The Best One Yet - 🫎 “The #1 hottest stock of 2023” — Abercrombie’s re-cool-ification. Tiger Woods’ Nike finale. Boeing’s worst day.

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

The #1 performing stock of 2023 was Abercrombie & Fitch — And it’s all thanks to women and “The Mullet Strategy.”Over the weekend, a door fell blew off a Boeing airplane mid-flight — Boeing stock just fell 7% and we’re looking at how catastrophes change company culture.And after 27 years, Nike and Tiger Woods are officially breaking up — But Nike’s greatest skill isn’t making shoes, it’s picking talent.$ANF $NKE $BASubscribe 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.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, Tea Boy, Tuesday, January 9th, and today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-Boy. We got the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, what a wonderful mix for today's show, Jack. Should we jump right into it, man? For our first story, the number one stock of 2023, you're not going to believe it.

It wasn't an AI company. It wasn't in Vida. It wasn't even a tech company. No Yet he's the number one top performance stock of last year was Abercrombie and Fitch. How on Earth we'll tell you why. Second story, what do we got, Jack? Over the weekend, the door on a Boeing airplane popped off

mid-flight when the plane was 16,000 feet up. So Jack and I are looking at how catastrophes affect company culture. And our third and final story is 27 years ago. Tiger Woods and Nike signed an endorsement deal. And 27 years later, Nike

and Tiger are finally breaking up. We're checking the scorecard on the most lucrative endorsement deal in sports history. It's not you. It's me. Actually, I don't even know who's saying that. Is that Tiger or Nike?

I think it's the caddy, Jack. I think it's the caddy, you said that. But best news, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories today, man. I love the mix. Last night, I ate a whole bunch of chicken wings because it was the big game. Oh, the big game yet. He's last night was the college football national championship game.

Huge win for the University of the University of Michigan. Crazy win for the Wolverines out there, Jack. Congratulations. Go blue. Go blue, go blue, go blue, go blue. But the real winner wasn't either of these fine universities or the players or the fans or the alumni. Yet he's the real winner of this college football national championship. Coaches. Because college football coaches in America get paid like their royalty. College football coaches are getting paid like their princes out there. For example, Michigan's coach, coach Jim Harbaugh, who not only went to Michigan, but now coaches the head football team? He got paid $8 million just to coach this season.

Plus $2 million in playoff bonuses. That's $667,000 of payments per game. It's actually more than a million dollars per game if you adjust for the six games he got suspended for this year. That's a good point, Jack. We should round up on this one. Coach Harbaugh makes more money during a TV timeout. At a University of Michigan professor does all year, Jack. But honestly, it's not just Coach Harbaugh. No, Yeties. Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. And Jack, could you sprinkle call on a little context for us at the 50 yard line. Get this.

50 different colleges pay their head coach $4 million or more per year. $4 million to scruple a few Xs and then eat a big lasagna after the game, Jack. Don't forget the lasagna after the game. You got to get those carbs. There's well with a gatorade. Georgia's head coach makes $10 million a year. Alabama's head coach makes $11 million a year. The highest paid public employee in the state of Alabama is the head coach of the football team.

It's good to be the king. It's better to be the coach. And this isn't a shocker because football is treated like a religion in so many states in this country. And college football programs might as well be NFL programs these days. Some bring in more revenue than tuition does. And that is why in 43 states, the highest paid employee is the head coach. In those 43 states, the coach can tell the governor to do up downs if he wants them to. You know about Michigan state motto, what it really is?

No, what is it? Latin for in gym we trust. Respect those khakis. Respect those khakis. So congratulations to the fans of the. the University of Michigan. Go, boy. But bigger congratulations to the coach's family. Yeah, win or lose, you're about to go on an expensive vacation right now.

Disney World before the second semester. Let's hit it, 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 an norm. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip. T-boy City on your at list.

If you know, you know, because we... Red to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. For our first story, the number one stock of last year, get this, it was Abercrombie and Fitch. Abercrombie stock nearly quadrupled last year because you needed it, you remembered it, and it was there for you. Jack, can we talk about Abercrombie and Fitch growing up because you didn't wear Abercrombie? Abercrombie wore you. It was the elite clothing for middle school boys where I grew up. I don't know if it was the same for you. Oh, it absolutely wasn't. The South Street Seaport. There was location. Like, I know Oppenheimer invented the atomic bomb, but

Abercrombie put zippers on khakis, Jack. So, Yadis, we know what you're thinking here. You've been following us for a while. We cover stocks every day. Who were the best performing stocks in the market last year, Jeff? Mostly big tech companies, right? Tesla was up 100%? Uber was up 150% last year. Meadow was up 200% last year. Oh, and Navidia? They're so far the winner of AI. Their chips got gobbled up by AI startups. Invidia, the computer chip company was up 249% in the stock market last year. Not too shabby. For those of you not fluent in percentages, that's more than tripling for NVIDIA last year. But here's the funny thing, Yetis. Jack and I noticed that one stock you know and you loved in middle school beat everyone we just mentioned.

