🎵 Lizzo’s shapewear revolution

Kibbles ‘n’ miss... Chewy was a pandemic go-to for pet goodies as 1 in 5 Americans welcomed new WFH companions into their homes. The online pet-supply deliverer even turned its first profit last year, after going public. But its fortunes have stalled. Chewy shares sank 16% yesterday after it unboxed a $63M quarterly loss — its third in row, and nearly double what investors were expecting.

• Empty digi-cart: Sales jumped 17% from a year earlier, but Chewy expects growth to slow this year as supply setbacks create a “highly challenging operating environment.”

The golden (retriever) era… Chewy makes most of its $$ through autoship (think: weekly cat-litter deliveries). Over the past two years, the company has raked in 7M+ new customers, but as the puppy-palooza fades so has Chewy’s growth. To win pet parents back:

• Chewy Loyalty: Chewy will launch its first membership program next year. While the perk details are still TBD, it may help engage regular shoppers, who tend to splurge more on their fur babies.

Took a DNA test, I'm 100%... compression fabric? Lizzo is famous for her serotonin-packed confidence anthems. Now the star is also a CEO: Lizzo's launching a shapewear brand called Yitty (her childhood nickname) in partnership with athleisure maker Fabletics. It’ll be sold online and in Fabletics' 76 stores.

• Bold: Yitty launches on April 12 with neon bodysuits, printed smoothing shorts, curve-hugging tanks, and other boldly colored shapewear.
• Inclusive: Sizes range from XS to 6X (one size larger than Kim K's Skims) and prices range from $15 to $70 (many $$ cheaper than Lululemon).
• Comfy: As a teen Lizzo sported pinch-tight girdles and corsets at school. With Yitty, she’s focused on super-soft fabrics.

XS to 6X… sounds like success. OG shapewear was meant to be hidden. New-school shapewear is meant to be flaunted, and on all body types. Lizzo's goal: "take the shame out of shapewear by infusing the category with fashion.” It's already happening: while shapewear sales still haven't fully rebounded from their pandemic plunge (less going out = less shaping), the formerly hush-hush category is now cool.

• Celeb brands like Kim’s K’s Skims and Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty have infused new life into shapewear. Skims recently doubled its valuation to $3.2B.
• Pre-Kardashian: In the ’90s, Sara Blakely famously used $5K of her savings to launch Spanx, creating modern-day shapewear — and notching a unicorn valuation last year.

• Ration: Germany has started to prep for the possibility that Russia will shut off its natural-gas supply. The Russians are demanding that “unfriendly countries” pay for gas in rubles, which the West has rejected.
• Jitters: Americans are more worried about inflation than at any time since the ’80s. They’re also the least concerned about Covid than at any point of the pandemic, a new Gallup poll found.
• Heist: Hackers made off with $600M from a blockchain network linked to the popular video game Axie Infinity, the latest — and one of the biggest — crypto hacks to date. The attack went unnoticed for nearly a week.
• Robo: Google spinoff Waymo is rolling out fully autonomous rides in San Francisco. It’ll be Waymo’s first attempt at sending cars without human drivers into a major city, and comes as rival Cruise expands in SF.
• Strike: Thousands of Etsy sellers are planning to shut down their storefronts for a week in April to protest the site’s transaction fees, which just jumped to 6.5% from 5%. They’re also asking Etsy shoppers to boycott.

• Earnings expected from Walgreens, BlackBerry, and Blend Labs

Authors of this Snacks own: shares of Apple, Amazon, and Google

ID: 2104141