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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. When assessing home price momentum, ResiClub believes it’s important to monitor active listings and months of supply. If active listings start to rapidly increase as homes remain on the market for longer periods, it may indicate pricing softness or weakness. Conversely, a rapid decline in active listings could suggest a market that is heating up. Generally speaking, local housing markets where active inventory has jumped above pre-pandemic 2019 levels have experienced softer home price growth (or outright price declines) over the past 36 months. Conversely, local housing markets where active inventory remains far below pre-pandemic 2019 levels have, generally speaking, experienced more resilient home price growth over the past 36 months. Where is inventory heading into summer? As ResiClub communicated to ResiClub PRO members in late 2023and reaffirmed last fallwe expect national active inventory to approach pre-pandemic 2019 levels in the second half of 2025. Thats still the trajectory were on. National active listings are on the rise (+31.5% between May 2024 and May 2025). This indicates that homebuyers have gained some leverage in many parts of the country over the past year. Some seller’s markets have turned into balanced markets, and more balanced markets have turned into buyer’s markets. Nationally, were still below pre-pandemic 2019 inventory levels (-12.3% below May 2019), and some resale markets, in particular big chunks of the Midwest and Northeast, still remain tight-ish. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); May 2017: 1,253,854 May 2018: 1,156,910 May 2019: 1,180,920 May 2020: 928,370 May 2021: 447,662 (overheating during the Pandemic Housing Boom) May 2022: 479,462 May 2023: 582,441 May 2024: 787,722 May 2025: 1,036,101 If we maintain the current year-over-year pace of inventory growth (+248,379 homes for sale), we’d have: 1,284,480 active inventory come May 2026 1,532,859 active inventory come May 2027 Below is the year-over-year percentage change by state. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); While active housing inventory is rising in most markets on a year-over-year basis, some markets still remain tight-ish (although it’s loosening). As ResiClub has been documenting, both active resale and new homes for sale remain the most limited across huge swaths of the Midwest and Northeast. Thats where home sellers this spring had, relatively speaking, more power. In contrast, active housing inventory for sale has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, including metro-area housing markets such as Punta Gorda, Florida, and Austin. Many of these areas saw major price surges during the pandemic housing boom, with home prices getting stretched in comparison with local incomes. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Tampa, Florida, and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices. This softening trend is further compounded by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives (if they have the margins to do so) to maintain sales in a shifted market, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market. Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals. That puts additional upward pressure on resale inventory. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); At the end of May 2025, 10 states were above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington. (The District of Columbiawhich we left out of this analysisis back above pre-pandemic 2019 active inventory levels, too. Weakness in D.C. proper predates the current admins job cuts.) To better understand ongoing softness and weakness across Florida, read this ResiClub PRO report. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Big picture: Over the past few years, weve observed a softening across many housing markets as strained affordability tempers the fervor of a market that was unsustainably hot during the pandemic housig boom. While home prices are falling in some areas around the Gulf, most regional housing markets are still seeing positive year-over-year home price growth. That said, given the current softening, ResiClub expects that as the year progresses, more markets will fall into the year-over-year decline camp. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); Below is another version of the table abovebut this one includes every month since January 2017. (Sorry if its a little blurryclick the interactive link to see a version that isnt blurry.) !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); If youd like to further examine the monthly state inventory figures, use the interactive below. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}();
Category:
E-Commerce
On Monday, the head of U.S. disaster agency FEMA stunned staffers when he mentioned in a briefing that hed not been aware of any such thing as hurricane season. Not exactly an ideal grasp of weather phenomena for the person in charge of Americas emergency management. Although a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security later claimed the comment was intended as a joke, it didn’t exactly rouse more confidence in his abilities. I dont know, after all, has lately become a go-to line among leaders all throughout the federal governmentespecially the president himself. The most egregious I dont know in recent memory was almost certainly Trumps response when a reporter asked him if the president needs to uphold the U.S. Constitution, something he swore an oath to do, but thats just the tip of the uninformed iceberg. Ignorance may be bliss but in President Donald Trumps second term, its just standard operating procedure. Nearly five months in, its starting to look like the I Dont Know administration. WELKER: Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree?TRUMP: I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.WELKER: Don't you need to uphold the Constitution?TRUMP: I don't know pic.twitter.com/xRwDh8sm0X— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025 Every shade in the I dont know rainbow For leaders in every field, I dont know can be a get-out-of-jail-free card for difficult questions, be they from board members, reporters, or staff at an all-hands meeting. I dont know can be the meat in a sandwich where the bread slices are, thats a great question, and Ill look into that. It only tends to work as an acceptable deflection, however, if used sparingly. Thats certainly not the case with the current president. Some of Trumps I dont knowswhich will be labeled IDKs going forward, for brevityseem utterly genuine. It stands to reason that the president might have merely been candid, rather than obtuse, in an Oval Office meeting back in April when he said he did not know what ‘the Congo’ is. More often than not, however, those IDKs smack of tactics. Looking closely at the presidents recent speeches, press conferences, and interviews, he appears to have three main modes for using IDK as a strategic evasion: the Ostrich, the Complicator, and the Minimizer. As the title suggests, the Ostrich is Trumps way of metaphorically burying his head in the sand. He employs it seemingly to avoid admitting an inconvenient fact, either to maintain plausible deniability or deflect blame. The Ostrich is perfect for neither confirming nor denying the details of Signalgate right as that explosive story first broke, explaining why the new surgeon general is a wellness influencer and not a practicing physician, or why Trump pardoned a violent January 6 rioter who assaulted a police officer. The Complicator is the IDK Trump trots out in an apparent effort to inject ambiguity into settled issues, or at least those with an obvious correct answer. Is the separation of church and state a good thing or a bad thing? Trump does not know. Do DOGEs massive cuts or the elimination of the US Agency of International Development require a vote in Congress? Whos to say. (Certainly not Trump.) Did Trump benefit at all from sky-high sales of the memecoin that literally bears his name? Consider asking someone else who may know of such things. Finally, The Minimizer is the IDK Trump seems to reach for when casting a moment or person as so insignificant as to not be worth talking about. It cant be a big deal if Trump doesnt even know about itperhaps it never even happened! This one is reserved for not acknowledging things like Mitch McConnells battle with polio or a Kennedy Center audience booing JD Vance. It can be hard to tell sometimes whether Trump is using strategic evasion or if he truly doesnt know something. Either way, when it comes to issues as important as the arrest and detention of a Tufts University student, seemingly over her writing of a pro-Palestine op-ed in a student newspaper, the leader of the free world not knowing about it is a problem. The evolution of Trumps IDKs Trumps history with IDK runs all the way back to the early days of his political career. In a February 2016 interview, Jake Tapper asked the then-candidate if he wanted to disavow a recent endorsement from former KKK leader David Duke, who told listeners on his radio show that week that voting for anyone besides Trump is really a treason to your heritage. What should have been a no-brainer disavowal, however, ended up becoming an Ostrich moment. “I don’t know anything about David Duke,” Trump claimed. The non-disavowal quickly became a persistent news item, helped in no small part by unearthed footage of Trump previously denouncing Duke in the year 2000. (Trump went on to disavow Duke again, and blame a supposedly shoddy earpiece during the Tapper interview for his not doing so sooner.) During his first term as president, Trump seemed to use IDKs as a folksy performance of not being the average ivory tower egghead politician. He wouldnt simply admit when he didnt know something, he would cast it as groundbreaking information for Real Americas. The telltale term in such instances wasnt IDK, but rather nobody knew. When Trump proved unable to quickly replace Obamacare, he famously lamented, nobody knew health care could be so complicated. He used this construction so often, Now This made a supercut about it. As for those in Trumps cabinet and in Congress during his first term, the IDKs mostly came in response