Abercrombie and Fitch stock nearly quadrupled last year. Sit down, stand up. And yes, I would like a fitting room. It jumped 285%. You can smell the cologne from wherever you're sitting. Pop the collars. Pop the bottles. Abercrombie just announced. They expect 15% sales growth in 2024. Jack, Abercrombie shares are jumping like it's 1996 and you're about to get your first cargo short. Yeah, they're jumping that high. And it's not even spring break yet. Now, besties, your middle school sweatshirt said right there on the chest, 1892.

That's the year Abercrombie and Fitch was founded. But Abercrombie just had its best year. year ever. And it was driven by one specific division. The women's division. It's women. Yet he's Abercrombie's women's sales were up 30% last year. For a mature company like Abercrombie and Fitch, 30% growth is huge for any division, much less the giant women's division. And remember, Abercrombie also owns Hollister Jack. Hollister's women's sales were dominating that brand too. Hollister is selling non-denin bottoms and selling cute tops at record rates. To quote LFO, Abercrombie loves girls who wear Abercrombie.

And the namesake Abercrombie brand is actually practicing what Nick and I like to call the Mollet strategy. Ah, the Mollet strategy. That's a good one. You want to share more, Jack? Business in the front, party in the back. Abercrombie and Fitch is there for your weekdays and your weekends. Because when you look at the sales figures, women are buying workwear from Abercrombie and Fitch. We're talking tailored pants, blazers and blouses.

Yeah, that's the work in the front. And Abercrombie's become the go-to brand for dresses to wear to weddings. That's the party in the back. And on top of all that, the Demelio sisters from TikTok launched a brand with Abercrombie called Social Tourist. So Abercrombie and Fitch has Hollister for the beach, Abercrombie for offices and weddings, and the Demilios for the TikTok crowd. Women and the Mallet strategy, that's what's driving Abercrombie. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies with nine abs over at Abercrombie? You can't time the market, but you can time the moment.

Yeties, we can actually pinpoint Abercrombie's resurrection because it began to, in the summer of 2022 under the leadership of CEO Fran Horwood. That's when two things happened in this country. You needed new clothes and you remembered Abercrombie and Fitch. 2020 was the year of the wedding. And Abercrombie and Fitch was there with a wide range of wedding dresses for a hundred bucks each. And 2022 was the year the skinny gene died off. And Abercrombie was there with a new trendy, less painted on denim for you. Well, yeah, it is. Let's be real here. You forgot about Abercrombie from 2010 to 2020. It was kind of a dark period. That was the dark decade. Yeah, Abercrombie had to kill off their

moose logo. But in 2022 and 23, you needed Abercrombie and you remembered Abercrombie. Fashion trends are fickle. There's no guarantee Abercrombie's momentum continues. But Abercrombie was there for its core millennial customers the past couple of years. Proving that you can't time the market, but you can time the moment. For our second story, Boeing, its stock dropped 7% yesterday. After at 737 max airplane had like probably the scariest flight we have ever seen, Jack. Terror in the skies. Boeing doesn't have a product problem. It looks like they have a culture problem. So, Jack, let's whip out the timeline here. Saturday, 10 minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight, 1282, something really freaky happened. 10 minutes into the flight, the plane had climbed to 16,000

feet, and then the passengers on the plate heard a loud bang. Because the Aesit door on the side of the plane, it just, it was off. It just burst off. It was gone. The plane was 16,000 feet in the air and the door on the side of the plane burst open. Okay, greatest fear jack, the oxygen mass fell down. That always freaks me out. Yeah, that's never happened to me. But the pilots managed to keep the plane under control and made a successful emergency landing. It was a miracle that nobody was killed on this flight. And it was a miracle that the two seats next to the hole in the side of the plane, those two seats were empty. And that's a miracle too. That wouldn't be. easy. Yeties, this is the kind of thing that happens in nightmares. Yeah, 16,000 feet up in the air.

The side of the plane opened up and there was a six foot wide hole as it was flying. Awful news for people who love window seats like you, Jack. I'm sorry, man. I'm going to think about the aisle seat in the future, man. But yet is, as Jack and I jumped into this story, T-boy style, we noticed there were three important business questions here. First, why did this happen? Why did the door on the side of the plane blow off mid-flight? And the answer, Jack? We don't Yeah, we actually don't know. In the meantime, yeties, the FAA has grounded all 171 Boeing 737 Max Nines until they can confirm the issue. Until they can find a fix.

