UK – Online marketplace eBay has announced it is opening a first-of-its-kind pop-up sneaker swap shop in London. The one-day ticketed event will allow sneakerheads to exchange their shoes free of charge.

The pop-up will also include a cleaning service provided by Sneakers ER, an authentication hub where experts will check sneakers, a live DJ set, a bar and a Polaroid photo wall.

‘Swapping has always been intrinsic to us sneakerheads,’ says Wahaaj Shabbir, sneaker category manager at eBay UK. ‘In these tough times where the cost of living is making it harder to buy your next pair, we wanted to offer a solution which feels right to the community.’

The pop-up will open on 25 March. Those who can’t attend in person can purchase swapped sneakers on the eBay Swap ’Em Out marketplace after the event. All funds from the online sales will support the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal.

In our Sneaker Hubs Market, we previously observed that sneaker consumers enjoy gathering and sharing knowledge, tips and ideas within the sneaker community.

UK – The Yellow Sticker Cookbook, a new app created by Uncommon Creative Studio, invites shoppers to scan supermarkets’ reduced items to receive a range of recipes combining the discounted food and what lies in their fridge or cupboard at home. With a mix of prompts, Google’s API and AI, the app hopes that its library of over 1,000 recipes will help all the Britons facing a cost of living crisis.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), food prices rose consistently for 17 months until December 2022 – when food price inflation was at its highest since September 1977. That’s why the app wants to empower consumers to give a second life to a beetroot on its last legs or a slightly soggy courgette that usually ends up in the shop’s bins.

In Adaptive Appetites, we previously highlighted why global citizens like The Yellow Sticker Cookbook’s creators redefined the food and drink sector, pushing for a positive impact on people, the planet and profit.

US – A new forecast by Insider Intelligence predicts that US adults will spend more time daily with digital video than with television in 2023. Although total time spent on both (just over six hours a day) has remained the same since 2020, digital video will take the lead with an average of 3 hours and 11 minutes per day.

Daily tv time, which includes live, DVR and other pre-recorded videos saved for tv screening, will drop to 2 hours and 55 minutes per day, on average. After a lockdown-induced boost in 2020, daily tv time has declined every year since 2013. Although Americans consume videos and social media content on desktops, laptops and mobile devices, the rise of digital video consumption is due mainly to smart tvs and games consoles.

In Local Tv Market, we looked at how disruptors offer alternatives to streaming giants. As audiences spend a more significant portion of time on citizen streams and glocal shows­, they are moving away from big-budget polished content and finding inspiration and community in self-shot authentic formats on TikTok and Instagram Reels.