Deep Dive: Week of June 1, 2026 - Sports and Bubble Gum

Brandy Melville dressing rooms are out of service and starting the summer with hoops and soccer. Plus Rent the Runway just stacked their exec team with Nordstrom alum.

Welcome – Tuesday was incredible. I cannot thank y’all enough for the kind comments and also bringing the channel checks from your own visits and experiences with Evereve. New subscriptions blew me away. Thank you for signing up and helping to spread the word (maybe forward to one bestie who you shop with and/or a colleague that you know would love to read some retail insights. Thanks!)

As a reminder to kick things off for our first week I removed the paywall. Everyone can see what to expect on a Thursday send. Business stories from the week in retail, longer form articles and podcasts linked, but plenty of shopping ideas too.

In this send: I researched what is going on with Brandy Melville dressing room drama, connected the dots on Steph Curry’s new deal with Li-Ning, and started tracking World Cup merch excitement. Plus: Free City, Juicy Couture, Phia’s influencer network, WAGs, Board Shorts and a few quarterly earning notes.

• New Collabs

• New Launches

• Field Notes — sports collabs, activations and launches

• The Business Section

• New Store Openings & Pop-Ups

• People in the News

• What Else I Loved

New Collabs

• Reformation x Courtney Grow launched. Courtney’s Substack audience was able to shop the collection first and her Substack has been at the top of the rising Fashion & Beauty Substacks all week. Courtney Grow is a Brigade client and they posted about it on LinkedIn. A few product highlights I noted: tie easy pants, crisp and shiny anorak, these fancy silk but simple sandals, crochet, and silly little bag.

• Free City x Madhappy collab. Seems like Madhappy timed this really well with Free City sweats popping up everywhere. For the data on this trend, Karin Eldor wrote about a Free City resurgence.

• Call It By Your Name x Ilio Smeraldo pairs the bright bandana monogrammed accessories (you likely recognize their totes) with the Italian slippers in bandana printed mary janes, loafers and flip flops.

• The most old school Juicy Couture styles from the Sporty & Rich x Juicy Couture collab sold out first.

• In time for Father’s Day, Peanuts x Brooks Brothers launched. The timing allows kiddos to pick out a gift for their parents (likely using another adult’s $$.)

• Golloria George worked with Rhode on developing their bronzer shades. (via PEOPLE BRANDS AND THINGS )

New Launches

• Oddli is launching at Nordstrom later this week. These jersey gauchos take me back to the early 2000s with layered Splendid tank tops and striped metallic t-shirts from Michael Stars.

Field Notes

With the World Cup kicking off June 11th one of the major summer collaborations is already here. It’s a branding, marketing, events and activation gold mine. It has all the makings of a hat trick – Global interest, sports, WAGs (wives and girlfriends), players, kids and adults – something for everyone.

• French. Football. Fashion: Jacquemus teamed up with Nike for the football kits. Available June 11th. If you are looking for a team jersey, Nike’s got your back.

• To celebrate the World Cup across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico there are going to be activations everywhere. Nordstrom is turning the 57th Street Corner pop-up space into a two month activation with Adidas. The Nordstrom’s World of Soccer is a scroll of over 700 items ranging from Jellycats, Stadium bags, and jerseys for kids.

• Free People collabed with The Football Gal, who creates gorgeous, detailed, embroidered, and original designs on football jerseys. In the comments on social the audience isn’t thrilled with the price point, but they are incredibly special pieces and not mass produced. This is one-of-a-kind art. It reminds me of the work that Kristin Juszczyk created with her brand (with partner Emma Grede) Off Season (the custom pieces that she got her start with.)

• Of course, Soccer/Football isn’t the only game in town. Knicks fever and merch is everywhere. From Stoney Clover Lane, New York or Nowhere, Terez, and the NYTimes covered the DannijoPro line.

  

The Business Section

Chew On This…

I learned via social media this week that Brandy Melville closed their dressing rooms across their 50+ U.S. locations. According to a source this has been the case at a few locations for longer. I called multiple stores and the reason given by every store immediately and clearly was “vandalism.” For this to be rolled out systemwide, it must be a significant issue.

