Very important gelato collabs

Bar Ape rolled out flavours with Twenty Victoria and Sugo this week.

Good afternoon everyone.

Six months ago, I started writing Milk Bag as an experiment, and as this little side project picks up momentum I’ve been working to wrap up freelance projects so I can 1) pay my bills and 2) commit to a schedule where it is hitting your inbox every other workday.

I have some exciting updates to programming (and more) to announce soon, but for now I want to extend a massive thank you to everyone who has supported this newsletter from the beginning—it is my goal to create a product that you love, and want to read all the time.

ONTO THE NEWS:

• Chip Wilson took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to criticize Lululemon’s management. Chip has been vocal about what he has labelled as the “decline” of the brand since his departure in 2015 (read: sheer pants scandal). He compares the company’s trajectory to a “plane crash” and points to several points of failure including the $1B acquisition of Mirror and a “loss of cool,” offering up suggestions for a path forward. His comments might land differently this time given the company is genuinely struggling to grow in its home markets, like Canada.

• Remember when everything at Dollarama was actually a dollar? Raising prices hasn’t hurt the company (they’re doing well) but it could explain why people are losing their minds over Panda Mart, which is selling products at prices we left back in 2005.

• Bar Ape has unveiled flavour collaborations with both Twenty Victoria and Sugo this week. I am not ok. In somewhat related news Miss Vickie’s launched its new Pizzeria Badiali flavour.

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  A post shared by @bar_ape

• Google Searches for Hyrox are up 233% this year. This will be surprising to no one who saw the Toronto event unfold on social media this past weekend (more than 10,000 people participated in the event, up from 7,000 from last year) and it validates a shift towards strength training in the fitness industry. While it is difficult to complete the event in under an hour (I hear this is the goal for a lot of people) the barrier to entry is lower than, say, an Ironman, which people really seem to like.

• Really appreciated the headline of this Globe piece. Nobody wants to talk about the grey area between real affordability problems and our generation’s real addiction to tiny luxuries.

  

• Landlords with properties near the new Eglinton LRT line are eying demolition and redevelopment to get past rent controls. Average rental prices have fallen for 12 consecutive months.

• A Nobel prize winner who couldn’t be reached while on an off-grid hiking trip has become the envy of the corporate world.