The Take Timeline

Consumer Trends

How the cowboys’ take on Consumer Trends has evolved.

1. 2026-01-09moderate 60%

   Purchase decisions involve multiple touchpoints across different channels and platforms

   The modern customer does not make decisions in a single moment or in a single medium. They move through a world of screens, sounds, and surfaces.

2. 2026-01-15high confidence 85%

   Consumer spending is shifting from material goods toward experiences and luxury services like travel

   All the airlines are up this year... they're valuing experiences and flights over some more stagnant things... the travel economy absolutely going through the roof because people want experiences

3. 2026-01-27moderate 55%

   Brands must adapt Valentine's Day marketing to target Gen Z's shift toward self-gifting and platonic relationships rather than romance

   60% of Gen Z jinzers buying gifts, they are doing so for themselves on Valentine's Day. Around 30% of spend is going toward non-romantic platonic relationships.

4. 2026-01-28moderate 62%

   TikTok is losing users at an alarming rate with alternatives gaining momentum

   Tik Tok users are deleting the app with removals up 150% following US joint Venture... Skylight now has 380,000 users. Tik Tok alternative going up.

5. 2026-01-31moderate 62%

   Making premium health services and preventative care accessible to mainstream consumers represents a transformative market opportunity.

   Rich, rich and ultra wealthy people have been doing this for quite a while. Preventative health, biomarkers... If you're basically saying, 'Hey, this isn't just for them. This can be for you, too.' That's huge.

6. 2026-02-05high confidence 85%

   Gen Z is experiencing an awakening about how ingredients and lifestyle choices directly affect their health and wellbeing.

   it's starting to I don't know like an awakening of what you put in your body, what you put on your body is what your body eventually is made out of

7. 2026-02-05Predictionmoderate 78%

   Artisanal, slow food production will eventually overtake convenience-based processed food despite requiring more time and preparation effort.

   it's slower but it's it's the slow and steady thing I think it's it's it's going to take over

8. 2026-02-13high confidence 85%

   Leisure time and human experience—like extended stays in Italy—have become the new status symbol as AI and automation reduce necessary work hours.

   Maybe you should take two or three months out of the year spend it in Italy, spend it in Capri and just start sunbathing and hanging out

9. 2026-02-18moderate 75%

   Gen Z is rejecting polished, filtered content and demanding authentic, unstructured ambient content.

   this return to ambient unstructured content might be the most hopeful thing I've seen in years. The hottest content format right now apparently is nothing.

10. 2026-02-25moderate 55%

    Subscription-based health and longevity products targeting Gen Z represent strong market opportunities

    This is one of those things where this is going to enter into their lifestyle. It's subscription variant. Everyone's trying to be healthier right now.

11. 2026-03-17moderate 72%

    Consumers should stop taking brand health claims at face value and demand third-party verification, reflecting a broader shift toward skepticism about ingredient and calorie claims.

    I'm not just going to take your word for it. I want third-party testing.

12. 2026-03-18moderate 65%

    Workwear norms have shifted from rigid prescriptive dress rules to a looser standard focused simply on looking sharp and clean.

    it's it's we think it's a lot more prescriptive... a lot more descriptive, a lot less prescriptive... look sharp and and and clean

13. 2026-03-24moderate 60%

    Group endurance challenges like rucking are emerging as a distinctly masculine-coded fitness trend worth brands paying attention to.

    there's something about it that feels masculine to me

14. 2026-03-25moderate 60%

    In the K-shaped economy, Target is being squeezed out of the middle as Amazon wins on speed and Walmart wins lower-income and grocery shoppers.

    we see now in the K-shaped economy, the middle's getting squeezed out

15. 2026-03-27moderate 75%

    Consumers claim to value things like domestic manufacturing and quality but still primarily buy on price and deal, so stated preference is currently ahead of actual purchase behavior.

    people love it and they celebrate it, but they don't buy. They still go with whoever can get me the best deal and whatever that matrix sees for highest quality at the lowest price is

16. 2026-03-28moderate 62%

    Humanoid/labor robots aren't yet backed by real consumer purchase behavior despite the hype and political will around them.

    I want this to happen so bad, but I don't know that the consumer behavior is there to follow it just yet

17. 2026-03-31moderate 70%

    Gen Z's growing desire to escape attention-hooking algorithms is creating real market demand for analog, non-addictive physical products aimed at kids and young people.

    There's a really big push right now with Gen Z where they're trying to push against the actual algorithms that are consuming all of their time that are hooking everything into them.

18. 2026-04-07Predictionmoderate 60%

    Pet telehealth is emerging as the next major category, poised for the kind of subscription/GLP-1-style growth and investor interest that made human telehealth huge.

    I think that there is a strong case to be made here that pet telehealth is the new op to go up into the right and get yourself some bees behind your revenue numbers.

19. 2026-04-14moderate 58%

    Despite a lot of noise, X has become a valuable place for people to find root-cause explanations for health issues like autoimmune disease.

    there's a lot of noise on X, for sure... but it's a great place to... find just root cause cures to their issues.