Which leads to the second question, Jack, where is the door exactly? Yeah, the door that blew off, it actually landed in Portland, Oregon in the backyard of a schoolteacher's house. She walked out her house and in the garden, she wasn't seeing tulips. She was seeing the door to the airplane that fell off. It was like three feet wide by six feet tall. It was an exit door. And now it's been submitted as evidence for this investigation. Jack, also, could you share that funny side note we noticed about this whole situation?

When the door blew off the plane, two phones got sucked out. True story. And they were found on the ground. And guess what? The two phones still work. They survived the 16,000 foot fall. But yeties, that leads to the third question. What the Boeing?

737, Max. Isn't that the same plane that crashed like five or six years ago? Yeah, it is, Jack. Yet he's five years ago. A different version of this same plane crashed twice. 346 people were killed in 2018 and 2019 when two Boeing 737 max has crashed. And get this. The Boeing max planes are actually the most popular commercial planes in the history of aviation.

Yes, this is a big issue. One out of five orders for Boeing the past 65 years. One out of five of them with these 737 max. Max planes. But it's version 9 of this plane that had the issues over the weekend. That's the one that seems to have the type of problem. There's 171 of them and they're all grounded until we figure out what's going on. Jack Boeing said that 2024 was supposed to be their comeback year. Instead, they're going back to square one. They're focused on safety again. In the meantime, yetis, this is a major disruption to United in Alaska. They happen to be the heaviest users of the

737 max nine. So they have a bunch of flights that are canceled until the plane gets greenlit. again. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Boeing in Washington State? What does it take to change culture? Sometimes a catastrophe. Yeti's, five years ago, those investigations into the Boeing crashes, they actually revealed something. They revealed culture problems. Boeing had aggressive production schedules that left workers fearful of speaking up if they saw an issue on the assembly line. That allowed production problems to fester and find their way into the airplanes. Yeties, Boeing is America's only jetliner company. It only competes with Airbus in Europe. That's it. And that lack of competition that's kind of made Boeing lose its edge. Well, the solution to their culture problem,

according to Harvard Business Review, it's nothing less than a full organizational culture change. Well, five years later, this new incident, it raises questions about whether that change has actually happened. If there's a silver lining to this episode on Saturday, it's that this is a wake-up call that more has to be done at Boeing. Because what does it take to change culture? sometimes a catastrophe. Or a near catastrophe. For our third and final story, Nike and Tiger Woods have ended their 27-year-long relationship.

So Nick and I are looking back on the best bet on talent since Michael Jordan. Jack Hall of TMZ, the longest and most lucrative relationship in sports history? It's officially over, man. Nike and Tiger Woods are officially over. Well, let's go back to 1996 when this was a budding, Beautiful romance. Yeah. In 1996, Tiger Woods left Stanford early to go pro.

Tiger Woods, he put down the pencil and he picked up a pitch and wedge. Now, he immediately signed with Nike. Tiger has worn the swoosh since day one of his pro career. Well, get this, Yetis. The next year, Tiger Woods, he won his very first Masters tournament. And how did he do it, Jack? He won by 12 strokes at the age of 21. Sit down, stand up, and I will have a pimento cheese.

Is that a master's thing? I think it is a master's thing. It's ever been, but it sounds delicious. Well, yeah, it used for the next 27 years, Tiger Woods wore the swoosh, and he used Nike clubs for 16 of those years. When you look at the business here, frankly, this was true love. Over 27 years, Nike paid Tiger $500 million in endorsement money.

And when Tiger won his last master's tournament, Nike stock jumped 5%. Nike's association with Tiger has always been valuable to Nike, But perhaps the most valuable moment ever was in 2005. That was the greatest marketing split second in the history of athletics, Jack. On the 17th hole of the final round of the Masters, Tiger chipped the ball onto the green, and it rolled oh so close to the hole before finally dropping in. And the Nike logo was showing the entire time.

Nike could not have written a better commercial than that real-life Tiger Woods moment. And Nicholas Sparks couldn't have written a better love story. But best is three decades later, they just announced an amicable breakup. Can you describe this in more detail, please, Jack? Both Tiger Woods and Nike announced the breakup yesterday, but they also said really nice things about each other. It was kind of like, Jack. Remember when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin conscientiously uncoucult?

It was kind of like that. It feels like that. They're going their separate ways, but hey, they're still friends. It's not you. Now, this does not mean that Tiger Woods is retiring from golf. Right. Tiger Woods could still sign them with a new company, or Tiger Woods could launch his own golf brand.

Yeah, because unlike most of the same. athletes, golfers can pretty much play until they're grave. Tigers got years ahead. It can be playing the PGA tour of the broken hip in 30 years from Boko del Vista. So Nike and Tiger is over, but honestly, Nike has already kind of moved on from golf. When you jump into the Nike earnings reports, Nike just isn't into golf like it used to be. Yeah, in 2016, Nike decided to stop making golf clubs because that part of the business just wasn't profitable.

