnite. The most played video game on earth. Fortnite, the blockbuster online video game that lets you play and interact with other people in a virtual world. Can we repeat that for a second?

Fortnite is an online place that lets you play and interact with other people in a virtual world. And not just play and interact actually, right? Jack, there's some other verbs involved here. On Fortnite, you can play, you can watch, you can create, and you can shop. I'm sorry, Jack, you're going to have to sit down, stand up and put down the controller. That sounds a lot like... A metaverse. It sounds like a metaverse.

It's a metaverse. Fortnite is a headset away from a metaverse. Yeah, it is. If you've seen the movie Ready Player 1, then you know what we're talking about. And now Disney's universe is in Fortnite's metaverse. You can change your avatar to Olaf if you want to. But it's going to cost you some tinker dust. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney?

Evolution is easier than creation. That is before you pause the pod, that takeaway, it's got nothing to do with religion. But it has everything to do with innovation. Because in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was going to create a metaverse. Zuck called it the next iteration of the mobile internet. And he's been trying to create the metaverse ever since then. You even change the name of the company to meta. But it's not been working.

In the meantime, Fortnite has evolved into the closest thing we've seen yet. to a Metaverse. What started as a basic first-person shooter video game, now has virtual concerts, it has art galleries, it has hangout zones, where you can meet up with your buddies who are also logged in online. Besties last year, Disney laid off their entire Metaverse division. Their job was to create a Metaverse. Instead, Disney is grabbing onto Epic Games, which is evolving into a Metaverse.

Because when it comes to innovation, evolution is easier than creation. For our second story, Build a Bear, just launched, get this, an adult-only website for adult-only teddy bears. Bears after dark. It's the perfect example of the velvet rope effect. Jack, there is nothing more fun than when we whip open the history books. You want to whip open the history books, man? Yeah, the first ever teddy bear was created in 1902 and it was named after then-president

Theodore Roosevelt. Well, Jack, what do you think then-president Theodore Roosevelt would think about Teddy Bears today? I think you'd be surprised because the company, Bill DeBerberr is at the top of the food chain. Yeti's, Bill DeBer, the customizable teddy bear company, just finished their best year ever. They sold $500 million of customizable teddy bears. Their stock has five-exed in the past five years, and they just opened their 500th Bill de Bear workshop. Jack, could you sprinkle on more context for us, please. There's more Bilda bears in America today than there are Chucky Cheeses.

Now, Yetis, you know, Buildabair, just like any teddy bear. It's a classic kid's toy for children. You'll find a Build a Bear workshop at the mall. Right next to Aunt DeAnne's pretzels, there's going to be a lot of kids screaming of joy and crying in the stores. You look at a Buildabere teddy bear and it just feels like a hug. Here's the news. Builder Bear's newest product isn't exactly safe for work. Builder's newest product is adults only.

Adults only teddy bears. Because the new website from Buildabair is called the Bear Cave. And it has a lineup of bears they call Bears after dark. And Jack, let's say I want to go on this website and visit the Bears after dark. Don't act like you haven't done it already. Okay, I'm doing a few times today. And what happens when you go there? You must attest that you're 18 or older.

No joke. The website requires the same date of birth at a station as like Budlite.com does. It's like a liquor company, but they're selling teddy bears. So Nick and I were trying to figure out what's going on here. And the first thing we thought of, cadets. We've told you about cadults yet. He's adults who play with toys. It's become a booming industry.

for the toy industry. Nick's a cadult. I'm a cadalt sometimes. 40% of Build a Bear sales happen to go to teens and adults, they are cadets. But Bears After Dark is a new level of escalation. It's a new pursuit of,

let's just call them adults, not kiddalts. And this ain't no Beanie, baby, Jack. For example, you can buy a bear who's carrying a bottle of rosé, who's wearing a silk robe, and that robe says, you turn me on.

Jack, I'm looking at it right now and I'm blushing. I let the Bear Daddy, which comes wearing a bow tie. magic mic cuffs and heart-shaped boxers. I'm sorry, Jack, is it getting a little hot in here? It's not just soft. These bears are saucy.

It's not just nice. These bears are naughty. Less playtime, more playboy. Yates, we're not talking about rated R bears. This is like PG-13 teddy bears. It's a gag. You get it for your Valentine's Day as a joke. But still, besties, this is a bold move for build a bear.

They pivoted from focused on child plushness to moderately risque forbidden fruit. It's so close to crossing the line, but they don't really cross the line. No, they don't cross the line. I hope we didn't either in our description of it on the show. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Buildabair? It's a perfect example of the velvet rope effect. Yeties, there is nothing more annoying than a velvet rope.

It means you can't get it. But there's nothing more intriguing than a velvet rope because you want to get in. Yeah, that's the velvet rope effect. Ironically, exclusivity, it drives more engagement. And that's what Build a Bear has achieved by gating its adult-only bear content. Buildabair could have just added these cheeky bears to their website, and they would have sold a bunch of them probably. But by creating a comical website that pretends to be naughty

and requires you to be 18 or older to enter, that is what made Build A Bear go viral, and that is why the Wall Street Journal did a front-page piece on the new Builder Bears. Bears After Dark demonstrates the power of putting up a velvet rope. For our third and final story with Jack, who is just jacked right now, I should remind everyone, America's newest, biggest trading bestie. Guess what? It's Mexico. Made in Mexico is the new made in China. But what about made in USA? But yet he's, since Jack and I were born, frankly, the most popular three words in America were these. Made in China. Made in China. You couldn't open up like a

Pringles can without seeing made in China. It was everywhere. Because America bought more goods from China than any other country. And it was all thanks to a concept called offshoring. CEOs in America spent the 80s, 90s, and 2000s outsourcing factories to China. Because CEOs in America realized they could boost profits and lower prices with China's one billion workers. China became the world's biggest factory. That $15-dollar cute top, or that $1,500 iPhone, they're both thanks to China. And it's all because of offshoring. Since 2002, the U.S. has imported more from China, than any other country in any year full stop.