20. 2026-04-23moderate 60%

    Nostalgcore is trending in 2026 not because people want the literal past back, but because they miss the pre-performative, pre-optimized feeling of earlier social media.

    Nostalgcore is emerging as one of the defining consumer trends of 2026, not because people want the past back, but because they miss how the past felt.

21. 2026-05-15high confidence 82%

    The Billboard Hot 100 functions as a cheap, real-time gauge of the emotional and cultural world customers currently want to live in, and marketers should read it as a consumer signal.

    The Billboard Hot 100 is the cheapest cultural focus group you'll ever access. It's a real-time read on the emotional world your customer wants to live in.

22. 2026-05-15moderate 72%

    Golf merchandise is currently a red-hot, high-velocity category driven by fan enthusiasm even though a lot of the product being sold is low quality.

    everybody is on fire about golf merch, which is which is cool... that being said, there's some truly awful stuff

23. 2026-05-20Predictionmoderate 70%

    Colin predicts US affordability pressure will force white-collar Americans to weigh retiring abroad within the next 5 to 10 years.

    there is a crunch of like the white-collar American. And there's going to be some decisions that are going to have to be made over the next 5 to 10 years of like is the United States the place where you're going to retire because of affordability

24. 2026-05-21Predictionmoderate 55%

    A next-generation GLP-1 drug (retatrutide, in phase-three trials) will be the one that truly transforms the weight-loss/GLP-1 economy.

    There's one in clinical trials right now from Eli Lilly. It's in phase three right now. It's called retatrutide... This thing is going to This is going to change

25. 2026-06-02moderate 58%

    Costco's rock-bottom gas prices act as a draw that pulls in shoppers who then rack up much larger basket sizes on impulse once inside.

    those three or four things turns into like I could get 15 things here... turn a Costco run to 450 in a blink of an eye

26. 2026-06-04moderate 55%

    The viral Kool-Aid-on-food trend (pineapples, pickles, meat) is likely at least partly manufactured/astroturfed marketing rather than pure organic virality, even though the broad engagement suggests real appetite for it.

    Yeah, I think this is totally manufactured... it could be... Totally could be.

27. 2026-06-09moderate 60%

    GLP-1 drugs' expanding proven health benefits, like cutting breast cancer risk, make continued strong investment in companies like Eli Lilly a near-certainty.

    GLP1s reduced breast cancer in women by 30% overall

28. 2026-06-12moderate 60%

    Health and wellness consumer brands are currently experiencing outsized growth and profitability across the category.

    life and health consumer brands right now are doing extremely well... I think they grew [profitability] unbelievable.

29. 2026-06-12moderate 62%

    GLP-1 medication usage is the underlying driver pushing consumers from sugary snacks toward natural high-protein foods like cottage cheese and yogurt.

    the underlying growing factor is GLP1 use... this shift is also what's fueling dairy products with a high protein serving like cottage cheese and yogurt.

30. 2026-06-13Predictionmoderate 60%

    Podcasting will keep shifting from pure entertainment toward content listeners can apply to make their lives healthier and more meaningful.

    you'll continue to see a shift from entertainment podcast to how can I apply what I'm hearing to my life to make my life a more you know meaningful

31. 2026-06-20Predictionmoderate 65%

    Flushable wipes remain a massively underpenetrated category, with most consumers never having tried it, giving the category room to eventually rival toilet paper.

    60% haven't even tried a flushable wipe yet. We think we can replace toilet paper.

32. 2026-07-15moderate 65%

    Colin describes shoppers cutting big-ticket discretionary purchases while still spending on small 'everyday luxury' items like premium groceries.

    we're not going to get the $500, $600 item... and then we're going to scale that down to like we'll get a couple luxury grocery items here and there

33. 2026-07-17moderate 65%

    There's a real, growing consumer trend of excitement around the $15,000 luxury golf cart category.

    Apparently multiple people are excited about the $15,000ish dollar luxury golf cart segment. We've been seeing this a lot. Very interesting.

34. 2026-07-23high confidence 80%

    The humanization of pets is a durable macro trend where dogs have effectively replaced children in spending and attention for many households.

    So just dogs are the new kids.

35. 2026-08-01moderate 75%

    Teen boys have become a major, fast-growing beauty/fragrance shopper segment, building rotating 'fragrance wardrobes' driven by TikTok and Reddit trend culture.

    Teen boys have become an increasingly important consumer demographic over the past few years. Thanks primarily to their insatiable appetite for fragrance.

36. 2026-08-06moderate 55%

    TrueMed is an underappreciated discovery platform because it lets consumers use HSA/FSA money to buy e-commerce supplements like Thorne.

    they sneakily have been one of the most interesting discovery platforms to leverage your uh FSA and HSA money.

37. 2026-08-12moderate 70%

    Colin argues bottled tea is a structurally weak, bearish category to build a brand in, despite one bright spot like Guayaki, because growth is dwarfed by energy drinks.

    I think bottled tea is actually not a bullish category... I would say it's extremely, you know, bearish to build inside of the tea category. I would stay away from it.

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