The Best One Yet - 🏆 “Trader-Costco-Gonia” — America’s favorite brands. Dockers’ Casual Friday innovation. Klarna’s revenue-per-human.

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAmerica’s 100 favorite brands show... Reputation takes 20 years to build, 1 second to lose.Dockers khakis just sold for $300M… but did ya know Dockers invented Casual Friday?Klarna just invented a new financial metric: Revenue per human… you’re gonna start see it everywhere.Plus, “Plant Nanny” is the hot new job… It pays $50/hour to pamper someone’s succulents.$LEVI $COST $TMWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… LaCroix 💧 “The Cinderella of Seltzers”Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Saviche, Wednesday, May 21st, 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. Well, look at that. The six-day stock market win streak is over. The double hat trick is done. Stocks are dipping, but this pod is ripping. Couldn't have said it better, Jack, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, Dockers was once worth $1 billion, but Levi's just sold their kids. khakis brand for 70% less than that. But in its heyday, Docker's khakis was so innovative, they actually invented casual Friday. That's a great story. For our second story, the list of the 100 most respected brands in America was just released. So Jack and I will tell you the one critical currency that the best brands are rich in. And our third and final story is Klarna. The leader of the buy now pay later movement just invented a new metric. Revenue per human. Revenue per human. So we've got an update for everyone listening under 25.

But yet,ies, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a mix of stories? Love the mix. I told you this podcast. You did say that. There's a new industry of caretakers that is emerging. But not to take care of your kids, take care of the elderly, or take care of your pets. It's a new thing called plant nannies. That's right. According to the New York Times, plant nannies will now come to your home to pamper your plants. They're basically a botanical babysitter.

Yeah, this is like the Mary Poppins for your Monstera. It's the Mrs. Doubtfire for your dolly. Jack, it's the Fran Drescher for your fig tree. Plant nannies will come into your home. They'll do a sprits on a leaf here, a trim of a stem there. They're basically landscapers, but for inside your house. The plant nanny doesn't just water your plant. They actually feed it with filtered spa water.

Get this. According to the New York Times, plant nannies are charging 50 bucks an hour on average. Jack, I think that's like twice the going rate for a nanny for a human baby. We repeat, humans are paying nannies more money to take care of their plants than their babies. But Jack, let's be honest here, you're hiring someone to look after your plants. You probably got bank. Yeah, that's a signal. Apparently, there's one business in Brooklyn that's charging a hundred bucks for a one-hour plant visit. And an extra if your fikist tree is over six and a half feet. Now, personally, I should point out, I believe Jack has been fighting for three years to keep

his burn of paradise alive. Is that true, man? It's barely hanging up. With me as a plant dad, it's no paradise for that bird day. I'm going to call plant child support, Jack. It needs to be done. But yeties, puppies were the new babies, but now plants are the new puppies. So, Jack, I think that means we need a new acronym to capture this wild plant spending trend. How about plants? PLA NTS.

People love acquiring new trees. So much. So much. So much. Jack, happy PLA NTS to you. Let's end up three stories. 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 cause we're ready to go we can't wait no more so just start the show start the show first a quick word from our sponsor our first story Dockers was once worth a billion bucks, but now Levi's is selling off the khakis for one-third the price. Dockers didn't inventing kackies. No, they didn't. But they invented demand for khakis with Casual Friday. Now, Yetis, earlier this week, Jack and I covered the most innovative pants of the last decade. Who is a Jack? Lula Lemons aligned leggings. They invented the aathleisure category. But funny thing, today, another pair of pants is in the news, and it happens to be the exact opposite. of Lulu Lemon Leggans. Today, it's Dockers' khakis, which is the basic bro pant.

Yeah, yeah, it is, you know, cackies. You could wear them to a job interview, or you could wear them to a date. But Dockers is... Scott Galloway hates Dockers. So here's the news. Levi sold Dockers to authentic brands for $311 million. This is a wardrope makeover. But here's the wild twist. Docker khaki sales have fallen 70% from their all-time highs of a billion dollars a year. We repeat, Dockers was once a billion dollar brand, and now they're selling like secondhand pairs of slacks. Fun fact, Nick only wears khakis. The same J-Crew pair for seven years. It's impressive.

I know. It's all you wear. It's a very Nick thing about you. But Nick, Dockers scaled khakis and changed office culture forever. This is a wild story we discovered no one else is talking about. All right, yeties, let's go back to 1986. That's when Levi's invented the Docker's brand. The reason Levi's felt they needed to diversify from just selling denim.

