Trends & Artefacts: DINKWAD edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Salt Becomes Summer's Trendy Ingredient
Cardistry Decks Become Collector Items
Cola Perfumes Become Fragrance Trend
Explainer: DINKWADs
Vintage Kidswear Becomes A Growth Market
Salt Becomes Summer's Trendy Ingredient
UK bars and kitchens are turning salt into the season's star flavour, with salty drinks like nimbu pani offering relief from the heatwave and premium salt brands packaging their products like designer goods. Experts link the shift to a wider move away from sugar and sees it following the same "elevated pantry" path as olive oil and tinned fish. When a store-cupboard staple gets a design glow-up, what does that say about how we signal taste through the everyday?
Cardistry Decks Become Collector Items
Cardistry has grown from a niche flourishing subculture into a collectibles market, with brands like Lotusinhand and Ark selling most decks sealed to buyers who never shuffle them. TCC's COO says roughly half its customers now buy for the artwork or IP rather than the skill, and platforms like Dewu shelve playing cards alongside Bearbrick and Pop Mart figures. When a performance tool becomes a badge of belonging instead, what does that shift say about how collector culture assigns value?
Cola Perfumes Become Fragrance Trend
Cola is gourmand fragrance's newest signature, built from lime, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, caramel and vanilla rather than actual kola nut. The appeal is a sparkling, sophisticated finish rather than a syrupy one, letting brands push the same accord from citrus-fresh to boozy and spiced. When a childhood soft drink becomes a credible luxury scent, what does that say about how nostalgia gets repackaged as premium?
Explainer: DINKWADs
Childless couples with dogs, dubbed DINKWADs, are driving demand for luxury pet travel, from VistaJet's Michelin-starred in-flight menus to $6,000 Bark Air charter flights. It's happening as US birth rates fall over 20% in two decades while pet spending hits $158 billion, with brands like Sonesta and Ace Hotel building pet perks straight into their offer. When pets become the family unit being marketed to, how far does the hospitality industry need to rebuild around them?
Vintage Kidswear Becomes A Growth Market
Secondhand children's clothing is now expected to be the fastest-growing segment of the resale market, with brands like Sol Kidswear and La Fefi opening physical shopping spaces and one LA vintage pop-up drawing over 2,000 shoppers in a weekend. Parents cite affordability, sustainability, and nostalgia, some dressing kids in the same '80s and '90s IP they grew up with. When hand-me-downs become aspirational rather than embarrassing, what does that say about how far resale culture still has to climb?