As I spoke with teens who shop there, the vandalism is actually an issue with gum on the walls of the dressing rooms and not profanity, inappropriate messages, or destruction of property. Why are teens putting their gum on the walls in the dressing rooms? It is to keep the curtains closed and have privacy when changing. If you are curious about this situation you can search on TikTok but it is honestly too gross for me to link here. I try not to yuck someone else’s yum, but I do draw the line at chewed gum! The vandalism isn’t mean spirited, it is just teens trying to fix a flawed system and have a little privacy when trying on spaghetti strap tank tops and short shorts.

Other reasons beyond vandalism have been floated for the dressing room closure: theft (it’s easier to steal from inside the dressing room) and lack of privacy (the dressing rooms are only curtains.) The fix from a customer service angle is easy – replace the curtains with doors and a latch. But that isn’t the direction Brandy Melville is taking.

A Tale of Two Rentals…

Nuuly announced hitting 500,000 active subscribers (this is just a number they are sharing, but not clear on the time period.)

Meanwhile, Rent the Runway reported their Q1 earnings sharing a 29.2% revenue growth year-over-year. Rent the Runway also shared their new leadership. Teri Bariquit (former Chief Merchandising Officer at Nordstrom – she left in 2023 and was there for 37 years and has been on the RTR board for the last 8 months) is the interim CEO replacing co-founder Jennifer Hyman. Paige Thomas (also ex- Nordstrom and an alum of Kohls and Saks) was named the Chief Commercial Officer and Dave Loretta (yes, another Nordstrom alum) was named the interim CFO.

More Quarterly Earnings to Report

• I took a look at Macy’s Q1 2026 and there are a few standout details:

  • Remember they changed their reporting structure recently to OLM (owned, licensed, marketplace)

  • Macy’s nameplate was up +1.6% year-over-year. They are up against a drop from Q1 LY.

  • Bloomingdale’s was up +10.2% year-over-year and had the highest Q1 in the department store’s history. The 59th Street renovation is impressive (massive), special, and thoughtful. I’m really interested to see how it translates to the branches.

  • Bluemercury was +6.4% year-over-year driven by makeup, skincare like Dr. Diamond Metacine and SkinCeuticals, and fragrance like Byredo. A few channel check notes on the experience of shopping at Bluemercury versus Sephora, it isn’t buzzing with tweens. Plus they carry brands like Victoria Beckham (If you haven’t tried VB Beauty yet, this is the only eyeliner I’m comfortable using on myself, my current mascara, and for the few times I want to wear foundation this is what I wear), Dr. Diamond Metacine, and SkinCeuticals (this Vitamin C is a repeat buy for me) that Sephora doesn’t.

New Store Openings & Pop-Ups

• More for Miami – Victoria Beckham opens a boutique in the Bal Harbour shops.

• Neiman Marcus is officially closing the downtown Dallas location. (WWD)

• Paloma Wool, founded by Paloma Lanna, is continuing a brick-and-mortar store expansion with her 4th location opening in L.A. 8410 Melrose Avenue. For more on the brand and the accessibly priced not-just-basics, NYTimes has a great overview from December.

• Forget “boyfriend couch” and go right to skate bowl. Noah opened their LA space last week in Hollywood.

• Danielle Guizio, a brand worn by Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and worn on Euphoria, is opening a third location in West Hollywood, LA. The first location was in NYC and second was in Miami’s Aventura Mall. According to this article in Vogue Business Dallas and Georgetown are up next. The brand recently put up a pre-order for some Knicks colorway merch but won’t arrive in time to wear for the NBA Finals.

• Incredibly niche retail opening, the Harvard school bookstore, The Coop, is opening a concept store. More design or museum shop than textbooks. It is on the other side of the Charles River, next to the business school. Another photo-op spot for Instagram when you speak at Harvard Business School.

• Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs will be signing books at Bookmarc on June 10th.

🛍️ Quick note: I write a lot (too much good stuff to share!) If you’re reading via email only, you may need to click through to the web version or read on the Substack app. I promise it will be worth it. 🛍️

People in the News

• The CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund named their 2026 Finalists. Huge congrats to all ten. What caught my eye beyond the finalists themselves: Steven Kolb announced four new additions to the committee. Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom now have representation with Denise Magid and Yumi Shin joining, alongside Chloe Malle and Christopher John Rogers, who won the Fund prize back in 2019.