Yeah, to sprinkle on a little context, today, gene sales are crushing khakis, khakis are getting crushed. But in the 80s, gene sales had slowed down and khakis were booming. So Levi was thinking, hey, let's invent dockers as a brand to hedge us in case gene sales keep on falling. And then, to sell more khakis, dockers and Levi's invented a holiday. Okay, this is the wild part. They actually invented more specifically a weekly holiday and what's it called, Jack. You know them as Casual Fridays. That's right, Casual Fridays.

In 1992, they sent a style guide to 25,000 HR managers explaining to them how their workers can dress down but still look professional. If you think about it, HR managers are powerful trendsetters, right, Jack? They're in charge of the dress code, and Dockers convince them to allow khakis on casual Friday. Yeah, these HR managers are like the AnnaWin Tour of Work, and suddenly, they're recommending khakis come in casual at the end of the week. So Casual Friday became a fashion revolution from the Midwest office manager to the Silicon Valley tech worker. And the whole idea was incepted by Dockers. So Docker sales hit a billion dollars back in peak khaki era. Yeah, and actually one year in the 90s, dockers even awkwardly beat Levi's in the men's category for total sales.

How wild is that? HR managers were the first accidental fashion influencer, and Dockers was the puppet master. That is a sentence no one has ever said before, Jack. If you're at work and you're not wearing a suit right now, you should thank Dockers. Again, only pant you can wear to a job interview and a date. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in khaki over at Dockers? Customers are like cake. You can make them from scratch. Yeties, some people think demand is predetermined.

Either the market wants it or the market doesn't. You can market to get customers' attention, but there has to be buyers out there if you want to make a product. Well, this Docker story is a reminder that you can literally create customers at a nothing. Back in the 80s, pre-Docers, you wore a suit on the weekdays and sweatpants on the weekends. There was no need for something in between. So, Dockers invented the category of business casual. And then they invented a holiday to generate demand for it. Because customers are like cake.

Yep, you can whip them up from scratch. For our second story, we just got the biggest brand report of the year, the Harris poll of the top 100 American companies. We'll tell you who's up, who's down this year, and the one move you can make that'll put you on top. Yeties, over the last 20 years, the research firm Harris does a poll of 17,000 Americans, basically the reputation rankings. We call it kiss Mary Kill, but for companies. Yeah, yeah, like which brand would you kiss? No commitment, it's just a kiss. brand would you marry? You're in love with this brand.

Which brand would you kill, Jack? Oh, you want them eliminated from the face of the earth? Yeah, I don't even want them on the receipts, honey. Those are basically the questions that the Harris Poll asks Americans each year about the 100 most visible brands in America. Technically, they asked to rank the 100 companies based on their products, their values, and their impact on the world. The big drama this year is that all of Elon Musk's companies plummeted in the rankings. X, SpaceX, Tesla. Yeah, Jack, you know, Tesla was number 8 in 2021. You know where it is this year? Number 95, which is fifth from the bottom.

Okay, another shocker out there, Chipotle is up in the brand rankings, despite the whole Boreto bowl portion size controversy. And ChatchipT is up too, despite the most common human reaction to AI's advance being fear. So I had it all up yet is, and that was the drama on the brand rankings this year. This list is like gossip girl for anyone working in marketing. XO, XO. CMO. Now, Basties, we know what everyone's wondering, who is at the top of this brand reputation list? Here's the top five in order. Number one is Trader Joe's. Number two is Patagonia. Number three is Microsoft. Number four is Toyota. And number five, the most reputable brand in America is Costco. Okay, now, Jack, I got to pause the pod for a sec. We're talking groceries, functional apparel,

boring business technology, an older car brand and groceries again? Yeah, I don't think about. Microsoft refers to their business as boring business technology. That's true. That's true. That's correct, Nick. Technically, they don't. But yet, he's this led to a fascinating thing that Jack and I noticed. None of the brands at the top of this list are viral, flashy, or attention-grabbing at all. No, like Netflix is the most viral streaming content, but they're not even in the top 30.

Taco Bell is the most viral food company. They don't even crack the top 50. Crocs, Kava, Duolingo, the trendiest companies aren't even on the list. Consumers in the media pay attention to the zeitgeist. in the moment trend-setting brands the most. And yet this poll shows that hype does not translate to positive brand reputation. How did Chick-fil-A and Nintendo get beat by UPS and Honda? Honda?