to reporters asking for reactions to Trumps provocative tweets. The ‘I dont know’ administration The difference between Trumps first term and his current one is that both Trump and his colleagues seem to be a lot more comfortable dropping IDKs, considering how often they do it. Another change, though, is the brazenness with which they offer them. The Secretary of Health didnt know whether the COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of lives or not. The Secretary of Education didnt know about a new policy of vetting social media accounts for foreign students. The Secretary of Labor didnt know her department had eliminated a whole agency, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, one that happened to be investigating self-styled DOGEfather Elon Musk. And neither the Secretary of State nor the Speaker of the House apparently knew about the presidents private dinner for investors in his cryptocurrency during the week of the dinner. Members of Team Trump even cling to their supposed lack of information as they are offered enlightenment in real time. Anyone paying close attention to politics in 2025 will have likely seen by now the surreal spectacle of a grown adult denying the necessary knowledge to determine whether, say, January 6 rioters behaved violently, while being shown a video about it. The worst offender of the bunch is probably Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Questioned about a doctored image Trump shared in an effort to link mistakenly deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia with the violent gang MS-13, Noem vehemently refused to admit the image had obviously been photoshopped. I dont have any knowledge as to that photo youre pointing to, she claimed, refusing to look at the blown-up image in question. When the congressman interrogating her asked an assistant to bring the poster image within five feet of Noems face, she declined to look at it, and thus continued to know nothing about it. Its getting easier to believe, though, that Trump and his administration may not know a lot of things. Who knows what they wont know tomorrow.
Category:
E-Commerce
In his role as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk spent several months gleefully subjecting parts of the government he doesnt like to an array of metaphorical power tools. We spent the weekend feeding USAID [United States Agency for International Development] into the wood chipper, he wrote on X in February, after pushing to illegally withhold billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to fight famine, care for sick people, and vaccinate children against deadly diseases. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead. A few weeks later, Musk celebrated his accomplishments to date by taking the stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference while triumphantly waving a chainsaw overhead. This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy, he yelped, just in case the reference was too subtle for anyone in attendance. CHAINSAW! On the one hand, Musks efforts set up some of his businesses to make a bunch of money, and delighted Republican politicians whose idea of wasteful spending is anything that does not make hedge fund executives or car dealership owners wealthier. On the other hand, his White House tenure shaved billions of dollars off his net worth, made it genuinely embarrassing to own a Tesla, and transformed Musk into one of the most reviled political figures in the country. Now, as Musk leaves the Trump administration and returns to the private sectorand as the two men engage in oafish public meltdowns on their respective social media platformsthe question of whether DOGE was, on balance, worth it for Musk sort of depends on what happens to his portfolio over the next quarter or so. Already, Musk has embarked on a miniature image rehabilitation tour, framing himself in time-honored reactionary tradition as a tragic victim of his own success. In a soft-lit interview with The Washington Post, he said that DOGE had become the whipping boy for everything, and bemoaned the uphill battle he faced for simply trying to improve things in D.C. In an interview with Ars Technica, Musk admitted that he probably did spend a bit too much time on politics, and expressed eagerness to get back to the business that really matters: presiding over failed SpaceX launches. As a result, many retrospectives on Musks time at DOGE read like obituaries, both for the organization and the movement it represents. In a recent Reuters profile, for example, a former DOGE staffer predicted that it would fizzle out without Musk, and analogized the remaining employees to kids joining a startup that will go out of business in four months. But talking about DOGE in the past tense is wrong for several reasons. First, Musks actions will continue to inflict pain and suffering long after Trump has left the White House. One expert estimates that Musks cuts to USAID have already resulted in about 300,00 preventable deaths, most of them children. Even if the $180 billion that DOGE says it has cut is a generous overestimate, people still died because Elon Musk decided it would be