• After leaving his contract with Under Armour (I wrote about it for Puck’s Line Sheet back in November) Steph Curry has now signed with the Chinese brand Li-Ning in a reported $400 million 10 year deal. Teammate Jimmy Butler also has a deal with Li-Ning. Anta, another Chinese sportswear brand that has been signing deals (Eileen Gu, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving), investing in Amer Sports, and going after legacy sportswear brands. BBC covered Anta recently. Whenever I talk about sportswear brands and the sneaker wars with one of my favorite analysts, he always reminds me there are a lot of feet in China — opportunity for revenue and market share. I’m sitting court side to watch this game.

• Shopping app Phia, Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni’s browser extension that helps you find deals on fashion items you’re already shopping for, announced a $35.5M Series A in January led by Notable Capital, with Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures participating. This week they revealed the full investor list: 70+ names including Khloé Kardashian, Alix Earle, Mindy Kaling, Ashley Graham, Paris Hilton, Karlie Kloss, Alexandre Arnault, Rachel Zoe, and Bobbi Brown. This is worth noting because it includes influencers, designers, and brand founders that it can tap into to help spread the word and promote the product to increase engagement and adoption.

• Jenna Littler was named CEO at Marfa Stance. She is a Burberry alum and also previously worked at McKinsey. I’m also told that Marfa Stance is opening their first concept store in NYC on Madison Avenue later this year. The trunk show strategy at Marfa Stance is a machine for the brand. Upcoming trunk shows to play with building out the jackets are scheduled for Palo Alto, California and cool weather summer destinations like Lake Tahoe, Big Sky and Sun Valley. Marin Country Mart has had a long-term pop-up in the space that keeps getting extended.

• Henry Zankov was named the Artistic Director of Diane Von Furstenberg. (WWD)

• Congrats to Recho Omondi on her Patreon deal and System Magazine spread.

• And congrats to Linda Fargo on 30 years at Bergdorf Goodman!

• Victoria’s Secret hired Melissa Thompson-Charatz as the Chief Merchandising Officer for Pink. (Retail Dive) Thompson-Charatz most recently was the GMM of Apparel at Anthropologie where she worked for the last 10+ years. Could be a sign of what is to come at Pink. Anthropologie does a great job at building out brands within brands – they recently rolled out Maeve as a sub-brand. Also worth noting that CEO Hillary Super and team are seeing positive gains at VSXY (the ticker symbol changed from VSCO to VSXY) and over the past year the stock has seen over 45% increase.

What Else I Loved

• Recently announced CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Finalist EMILY DAWN LONG wrote a Substack on all the items she found or made inspired by a 1997 Phoebe Philo interview. What I love about this: EDL didn’t just buy current Philo Collection E pieces (which is totally fine if anyone does this) but she went hunting. Vintage finds, eBay deep dives, and then used the descriptions as a jumping-off point to design her own raffia tote, now available via pre-order in limited quantities on her site. It’s a perfect example of how a single archival reference can spark an entirely original creative process, and how to share your work with others.

• To go even deeper on EMILY DAWN LONG, Lynette Nylander wrote all about shopping at EDL’s studio/showroom/store.

• I spoke to Emma Childs for Marie Claire about the summer board shorts trend.

• I’m obsessed with the quote “the first price is the right price” on why the brand doesn’t take markdowns from JJ Martin of La DoubleJ in this episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast. Means you have to be extremely dialed in on your forecasting (inventory) and nailing the right product. Is this really achievable?

What’s Next:

Teens will be thrilled about this restock. We gave my daughter a pair for her birthday and it is the shoe she wears the most right now. Since it is warming up I also have bathing suits top of mind. Plus summer deals might come earlier this year — Amazon moved their Prime Day up (LY it was July 8-11) to June 23-26.

Made just for you — always. See you this weekend.

xx, Sarah Shapiro

Catching Up:

Private Label Issue 2

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