The Rise of the Underdogs: when comfort became king

Handmade fuzzy socks FTW... In a year of so much fear and uncertainty, we turned to familiar creature comforts to help us feel a little more at ease. Companies that were previously forgotten (or even ridiculed), shockingly rose up from the Wall Street shadows as relevant standouts:

Etsy was a cultural punchline in 2019 — now it's a Wall Street darling with the second best-performing S&P 500 stock of the year. It was the best performing S&P stock, until Tesla was added to the index in December (womp):

• From DIY boba kits to embroidered blankies, Etsy is the chicken noodle soup of ecommerce. But its stock has 4X'd this year, and no one's laughing now.
• Etsy rode the ecommerce surge, becoming a prime destination for handmade masks (a whopping ~54M sold since April). Etsy's total January to September sales doubled from last year.
• The homespun, wholesome brand was a warmer alternative to Amazon — and a way for people to support craft sellers and small businesses.

Crocs was famously known as the ugly shoe brand — then it had its 2020 Croc-star moment, riding a wave of star-studded collabs. While US footwear sales were down 20% this year, Crocs sales were up 48%, according to an analyst.

• Crocs brought in record sales last quarter thanks to its comfort-first focus (and Justin Bieber). It's thriving because functional = the new fashionable.

Campbell Soup also made a shocking comeback in 2020: Campbell's canned soup sales grew after having fallen for nearly nine years straight. Pantry-staples like Campbell's became a hot commodity around the same time that TP disappeared (#memories).

• As we turned to familiar, affordable names for hoarding and stress snacking, sluggish old companies started growing again.
• Other comfort food honorable mentions: Kellogg, Pepsi, General Mills, and Kraft (shoutout boxed mac & cheese).