fun to cosplay as the president for a few weeks. Second, Musks efforts to pillage the federal government will not end the moment he leaves town. A recent Washington Post analysis estimated that Musks companies are propped up by $38 billion in government funding. Although Trump has threatened to stop doing business with Musk during their ongoing posting warmuch, much more on that belowSpaceX in particular is integral to the modern U.S. space program, parts of which would grind to a halt without the (non-exploding versions of) Musks rockets. Reluctant though Trump may be to keep paying out on these contracts, it would presumably be even more embarrassing for him to leave NASA without a viable in-house method of retrieving astronauts from space. Finally, DOGE was not and was never going to be a one-off effort to, as the conservative activist Grover Norquist once put it, make the government small enough to drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. For decades, Republicans, at the behest of their corporate donors, have pushed the idea that government should be run like a business, and insisted that the legitimacy of any government expenditure depends on the associated return on investment. Only if elected officials do something about the scourges of wasteful spending, inefficient regulation, and dastardly bureaucracy, the argument goes, can America ever hope to reach its full potential. But Republicans face the same basic challenge every time they try to follow through on this promise: Although voters theoretically support the idea of making government more efficient, the real-world cuts Republicans would make to effectuate that goal are wildly unpopular. Normal people dont want to gut the National Park Service or the U.S. Postal Service, for example. They dont support making it easier for big banks to rip off consumers, and they definitely dont like GOP politicians threatening to take Sesame Street off the air. By outsourcing much of this unseemly work to Musk and DOGE, Republican lawmakers found a possible solution to their vexing PR problem: a method of speed-running some of the more controversial aspects of their policy agenda, but without having to cast costly votes to implement it. Now Musk is learning the hard way that although he was using the Republican Party to enrich himself, the Republican Party was using him, too. Republican lawmakers are attempting to pass Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, a budget reconciliation bill that would result in some 10.9 million fewer people with access to health isurance by 2034, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Although the bill would cut some $1.3 trillion in federal spending over a decade, its still projected to add an additional $2.4 trillion to the national debt over that same period, thanks to a cool $3.7 trillion in tax cuts. Musk at first described himself as disappointed by the bills price tag, which he said undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. When his opinion failed to persuade the White House (or Republican leadership on Capitol Hill) to change course, Musk began lashing out, calling the Big Ugly Bill a disgusting abomination, and vowing to help fire all politicians who betrayed the American people by voting for it. He then went on to call for Trumps impeachment, threaten to start a new political party, link Trump to the late Jeffrey Epstein, and otherwise mock the president as a hypocritical, spineless ingrate who would have lost the 2024 election in humiliating fashion if not for Musks generous infusions of cash. As it turns out, when you just spent four months torpedoing your brand in pursuit of a shared ideological goal, watching your purported allies immediately abandon it can be a frustrating experience. In one sense, this constitutes a split with Trump, in that Musk is indeed trashing the signature policy initiative of a president whose candidacy he supported to the tune of more than a quarter-billion dollars. But it is also evidence that Musk never fully grasped the nature of his relationship with Trump in the first place: While he was out there taking the (well-deserved) reputational hits for doing all the slashing and burning that Republicans wanted to see, GOP lawmakers were preparing to do what they always do: abandon this fiscal responsibility song and dance at their earliest convenience, and enact more tax cuts that will disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. When he took the gig at DOGE, Musk imagined himself as a revolutionary, uniquely positioned to identify and cut wasteful spending by virtue of the power in the Republican Party that he believed hed rightfully purchased. But Musk believed so strongly in his abilities that he forgot that the GOP does not care about saving public resources, but about redirecting that money to its political allies instead. Even if this iteration of DOGE fizzles out, there will be another DOGE before long, because Republicans will never stop looking for ways to slash programs that help vulnerable people, and there will always be someone like Musk who is willing do their dirty work in exchange for the chance to line his pockets.
