In today’s issue we discuss Formula One 7-time Champion Lewis Hamilton Sippin’ on Non-Alcoholic Blue Agave Spirit, Crocs rolls out Classic “Cozzzy” Slippers, Ford pauses $12 billion EV investment, space tractor beams could become real, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds own (2) sweet New York pieces of real estate heaven, and Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky becomes Puma”s new Formula 1 Creative guru.

Business

First they brought us Crocs Classic Cowboy boots, and that was a painful experience to write about. Now they’re back with something more comfy - Crocs Classic “Cozzzy” Slippers. These things do look comfy!

They retail for $50, so right around the same price point of the original Crocs, but now fuzzier. The company’s revenue grew by 11.17 % in the Q2 of 2023, and its market share increased to approx. 5.01 %. Nike remains the market leader in this segment of the Apparel & Footwear Industry with 54.86%.

Crocs Gets Comfortable for Fall With New ‘Cozzzy’ Shearling Slippers

Tech

Another EV competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla, another pause/delay in their investment. Ford is the latest, following GM last week, to announce that they are pausing a $12 billion EV investment after saying their research is showing that electric vehicles are too expensive for their target market consumers and demand is slowing.

Earlier in the year Ford announced that they would abandon their target of building two million EVs by 2026. So what’s up with this latest “pause”?

High prices. Everything that goes into manufacturing an EV including lithium batteries, composite materials, steel, aluminum, electronics including computers and lidar are all expensive. As demand increases manufacturer costs will decrease, but that has been slow to happen. If consumers are pulling back from EVs in light of rising inflation, then we could see a longer road to adoption of EVs to replace fossil fuel burning vehicles.

Ford pauses a $12 billion EV investment, after saying electric vehicles are too expensive

Space

“Scotty, lock onto that ship with our tractor beam.” That’s my attempt at writing a classic line said by Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner in the original Star Trek, but it could someday come true if scientists are able to make tractor beams for real.

How this all works gets pretty geeky, but basically you’d have a spacecraft with an electron gun that would fire negatively charged electrons at a dead target satellite which would make the target satellite have a negative charge. “The electrostatic attraction between the two would keep them locked together despite being separated by 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) of empty space.” according to the article. They would never actually touch, but the positive and negative fields would allow the spacecraft to pull the target to a desired orbit (told you it’d be pretty geeky!).

How much will this technology cost to commercialize? What if I told you $1 Trillion dollars! (well that would be a lie). This research is still hypothetical and being worked on in the lab, with no real plans to actually build it today, but maybe someday we’ll have tractor beams and be able to clean up space debris. A geek can dream.

Sci-fi inspired tractor beams are real, and could solve a major space junk problem

Entertainment

F1 Champ Lewis Hamilton, and rival to my RedBull Formula 1 team, just launched a non-alcoholic blue agave spirit to rival tequila with his brand called Almave in partnership with Casa Lumbre‘s co-founder and master distiller Iván Saldaña. There’s a time and place for drinking, and if you’re an elite athlete, or come from a family of alcoholics, then it’s nice to have a non-alcoholic option.

According to Hamilton “There’s a huge appetite for quality alternatives for those times when people don’t want to drink alcohol but also don’t want to compromise on flavor, which is why it was important that our product includes agave to reflect the taste of conventional tequila.”

“Almave will be available online beginning Thursday, October 26, then it will roll out to retailers and bars in the U.S. and beyond in 2024. The Ámbar and Blanco will be available in 700 ml bottles at a cost of $40 and $36, respectively.” according to the article (no, this isn’t a sponsored post. I’m just a fan of Lewis Hamilton as an entrepreneur.)

F1 Champ Lewis Hamilton Just Launched a Non-Alcoholic Blue Agave Spirit to Rival Tequila

Real Estate

Besides both being very attractive actors, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds also have a great looking real estate portfolio! Self-confessed homebodies, both reportedly love to spend their time at home with their kids (as all parents are required to say about their kids). And boy do they have homes!

The couple are notoriously private, but a few details about their growing real estate empire have leaked out. After first getting together they bought a small house, that proved to be too small for the family they intended to have, so they bought their current $5.7 million mansion in Pound Ridge, NY on “11.65 acres that includes an outdoor barn, while the main Colonial-style house measures 8,892 square feet, boasting seven bedrooms and six bathrooms. There is also a separate guest house.”

In 2017 they picked up a Tribeca loft in a private sale (so no word on the price or how big it is). The building is home to other celebrities like Meg Ryan, Justin Timberlake, and Jennifer Lawrence.

And that’s it. I couldn’t find any other references to properties they own publicly, but again they are very private and most celebrities and business owners purchase properties using LLCs to shield their identities. With Ryan Reynolds co-owning a Welsh soccer team I’d imagine he also owns a nice flat above a pub in North Wales, because for some reason I can’t see Blake Lively spending the night in an AirBnB.

Inside Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s New York Real Estate Portfolio

Sports

Being a celebrity, and being married to a mega celebrity, comes with some perks. For Harlem rapper, artist, and creative A$AP Rocky (who’s married to his baby’s-momma Rihanna), it’s opened a lot of doors. Now A$AP Rocky is working with Puma as their new Formula 1 Creative guru (not his official title, but I could be wrong with how celebrity job titles are these days).

When Puma announced in May 2023 that they had signed a multi-year licensing deal to exclusively produce and sell Formula 1 apparel at all races they recruited A$AP Rocky based on his experience co-designing collections with JW Anderson, Marine Serre and Guess Originals.

A$AP Rocky Is Puma's New Formula 1 Creative Guru

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris