The Best One Yet - ☎️ “No you hang up!” — Landlines’ comeback. SharkNinja’s influencer army. The Fed’s D-Day. +Nike/Nobu Sushi Club.

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Landline phones are making a comeback, led by the brand Tin Can… and it’s because of Millennial parents.SharkNinja sells gadgets in 35 categories… and pays influencers $700M to promote them..The Federal Reserve announced an interest rate cut… and declared independence.Plus, Nike just launched a Sushi Club?... Welcome to the Nobu Sneaker era.$SN $TMUS $SPYWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Sony’s Walkman 🎧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.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday. September 18th. 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. Yet is yesterday, Jack and I did a story on how the treadmill is the most popular workout in America. Jack, do you notice the DMs? Based on the DMs, every one of our listeners is on a treadmill right now. By the way, Jack and I make every one of our stories four and a half minutes. So after each story, just turn up the incline by 0.5. And you should be good. for the day. Did any of the DMs sympathize with me having fallen on the treadmill? Jack doesn't run on the treadmill. The treadmill runs on Jack. Jack, three stories for today's

team boy, what do we got to the pod? For our first story, Shark Ninja, this home appliance stock has more than tripled in the last two years. Because Shark Ninja doesn't care about celebrities, cool people, or Gwyneth Paltrow. They care about the grassroots. For our second story, it's the Fed.

They just made their biggest announcement of the year. The Fed finally. cut interest rates for this economy. Because the most important magic in your life isn't Harry Potter, it's interest rates. And our third and final story is the biggest comeback product of 2025. To the landline telephone. Landline, millennial parents are bringing back the landline, but not for them, it's for the kids. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

Oh, fantastic mix of stories. And yes, this is your cue to increase the treadmill by 0.5 on the incline. The first rule of sushi club, don't talk about sushi club. I'm sorry, Jack. What the heck is sushi club? It's a real thing. It's kind of a big deal, actually. Nike just collabed with no boot, the fancy sushi chain, for a new brand called Sushi Club.

That's right, Eddie, sushi club, a fashion concept that combines sneakers with thinly sliced pieces of fish. Not an onion that line. This is a true story. It's a collab involving a sneaker brand and a sashimi brand. Jack and I'll serve up some context here. You see, Nobu is the Louis Vu Vu ton of sushi, charging 50 bucks per a spike of that sea urchin. No, we did a story recently on Nobu, because they've expanded to hotels and even spas. But, Jack, on the other hand, Nike is in need of some help.

Nike stock is down 40% in the last five years, while the rest of the market is booming. The swoosh has lost some swagger. So here is the strategy. Nike has collabed on shoes with the king of Japanese cuisine. Here's the product. Nike Air Force Ones, but with laces that are in spurious. inspired by chopsticks. And white leather, that is the same shade as sushi rice.

The only thing missing on these shoes is the inevitable brown soy sauce stain. Oh, I'm going to need my tidesstick pen, honey. Also, if the Souls had a little pocket for actual chopsticks, that'd be pretty cool. I mean, you should be on the team, Jack. You should be on the team. Do you know anyone who brings their own chopsticks? I do, Jackie, had a holster on his belt. Shoes would be a better place to store, though.

So, besties, Nike's. Turnaround plan? Is it faster shoes? Softer athleisure or more pro-athlete sponsorships? Nope. It's sneakers inspired by Black Measokad, with or without shop tech holders. Hey, Adidas, your move. You better sign Benny Hana before this pod is done. Bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it works out for us. Jack, let's see our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn.

They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack, Nick. 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, Shark Ninja. They launch a new home appliance every two weeks. This is an R&D factory, and its stock is surging right now. Shark Ninja's secret, though, they spend seven hundred. million dollars a year on influencers. And that proves that you don't need celebrities to get noticed. Yetis, full disclosure, but based on the number of arguments Molly and I have on this,

the most important real estate on earth is the counter space in your kitchen. And for Shark Ninja, the space on your kitchen countertop is their manifest destiny. They want all of it. Yes, it is. Shark Ninja, based in lovely Need of Massachusetts. Just outside Boston. The fastest growing home goods company in the world right now, it's Shark Ninja.

