"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.
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The Clunky, Ugly Dad Shoe Gives Sneaker Makers a Swift Kick
"With more shoppers turning toward chunky, high-fashion sneakers from the likes of Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga, athletic-shoe makers are jumping on the bandwagon as fast as they can."

via: Business of Fashion

How These 12 Boundary-Breaking Designers Continue to Think Globally
"This September we’re taking you on a whirlwind—and impossibly stylish!—world tour. But don’t bother packing your passport. This odyssey is all thanks to the globally minded designers who simply refuse to see borders—from Karl Lagerfeld to Hedi Slimane, Stella McCartney to Jun Takahashi, Riccardo Tisci to Demna Gvasalia. Yet for all of this intrepid traveling, the final destination always remains the same: your closet. This fall, here’s what you’ll want to take along for the ride: one of the new coats, strong on design, rich in detail; the electric-bright “tech” colors, not traditionally autumnal but perfect for the year-round wardrobes of right now; and any one of the chic (and surprising) ways to go head first. The whole season, in fact, takes us to unexpected places. You might call it a trip."

via: Vogue

Menswear’s Last Big Moment
"It was April Fool’s Day in 2010 when J. Crew presented their fall/ winter collection at New York City’s Milk Studios. The space, which is normally reserved for photo shoots, is emotionally cold and vaguely industrial. There are concrete floors, exposed brick walls, and sunlight pouring through the massive, factory-like windows."

via: Die Workwear!

The Start-Ups Behind New York's Retail Reawakening
"Start-ups and pop-ups are filling storefronts abandoned by struggling chains, taking advantage of plunging rents and landlords desperate to fill long-vacant spaces."

via: Business of Fashion

Who’s the Next Off-White?
"Simply put, streetwear sells. Prada recently posted positive quarterly results, stating that growth can be correlated to the sales of its sneakers, namely the house’s ever-popular Cloudbust footwear design. Now that Abloh has officially achieved his ambitious goal of leading a major fashion house, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume that the prime outlet for Abloh’s creative output is now Louis Vuitton. This, in turn, means that even while Off-White™ still exists, there’s now a void for another brand to claim itself as a top name in the world of high-end streetwear — below are 5 labels that are currently poised to do so."

via: Hypebeast

Fashion Giants Are "Hoarding Talent" Thanks to Aggressive, Out-Dated Non-Compete Agreements
"Look around. The use of non-compete agreements has been on the rise, and the fashion industry is hardly immune. It was this specific contract provision that was at the center of the lawsuit that Hedi Slimane filed against initiated a lawsuit against YSL's parent company Kering in June 2016. The same goes for the ugly battle between rivals Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera in late 2016, and the war that Nike waged against 3 high-level creatives who jumped ship to adidas before that. Still yet, it was an ironclad non-complete that prevented Raf Simons from making a swift transition from his role as creative director of Christian Dior to the top position at Calvin Klein, and former Celine CEO, Marco Gobbetti, to Burberry."

via: The Fashion Law

Walmart Tried To Make Sustainability Affordable. Here’s What Happened
"In 2005, midway through his tenure, he challenged his employees: “What would it take for Walmart to be that company, at our best, all the time?” The answer became Walmart’s sustainability program, an ambitious effort to figure out how to get its budget-conscious customers to buy more sustainable products. Of course, it was more than Scott’s granddaughter that pushed the retailer in this direction. A dismal perception among the public, as well as a stagnant stock price, also played roles in prodding Scott and other Walmart officials to take the company in a more environmentally aware direction."

via: The Fashion Law

Dollar Shave Club’s Men’s Magazine “Mel” Grows Up
"Mel is leaving Medium and trying to grow to new heights. Does this Unilever-owned brand’s publication present a model for branded content that doesn’t suck?"

via: Fast Company

What Am I Worth to Advertisers? My Obsessive Quest to Put a Price on My Attention
"Why catalog the informational noise that, in many cases, our brains have quite literally trained themselves to ignore? Hidden in plain sight, ad money is the invisible force that subsidizes many of the services we depend on—especially online, where keeping up with friends, reading the news, or streaming music is ostensibly “free.” I wanted to to find out exactly what my eyeballs are worth."

via: Gizmodo

Shoppers Are Buying Clothes Just For the Instagram Pic, and Then Returning Them
"According to a survey commissioned by the credit card company Barclaycard, nearly one in 10 UK shoppers (9 percent) admit to buying clothing only to take a photo on social media. After the “outfit of the day” makes it online, they return it back to the store."

via: Quartz

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