LSN : News : Stat: Median income New Yorkers can barely afford market-rate rentals

Maison Pixel’s undies turn bums into newest streaming platforms

Maison Pixel

Portugal – Underwear expert Maison Pixel has joined forces with creative agency Atlantic New York to create undies that turn bums into screens. The technology consists of a specially designed Instagram filter compatible with all iOS and Android devices that can activate the undergarment’s chroma-key colour. Any content can then be projected on a green screen derrière.

A study from the General Social Survey claiming that 26% of American adults did not have sex at all in 2021 inspired the project. With rising phone usage and binge-watching in bed reducing couples’ libido, Maison Pixel wanted to create a new kind of watching experience by bringing partners closer together. The campaign shows how simple it could be to watch a baseball game, a western or the Moon landing on a partner’s backside.

In Isolated Intimacy, we previously analysed how new services similar to Maison Pixel’s tongue-in-cheek green screen underwear redefine the meaning of intimacy in a post-pandemic world.

Strategic opportunity

Augmented reality (AR) filters represent multiple brand opportunities when combined with a green screen. Consider how your packaging, store or mailing could include a chroma-key colour inviting customers to join a phygital experience via an exclusive branded AR filter

Loewe opens its first ReCraft store

Loewe ReCraft, Japan

Japan – Spanish luxury house Loewe has opened a ReCraft store in Osaka, Japan, with the aim of repairing and restoring bags. ReCraft is part of Loewe’s commitment to the long-term viability of its hand-crafted bags.

The store offers repair services as well as a range of woven leather baskets and pockets made from repurposed surplus materials from previous seasons. Loewe said the company is still in the early stages of its regenerative journey, which began in 2019 with the launch of its first Eye/Loewe/Nature collection. This served as an experimental laboratory for more sustainable practices and has allowed the brand to lower its overall CO2 emissions by 25%.

According to the brand’s press release, ‘Loewe ReCraft is about the joy of craft beyond the new. It is a commitment to breathing fresh life into long-cherished possessions.' We address the growing demand for right-to-repair products in our Six Tech Brands Developing DIY Repairable Devices report. It is a trend accelerating across industries – especially in fashion, which is known for its unsustainable practices.

Strategic opportunity

As revealed in our Eco-convenience Retail macrotrend report, consumers’ desire for eco-conscious practices means brands should turn to new technologies and retail models to find innovative solutions to increase the longevity of their products

Steakholder Foods and Umami Meats unveil 3D-printed fish fillet

Israel – 3D-printed protein specialist Steakholder Foods and Singapore-based cultivated fish and seafood company Umami Meats have brought to life what they call ‘the world’s first whole fillet cultivated fish’. Fresh off the printer, the grouper fish product was unveiled during a tasting event where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tasted the prototype.

The technology behind it involves extracting cells from real groupers and growing them into muscle and fat in the lab. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a ‘bio-ink’ suitable for its special 3D printers, already known for printing lab-grown meat. The outcome is a narrow fillet that mimics the properties of sea-caught fish without slaughter and over-fishing.

In Alternative Seafood Market, we previously looked at how fish providers are attempting to meet environmental demands while delivering on taste amid rising concerns about marine over-consumption. 3D-printed fillets remain extremely costly, however, and unsuitable for a growing number of vegan consumers.

Revo Foods, Austria

Strategic opportunity

Everyone from high-end chefs to fast food restaurants should consider how seafood alternatives can enter their menu, from rethinking kitchen training to adapting recipes, seasoning and packaging to 3D-printed fish products

Stat: Median income New Yorkers can barely afford market-rate rentals

Atelier100, UK

US – Rents across New York have reached historic highs, making them unaffordable for most city residents. A new report published by real estate search company StreetEasy found that between January and March 2023, more than one in three city-wide market-rate rental listings (37%) were affordable for a typical household earning New York’s median income of £56,063 ($70,663, €64,479).

These figures are more shocking when affordability for Black and Hispanic residents is taken into account. The report, along with data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, reveals that a typical white household can afford five times as many market-rate rental listings in New York as a typical Black household and seven times as many as a Hispanic one.

At present, a third of New York households already spend more than half of their income on just rent. Affordable homes are defined in the report as rentals that cost less than 50% of a household’s combined income. This reinforces how the housing crisis in New York is getting worse.

Strategic opportunity

Unaffordable housing will result in residents moving further out of cities, hitting retail and hospitality sectors among others, which will need to adapt to upcoming shifts in city populations