Worth $16 billion, they're now more valuable than Best Buy. Jack and I Dove and Teaboy style, and Shark Ninja's numbers look more like Shark Nado. They control 45% of the U.S. vacuum market, 35% of the blender market, and 28% of the air purifier market. Besties, Shark Ninja is on 35 different categories. They launch 25 new products a year. That is one every two weeks. If it plugs in and makes a noise when you turn it on, Shark Ninja probably makes it. Yeah, and they'll sell it to you for six easy pavements of 1999 if you need it.

Thanks, afterpay. Their slushy machine when they launched it, it had a hundred thousand person wait list. Shark Ninja sells an ice cream machine every eight seconds. To quote, Maximus the Gladiator, are you not entertained? They have a team of 1,000 engineers working on their next gadget. The sun never sets on the Shark Ninja Empire. We have people on every continent, except Antarctica. Hey, Christopher Nolan, why'd you make a movie on the Manhattan Project?

You should have made it on Shark Ninja. And yet he's, what is Shark Ninja strategy? What is it, Jack? They don't find what you love, they find what you hate. They find what you hate. That's what we find fascinating about Shark Ninja. Jack, why don't you share that Wall Street Journal story? According to that report, Shark Ninja's team studies online reviews ad nauseum to find customer

pain points and then develop a solution to those pain points. And we actually shared a little on this in a story last year. Like if Dysimmed vacuum owners say that all this hair is getting stuck in their vascular? No, it gets stuck in the spindle. And you have to pull out scissors and cut out the massive disgusting rings of hair. Well, the Shark Ninja engineers will create a vacuum based on those bad reviews that fix specifically the dog hair clogging issue. And now, nearly half of all U.S. vacuum sold are Shark Ninja. Your pain was Shark Ninja's gain.

They didn't find what you love, they focused on what you hate. And now its stock has tripled since their 2023 IPO. But besties, Jack and I got more curious. And so we dove further in the financials, and we found this wild stat that is core to Shark Ninja's strategy. And that number is $700 million. $700 million. That's how much money Shark Ninja spends every year on social media ads and influencers.

Which to sprinkle on some context is twice as much spending on the marketing budget as whirlpool does. If you saw a video of strawberries blending magically with ice to create a blender smoothie and then a rum finisher on top for a homemade daquery and then a little umbrella at the top, Shark Ninja's marketing team was fueling all those views over on TikTok. Because which one of us hasn't bought a Shark Ninja product based on an Instagram post? 700 million bucks though, Jack. I mean, at that price, Shark Ninja is basically subsidizing the entire creator economy right now. How did your influencer afford their trip to Abiza? Well, Instagram posts for Shark Ninja's new face mask paid for the whole trip.

Red Light face mask, Nick, which still kind of freaks me out when Alex Worc. I mean, Jack, can you imagine if Billy Mays was still alive in the Shark Ninja era? It'd be a trillion-dollar company man. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Shark Ninja? Shark Ninja doesn't use Gwyneth. They use the grassroots. Yaddies, the rule in marketing these days seems to be that you need a select. to co-promote your brand if you want to be successful.

Many of our friends are CPG entrepreneurs, and they say that they need a celebrity on their side for their brand to stand out from the crowd and get noticed amidst the noise. But Shark Ninja just spent $700 million on influencers last year. Not celebrities, just people with a handle and a following. They're turning average influencers on TikTok into their very own QVC network for Gen Z.

While Nike puts a million bucks into one mega-celeb, Shark Ninja puts $1,000 into a thousand influencers. Shark Ninja proves you don't need Gwyneth, you can go grassroots instead. For our second story, in the biggest Fed meeting in decades, the Federal Reserve just announced it is cutting interest rates. We'll tell you what that means for your money and what it means for our money, collectively, as a nation. Yeties, the most exciting moment on Wall Street since NVIDIA's last earnings report. What is it, Jack? Yesterday was Decision Day for our central bank.