It was my first car, but I wouldn't call it like one of the best companies in America. I'm sorry, Harris. Can we get a recount over there, Sajac? What's the takeaway for all our buddies trying to build a brand? It's a gem from Warren Buffett. Reputations take 20 years to earn, but one minute to lose. Yeah, he saw it all the Swifties out there who thought we're going to quote Taylor's reputation album. Yeah, we went with Warren Buffett instead.

Yeah, we did, we did. But here's the deal. The brands with the top five reputations, they are poor in hype, but they are rich in trust. And trust is the most valuable currency that brands trade in. Here's what we're thinking. You trust Costco for low prices. You trust Toyota for reliable cars. And you trust Microsoft, that Excel, is.

isn't going to crash on you. UPS. It's not the most sexy brand, but they're in the top 10 because you trust that they'll deliver your package on time more often than FedEx does. And interestingly, Jack and I confirm our trust hypothesis by looking at the bottom of the brand rankings as well. At the bottom is meta. Because you don't trust Zox Motives or even that the post you're seeing is real right now. Okay, right behind them is Spirit Airlines because you don't trust Spirit is going to get you there on time or honestly even take off at all. Honolulu. I said, Houston. That wasn't a fun flight.

Yet, he's even Tesla's 32 spot plummet from last year. Is a reminder that years of trust can be gone in a flash. Or as Warren Buffett puts it, reputations take 20 years to earn, but just one minute to lose. Or as Taylor Swift put it, my reputation's never been worse, so you must like me for me. Okay. This pod's officially vindicated. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story,

the Buy Now Pay Later Leader Clarna has postponed its IPO, but it hasn't postponed replacing humans with AI. Clarnas invented a new brag metric too. They call it Revenue Per Human. But Jack, can we talk about the five wildest words we've seen this year?

Buy Now, Pay Later for Barreto. Six words. Possible thanks to Klarna's partnership with DoorDash. That's right. Wild year for Klarna so far, hasn't it been, man. They offered interest-free payment plans for your Karnitas Taco Order. Then they filed to IPO. Then they paused their IPO plans on trade war turmoil. And now Klarna is still a private company and still announced earnings,

even though they don't legally have to. Basically, they wanted to brag about how well they did last quarter. At the top of the report, they showed that revenues rose 13% in the last quarter. Not too shabby. Here's the funny thing, Jack, and I noticed. Revenue per employee was up 53%. We got to sprinkle out some contacts. We have to, Jack.

Klarna knows that Buy Now Pay Later is not the most stellar business model. So they're rebranding themselves as an AI company. Yeah, their CEO declared in 2023 he'd let OpenAI develop chatbots to replace their human customer service workers. The CEO even told the tech industry, they wanted to be a guinea pig for AI. Yeah, to see how much humanity they can cut out of the business, but still maintain productivity. They ask tech companies, use us to see how far AI can go in replacing human workers. Well, now, Klarna is on track to hit $1 million in revenue per employee, which is up.

Which would be triple as high as it was two years ago. Which is why Jack and I think the new brag metric you're going to start seeing in tech is revenue per human. Now, we should point out, Klarna actually overdid it in terms of replacing humans with AI? Yeah, a little side note here, but they accidentally overcut the number of humans they employ. And they admitted it. They had to rehire some people because it turns out people always want the option to speak with a human when they're calling customer service. Yeah, Jack, what was the quote from the CEO when he admitted this? From a brand perspective, it's critical there always be a human if you want one. Yeah, and you know why yet he's.

Representative! Operator! I've pushed zero 17 times, and I will not say another word until it's to a human being. speak to a manager and I'll do anything for it. But guess what? Clarnas plans to source those human customer service roles, they're using gig workers to do it. So fascinatingly, if you go look on Klarna's job board right now, you're not going to see a single role open for a junior worker. As we've said before, if you want to know where a business is going, look at who they're hiring. And when it comes to hiring, Clorna is not planning anything entry level. So Jack, what's the takeaway for her buddies over at Clorna? Bottom rung of,

the corporate ladder is going away. Yeties, OpenAI, Clod, Anthropic, Google, they each have deep research AI products. Gemini brands their deep research AI as your personal research assistant. Well, Jack, who typically specializes in research at a company? Junior employees do. That's right. Their job is often to do research online or write reports, do presentations, and present all of it to the boss. But now AI is starting to eliminate that role, which represents the entry point for many into corporate America. And we've double-checked it. We can see it in the data too. 2025 is expected to be the second year in a row. Employers hire fewer college grad than the year before. Nick, if the first rung of the corporate ladder is gone, how do workers ever get to