But here's the news. Last year, Mexico passed China. That's right. Mexico just became our new trading bestie. Because our imports from Mexico rose by 5% last year to $475 billion worth of stuff. But Jack, what did our imports look like from China last year? Imports from China fell by 20% to a level below what we imported from Mexico.

Besties, we're talking cars, we're talking computers, we're talking avocado. is all of them Mexican made these days. We're getting most of them, a lot of them from Mexico. I drive a Volkswagen that's made Mexico. Because Heko in Mexico is the new made in China. So how did Mexico pass China to become America's top trading bestie? How out of nowhere? Did we wake up over the weekend to discover that Mexico is now our top trading bestie over China?

Two reasons. Friend shoring and near shore. Friend shoring and near shoring. Friend shoring is when you move production from non-allies. Like China. allies. Like Mexico. And the trend of friend shoring started with Trump's trade war and accelerated during the pandemic. The other reason is near-sharing. It's more reliable if you buy stuff from a country that's right around the corner. Like remember when we had that shortage of ships during the pandemic, Jack?

Or the shortage of Q-tips when we needed those COVID tests during the pandemic? Well, Mexico is just a drive away and that is a whole lot closer to get to. But all this friend shoring and near-shoring, Nick and I should sprinkle on some context. Economic shifts like this, they happen in decades. they don't happen in years. Moving a factory takes a while. It does. And that's why Apple still has one iPhone factory in China that employs 300,000 people. If Apple has a factory employing the population of St. Louis, it's going to take a while before they can move that. Like James Taylor said, oh, Mexico. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are in Mexico? There's friend shorn, there's near shorn, and then there's reshorn. Yet he's friend shoring was

triggered by Trump's trade war. Near shoring was triggered by the pandemic. And those two shorings powered the rise of made in Mexico. But Jack and I got to ask, what about made in America? How do we get reshoring? To get reshoring to happen, to get things made in America again, it really requires one key thing, government incentives. Yeah, because the number one reason we make stuff in China or Mexico, it's because it's simply more expensive in America. And it's cheaper in China and Mexico. Now the IRA and chips acts both gave incentives. for businesses to make stuff in America, and that sparked some historic investments in America.

Because the number one way to drive reshoring to America... It's financial incentives for business. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways to kick off the week? Disney just invested $1.5 billion into Fortnite, which is Disney's ticket to the Metaverse. Because in innovation, evolution is easier than creation. For our second story, Build a Bear just debuted Bears After Dark, a collection of mildly risque bears for adults.

The 18-plus website requirement demonstrates the power of the velvet rope effect. And our third and final story, Mexico just passed China to become the top import country of the United States. The key to get more stuff made in America, the key to reshoring its government incentives. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, for the first time ever, the S&P 500 just closed above. 5,000 points. I checked before the show. Stocks are now up 5% from their 2021 high, and they're up

48% from their pre-pandemic highs. Not too shabby. And second, Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, wants $7 trillion to make more computer chips to fuel artificial intelligence. Sam Altman is trying to raise $7 trillion, which is more than the value of Apple and Microsoft combined. He we need AI chips that badly. And finally, Armeiz, the luxury handbag maker, saw sales surge by 21% last quarter. They keep raising the prices of those Birkenbags, and people just keep buying them. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Sarah Thornburg from lovely Potwing, Kansas.

Kansas is the home of the largest ball of twine in the world. Jack, can you take us down to Cocker City, Kansas, please? The population of Cocker City is only 457 people, but the ball of twine that it's home to weighs 17,000 pounds. With over 7,938,709 strands of twine. And every August, Kansas hosts a twineathon where people can add to that giant ball of twine. So Kansas City, congratulations on your Super Bowl win. We know you're in Missouri technically, but we know a lot of Kansas folk are fans of the Chiefs. And if you find yourself passing through Kansas or Missouri, stop by Cocker City.

City and B.Y.O. Twine. Make that ball bigger. Yetis, you are looking fantastic today. And even though, you know, you're a little bit under the weather, we got your back. 37 million of you, get well soon. So while you got that thermometer in your mouth, you can click to follow T-boy so you get this podcast every day. And if you already followed the show, send it to a buddy. Get well soon, and Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Before we go, a happy 29th birthday to Yeti, Rockna, Takuro.

over in Mumbai, India. Congratulations to Lauren E. Carl's, the soon-to-be CPA, who's celebrating at Minnesota's finest, the Olive Garden. I'll give the boss a call and let him know you're coming. Put it a pasta order with the big guy, Jack. And a happy birthday to Violetta,

over in San Francisco, who's celebrating in the mud baths of Kalistoga. And happy 30th birthday to Rebecca Ligori. Jack, Rebecca is celebrating with a ski trip to the northeast. Any mountain recommendations for her, by the way? Best mountain in Vermont is Sugarbush. Best in New Hampshire is Cannon, but Mount Tremblaunt up north in Canada, that's a nice mountain too. Can't go wrong with a Killington or a Catamount.

But Mad River Glenn is literally a co-op, and that's just cool. And the Middlebury Snowball just added Knights King, and that's where Nick and I went to call. This is Jack. I own stock at Disney, and Nick and I both own stock of Apple. And we both own ETFs of the S&P 500. This has been really funny extended. No, I think you're on... Yeah, no, I'm huge. I'm not embarrassed.

Hey, John, can we wide lens this thing? Jack's traps aren't fitting in it. Look at you. You're at 60% energy. You're at 200% body mass. And you're doing your best pod you've ever done. How you do it? Why?

John!