Yeah, we almost kept Maxie home. from preschool. It was that big a deal, besties. Can I sprinkle on some context? I would love for you to, Jack. The Federal Reserve, our central bank, is fighting a rare threat to the economy known as stagflation. Ah, stagflation, high inflation and high in employment. It's like your house is on fire and flooding at the same time. It's a catch-22 for the Fed, because lowering interest rates would help the jobs market, but potentially worsen the inflation situation. While increasing interest rates would help solve inflation, but then that would hurt. the jobs market. Now, going into yesterday, investors expected a 0.25% interest rate cut,

and that's exactly what they got. Here's the news, besties. The Fed just cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point. Its first interest rate cut in nine months. What about a half a percentage? That wasn't even considered, according to the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, which disappointed investors a bit. Yes, it did. Now, besties, we know what you're wondering right now, and we've got the answer. If you're curious what impact this has on your wallet, well, then pull out your wallet because it's already affected your wallet. Starting today, if you have a high-yield savings account, it will decrease the rate it offers by 0.25% mirroring the Fed's move.

If you're curious about buying a house, well, mortgage rates are already down to their lowest level in three years in anticipation of what happened yesterday. Because what happened yesterday was so widely expected. Jack, what about credit cards? Because we all pretty much got them. Credit card companies, they take their lead from the Fed too. so your APR should be lower for your next statement. Besties, another way to think about this,

interest rates are like the magic in Harry Potter. They affect everything you touch like it's Hogwarts. Can I go a little more nautical? They're like the tides. And like all your boats are the assets, they'll go up or down depending on the interest rates. You're right. They're like magical tides.

So besties, a one-quarter point, that doesn't seem like a lot. But Jerry Powell, the chairman of the Fed, indicated two more cuts are coming this year. That's two more size of relief for whatever loan you have right now. Also, Jerry Powell said one more cut could come next year. Which would be another side of relief. And the key reason he's comfortable with all these rate cuts these days? What is it, Jack? He said yesterday that he thinks tariffs are not a long-term threat for inflation. Yeah, that was the big news buried in his announcement. For the first time, the Federal Reserve thinks

that the trade war price increases are a one-off. They're not going to, like, continue hanging with us for the next couple years. So with the inflation flood, not a major concern anymore, the Fed can turn their attention to the fire, which is the worsening job situation in this economy. And that means cutting interest rates to help grow the economy. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching rates? The Fed just gave its declaration of independence. Yeties, one reason why this was just such a big Federal Reserve meeting is because of President Trump's objectively relentless pressure campaign on the Fed to lower interest rates. So the question was, is the Fed still independent like it's always been?

Well, that exact question was asked yesterday to the Fed chairman, Jerry Powell. And he simply answered, yes. Because what else is he going to say? But what we found fascinating is that his actions spoke louder than his very short words. Except for the one new Trump appointee, who was confirmed just last week, who is still technically a member of the White House, the Fed showed unity in yesterday's interest rate decision. Get this. The 12 members of the Federal Reserve voted 11 to 1, defying Trump's calls for more aggressive rate cuts. Not with words, but with actions. The Fed just

gave its declaration of independence. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Tin Can, a classic courted landline phone has officially gone viral. This landline just raised VC money. Tin Can makes an old-school product, a landline phone. phone. But they've got a new school business model and it's got growth hacks on speed dial. We're going to talk landline phones. The Jack, I don't want to put you on the spot, but I feel like you should share a deeply personal anecdote right now. So first time I ever got a phone call from a girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was in fourth grade. The phone rang. My mom answered. I was like playing video games or whatever. So my mom goes, Jack, it's for you. And then she goes, I think it's a girl.