But back in 2009, peak Tiger Woods, Nike mentioned golf 24 times in their annual. report. This year, they mentioned golf just once. Still, Yetis, Tiger reinforced Nike as the best brand in the sport for 30 years. And the best brand in sports overall. Tiger's Sunday golf uniform, the red shirt with the black pants, that symbolized golf for literally decades. Tiger's dominance generated money not just in the golf division for Nike, but for the whole company. Like we said, it was a commercial and a love story. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Nike? Nike's greatest skill isn't making shoes. It's scouting talent. All right, Yeti's fantastic book. We highly recommend it. Shoe Dog by Nike founder Phil Knight. There's a fantastic quote in that book that Jack

and I thought was just perfect for this takeaway. The problem in the business right now isn't making too many mistakes. It's making too few. That's what Phil Knight said, because what turned Nike into the number one apparel brand on earth was willingness to take risks, to bet on young talent. For example, in 1984, Nike signed the rookie Michael Jordan to the first ever shoe deal that gave a player a cut of the revenues. In 2003, Nike signed LeBron James when he was just 18 years old and they are still with LeBron James. Oh, and that Tiger deal way back in 1996, it was the biggest deal for a rookie athlete ever. Nike paid him $40 million. There's a bunch of other players that fizzled out.

But losing small bets is the cost of winning the big ones. Nike literally has scouts, and they're better at picking talent than most sports teams are. The way we see it, Nike's greatest skill isn't making gear. It's scouting talent. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Abercrombie and Fitch nearly quadrupled in 2024 thanks to women and the Mullet strategy. That is, you can't time the market, but you can time a moment. For our second story, a Boeing 737 Max 9 made a safe emergency landing after a door blew off mid-flight. What does it take to change a company's culture? Sometimes a catastrophe.

And our third and final story is Nike and Tiger Woods. They're ending their endorsement deal after 27 years. Nike, your greatest strength. It's not making shoes. It's scouting talent. MJ, LeBron, Tiger. Sergey Federoff, if you know, you know. But yet, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, vineyard vines. I mean, sorry, Vineyard Wind. Turn on last week. This is the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. Yeah, big milestone for clean energy. Just as I boss.

And second, after nearly two years of inflation eating away at our paychecks, it looks like the numbers have flipped. For 10 straight months, our paychecks have been growing faster than prices. And finally, Apple's Vision Pro headset will be available for pre-sale this month. They're delivering these things in February, Jack. Spatial computing, by the way. That's the word they invented. That's what this headset is. They don't call it VR and they don't call it AR.

They just call it. To find out you'll need $3,000. Now, time for the best fact, yeah. This one's sent in by Kelsey Black from lovely Austin, Texas. This one's about one of my favorite animals, the giraffe. Love that animal, Jack. Turns out the giraffe, sadly, is much more likely to get hit by lightning than a human being is. Hey, Eddie's it sad to say, but the fatality rate of giraffes from lightning strikes,

It's 30 times higher than humans. The reason? Yeah, it's that reason. It's because the neck, right, Jack? They're just so tall. Yeah, like the giraffe neck is basically a lightning rod. It's the first thing the lightning's going to see when it's coming down. So, Yetis, if you're at a zoo, if you're in the wild, if you're on safari and you see a giraffe and you hear lightning, pulling Arnold Schwarzenegger and tell them, get down! Yeties, you are looking fantastic for T-boy Tuesday.

And if you haven't yet, drop down and rate and review the show. Jack and I love reading your reviews. They're beautiful. We're podcasters. We love when you rate and review the show. We're podcasters. We're going to ask you to rate and review the show. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow.

Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Kai Curling, who's turning 10 years old in Ulaan Batar, Mongolia. And happy birthday to Oliver Zhang. From Beijing, China, he's turning 21 in Nashville, Tennessee. And Daniel Kogan is celebrating his birthday in Brooklyn with Elaine and Emily and Eve. And happy 27th birthday to Amygdio Escobedo in Houston, Texas. And Jack, we got to drop a shout out for Jace from New York City,

who's been a legendary Yeti and jumped right on our podcast predictions post on Instagram. He had some great ideas. And good luck to Alok Hurrier, who's prepping for their school science fair and TED Talk in Mountain House, California. And a thank you to fellow podcaster Paula from the world's Yo Hoaster Podcast. Jack, she gave us a fantastic review on her show the other day. I love listening to it. That was brilliant.

Thank you, Paula. Thanks, Paul. And good luck to Professor Ross Hornish, a huge Yetty, who's taking the first class of Business-265 digital marketing today. Yeah, the Rhodes College Fighting Links. You guys are going to have a fantastic semester. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

Like a Division I college football coach. This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Apple. Is that too random? No. I didn't get it. but I like it I like it. I was like a famous

he says that in every movie. Get down, get to the chopper. If you're a giraffe, you know and you know.