the second rung? Honestly, it's a great question. But besties, we have seen some positive trends out there, some solutions potentially to this challenge. We've seen some pivots. We've seen a surge in interest among young people in the trades because landscaping is AI proof. That's right. Or more people trying to run their own business. Try entrepreneurship. You know, creators is now a top choice for college grads. The bottom rung of the corporate ladder is going away. And nobody knows the cultural impact of that. But humans have always pivoted in the past and there's signs we already are. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Dockers is selling to authentic brands for 70% of its peak value, but they did invent casual Fridays.

And it proves that customers are like cake. You can create them from scratch. For our second story, Trader Joe's Microsoft, Toyota, non-flashy brands top the list of companies with the best reputations in America. As Warren Buffett and Taylor Swift have told us, reputations, they take 20 years to build, but just one second to lose. And our third and final story is Clara. They're bragging that their revenue per human is tripling as they replace humans with AI. With the bottom rung of the corporate ladder going away, people are already pivoting. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Elon's robotaxies are officially coming to Austin, Texas, next month in June, but with a couple caveats.

First, there's only going to be 10 cars at first, self-driving model-wise. Okay, and not totally self-driving. Tesla's going to have a remote driver reading them as they go. They're also going to be geo-fence to just a small area and only invited riders can participate. But if all of that goes well without any issues, then Tesla will take the caveats away. Then they'll really start robo driving. And second, Fanatics Fest, 2025, is officially taking place from June 20th to June 22nd in New York City. And there's going to be a fans versus professional athletes athletic skills competition. And this is why this is a wild story. This is a merch and apparel business fanatics that is now throwing a live event for 100,000 people. And if you can throw a football

more accurately than Tom Brady can, which I think I can, by the way. I think you can too, Jack. You could win $2 million. Sounds like a challenge, Jack. Put me in, coach. And finally, Warby Parker stock surged late yesterday on news of a $150 million investment from Google. Google basically sees those meta-ray-band sunglasses and says, I'll have what Zuck's having. Jack, am I wrong? Or last year didn't we say Apple should acquire Warby Parker? We absolutely said that, but now Google's kind of doing it. Okay, we'll cover more in the pod tomorrow. In the meantime, Tim, come on, man, what are you doing? Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Henry Solo from a city far, far away. Today is Talk Like Yoda Day. I'm sorry, Jack. Can you please repeat that?

Talk like Yoda Day today is. Now, the reason for this is that Yoda first appeared in The Empire Strikes back, which was released on May 21st, 1980. Fun fact about that movie, Yoda was voiced and puppeteered by a man named Frank Oz, who also is the voice actor for Miss Piggy and Cookie Monster. And that strange way Yoda speaks is actually a literary concept. It's called anastrophe. Powerful you have become. The dark side I sense in you. Yoda, he puts the object and then the subject and then the verb. Yeah, that's what he did. Yeties, you look fantastic today, especially if you're one of those plant nannies out there.

I plant nannied for my mother-in-law once. She didn't pay me anything. Now you're just showing off. You can beat Tom Brady, you plant nanny on the weekends. Yeties, remember to five stars drop down and give us, please. Because the best way to show the grow is with five-star ratings and reviews. Can you sound much more like Cookie Monster than Yonah? As it came out, I was thinking I merged it to tell.

No, but that's fine because it's the same voice actor. And it all comes full circle. Yeti's Jack and I. We'll see it. Happy birthday to Yeti Mason Stokes in Atoka, Tennessee. The soccer and track stars got the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Stephen Clyman of the Upper East Side of New York City, who is celebrating with the New York Knicks appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. Go New York, New York.

And Kimberly DeVeed in Saratoga Springs, Utah is a wonderful mother of and has the best birthday yet. Happy birthday to Amanda Heckler in Arlington, Virginia, who's celebrating at a bachelorette this weekend. And Sam Caraskillo, thank you for being such an observant yetty. Guys, Sam heard us throw in a car sound effect into the pod,

and he jumped out of the street, but it turned out it was just our podcast. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, T-boy make it. I was going to say, wins the celebrates. This is Jack, Island Stock, and Crox, Kava, Netflix and Levi's, all the flashy brands apparently. And Nick and I have both on stock and

Apple.