Jennifer. Butterflies in the belly. I mean, this is like one of my things. favorite humble brags about you, as I always tell people, Jack got invited to prom when he was in fourth grade by a girl. That was what the call was about, right? But yet he's Jack and I are parents now, and we want our kids to have those same coming-of-age moments that we had with the old landline phones. But we don't have landline phones, no doubt. Now, some parents give their kids dumb phones without screens, but that doesn't really work either. And we're definitely not giving our kid a smartphone until we absolutely must. But the solution here, it turns out, is so obvious, it wasn't obvious.

Bring back the landline. Yeah, yeah, go back to the most basic innovation in the entire technological category. It turns out, Yetis, the hottest trend among millennial parents isn't organic diapers. It's landline telephones coming back into the home. But here's the key.

Instead of calling up Comcast to hook up your old curly cord beige phone again, you're buying tin cans. Tin cans. Yeties, the financials, of this startup, Tin Can, are almost more impressive than the iPhone. Jack, I'm just going to say it, more impressive than the iPhone. Because Tin Can just announced a $3.5 million fundraise for their landline phone business,

but they run on Wi-Fi. That may not sound like a lot of money, but it is plenty of money to launch a basic dumb phone business with powerful margins. Nick, this is as dumb a phone as it gets. It rings just like phones rang 30 years ago. There's no caller ID. It's corded. It's basically the same experience as we had before puberty check. Exactly. But with this phone, it enjoys network effects. That's right, because calling other tin cans is free. So the more people who have a tin can, I'm sorry, the more kids who have a tin can, the better the product experience of the tin can. It's called can to can calling. It's in network. You can call your buddy and say, do you want to have a sleepover with me tonight? Those network effects are driving more tin can sales. But this business model, also enjoys recurring revenue, which is key, because the problem facing tin can is that you would only buy one tin can phone, so the business size could be super limited. But tin can found a

subscription. They subscriptified. It's not just a one-off phone purchase for 75 bucks. To really enjoy the tin can, you pay $10 a month to be able to call anyone, including cell phones, which leads to the profit puppy of this business. That 10 bucks a month, it's pure profit. Yeah. Because tin can doesn't have the costs of their own cellular network. They simply use your home's Wi-Fi. Not too shabby. So they sell a phone for 75 bucks and then make $10 of pure profit every single month forever. The only thing not dumb about the tin can is the app the parents use to control who can actually call little Jimmy and little Julie. Because remember, concerned parents are in charge of this product. So only approved phone contacts can call your kids' tin can phone. But besties, that's not all.

because Tin Can also figured out a growth hack, Easter eggs. More like an entertainment hack, because if little Johnny dials ha-ha into the phone, which is 4242, then it picks up the joke of the day that you get to listen to and laugh at. Now, we don't have this company's numbers, and this could be a classic millennial fad that flames out in a year. But we do know it has become a viral trend,

and our latest investor said this about the landline phone business. It's one of the most viral businesses I've ever seen. One sec, Jack. Ma, the meatloaf. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Tin Can Landlines? The solution to smartphone peer pressure is millennial parent pods. Yet these parent groups are banding together. Wild phenomenon.

They are agreeing not to get their kids' phones and instead create networks of landlines. The parents are calling them pods. And these pods of parents who refuse to give their kids' smartphones eliminates the social pressure on kids to have smartphones and use social media. Because if one kid has a landline, then it's lame. But if everyone has a landline, then it's kind of cool. And this reminds us of the Pinterest story from earlier in the week. Remember, Pinterest is trying to be the nice guy of social media.

But trying to do the right thing, when everyone else is doing the bad thing, it's not a good business. It doesn't work in the social media business model besties. Similarly, families are finding it hard to tell kids no smartphone when their friends all have smartphones. Instead, collective action is the best way to eliminate harmful but hard to resist things. So the solution besties to smartphone peer pressure, it appears to be the millennial parent pop. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday?

Shark Ninja sells 35 different types of appliances and markets them with a $700 million influencer budget. The stock is tripled, proving that you don't need Gwyneth Paltrow, you can do grassroots instead. For our second story, the Fed cut interest rates by a quarter point yesterday. Not as much as President Trump has been demanding. With actions, not words, the Federal Reserve just issued its declaration of independence. And our third and final story is the tin can. This is a viral landline phone. Old school product, new school business model. Yeah, it's neutral. It's definitely neutral. And the solution to smartphone peer pressure appears to be the millennial parent pod.

But besties, this pod's not over. yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, pour your pints out because Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's just quit the company yesterday. We did a story last week on how Ben and Jerry were protesting the parent company Unilever for silencing the Ben and Jerry's brand. Yeah, let's bring on some context. Remember, when Ben and Jerry sold the company, they were supposed to have an independent board. Let them say whatever they want, basically. But Ben and Jerry said that Ben and Jerry's brand has been silenced by corporate. So Jerry can't be part of it. anymore. Oh, by the way, Yetis, Jerry doesn't have social media, so Ben actually posted the news

for him on Instagram. I scream, you scream, we all scream for an amicable legal resolution. For our second story, Stubhub had its IPO yesterday. But unlike all the other IPOs we've been covering lately, this one actually went down. Because Stubhub is facing problems that we discussed in our story last week on the World Cup launching their ticket presale. You see, with dynamic pricing, there's less opportunity for scalpers to make money. And Stubbubbubb is, Dubhub, its business model, depends on scalpers. And finally, a couple important updates on robotaxies have arrived at your destination about eight minutes later than they originally said they were going to arrive at your destination.

First, calling all bachelorette parties, Waymo is expanding to Nashville, but they're using Lyft as the app to book rides with. It's the first time Lyft has been used instead of Uber. So now you can squeeze all 14 of you into one Waymo, and that driver ain't going to stop you. True. Great point. Also, Waymo just got approval to start testing at SFO, the San Francisco airport, Jack. Huge news because that is the taxi use case. Getting to and from the airport.

Yeah, Uber and Lyft do 25,000 airport rides to San Francisco. And this could be one. When I fly in New York next week to see you, Jack, I'm going to see if I can get one of these. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is a correction. Sent him by Bryce Wary, a legendary Yeti, who left us a comment on Spotify. We did a story yesterday on whether quarterly earnings required by publicly traded companies, whether quarterly is just too frequent.

Whether we should kill the quarterly earnings. And we said that quarterly financials are required by law to be audited. They're not actually, though. Only annual reports must be audited. To all the accountants out there holding us accountable, thank you our bad on that error. Although if you are an accountant, you're also going to hate our other catchphrase. Always round up. Yeties, you look fantastic over there.

Not all of us can get invited to prom when we're in middle school, like Jack did. That is a rounding up that the accountant who just sent in the fact check is not going to appreciate. Okay, but let us know, what was your first phone call where your mom really ripped on you for it? No, where she said, I think it's a girl or I think it's a boy. Yeah, yeah. Every mom's done it, and we all've been there. Drop us a comment about your OG talk cute on the phone 30 years ago. And a five-star review, and Jack and I will see.

see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Paden Guyot over in Atlanta, Georgia. And a big shout out to Kelsey Black of Flugerville, Texas. She is headed to England for an epic bookseller conference and rocking her book brand. And a happy birthday to Giawa Nagraj from Bangaluru, India. Congratulations and keep on consultant, baby. And a big shout out to Rick Mattson from Fox Island, Washington, who just got the best shirt yet from the T-boy store for his son. Oh yeah, Jeddies. Go to t-boypod.com. We always got merch for you. Jump in T-Boystall. Oh, wait a minute. Rick got it from his son. Oh, happy belated Father's Day. I didn't realize it was Father's Day yet. I'll take two.

This is Jack. I own stock and Lyft, nickel and stock in Nike, and we both own ETFs of the S&P 500.