Category:
E-Commerce
The NHLs Stanley Cup is arguably the most iconic championship trophy in sports. Legends like Wayne Gretzky have sipped champagne from it. A Kentucky Derby-winning horse once ate oats out of it. Children have been baptized in it. Just as you can bank on the champions hoisting the Cup each June, you can also bet that some crazy stories will follow. But the Stanley Cups lore is no accident. Its the result of a masterclass in brand-building by the NHL that turned a $50 silver cup into marketing gold. Heres how they did it. Scarcity: There’s only one Stanley Cup Unlike other major sports that create new championship trophies each year, there is only one Stanley Cup. Winners don’t get to keep itthey borrow it, adding their names before passing it to the next years champion. The NHL understands the power of scarcity: When something cannot be possessed permanently, its perceived value increases dramatically. This exclusivity creates a unique reverence for the trophy. The Cup becomes an aspirational symbol rather than an achievement to be stashed in a trophy case. Players won’t touch the Cup before winning it, often refusing to even look at it during the playoffs. Such superstitions further mythologize the Cup, creating traditions that sports journalists write about each year, adding to the Cups lore while generating millions of impressions in free media coverage. Physical permanence in a digital age In an era of fleeting digital experiences, the NHL has leaned into the physical permanence of the Stanley Cup. The Cup carries the engraved names of past champions, creating a physical connection to the sport’s history. When a ring on the trophy fills up, the NHL doesn’t discard it, rather it preserves it in the Hockey Hall of Fame and adds a new band to the bottom on which to etch the next wave of champions. This engraving practice builds legacy and authenticity that all brands covet. The winning team doesnt just get the same trophy as Gretzky. Each player lifts the exact cup Gretzky held. Their names are etched alongside his, along with the hallowed names of Mark Messier, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Gordie Howe, Bobby Orr, Henri Richard, and dozens of other legends immortalized on the Cup. It’s a traveling record book. It’s the leagues ultimate brand symbol and carries the NHLs history everywhere it goes. And go it doesto the farthest flung corners of the earth. The power of storytelling Perhaps the NHL’s most genius Stanley Cup marketing moveand the one that lends itself best to the digital agecame in 1995, when it began giving each member of the championship team a personal day with the Cup. This decision created an organic content machine that churns out authentic moments that spread across newspapers, websites, and social platforms without the NHL spending a dime on placement. When Mario Lemieux takes the Cup swimming, Alex Ovechkin snuggles up with it in his bed, or Patrick Maroons mom chugs beer from the Cup, viral moments are created that connect emotionally with fans in ways traditional marketing simply cannot replicate. While marketing departments globally brainstorm how to create viral campaigns, the Stanley Cup’s summer tour provides an incubator in which viral moments inevitably occur. Phil Pritchard, the “Keeper of the Cup,” travels over 150,000 miles annually shepherding the trophy from beaches to mountaintops with players who win it, fueling a content goldmine that modern brands can only dream about. All publicity is good publicity Over the years, the Cup has traveled the world. Its climbed mountains, been to the Hollywood sign, and visited troops in an Afghan combat zone. But its escapades havent always been pretty. Remember when Tom Brady got heat for tossing the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another at the Buccaneers Super Bowl boat parade in 2021? Thats just another day in the life for the Stanley Cup. The Cup has been dropped, dented, lost, and stolen. Its been kicked into a canal and strapped into a roller coasterand thats just the stuff we know about. In an increasingly damage-control, image-conscious world, most of these mishaps would be PR nightmares for a brand trying to protect the prize thats an enduring symbol of its business. But the NHL leans into these stories, turning misadventures into viral content. Writers recounting tales of the time the Montreal Canadiens left the Cup on the roadside during a tire change in 1924, or when the Cup was stolen from the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970, are traditions as annalized as hoisting the cup itself. And each year brings an opportunity for a new story to add to the Cup’s mythology and expand its cultural footprint. The most precious asset: emotional equity The Stanley Cup was first purchased in 1892 by Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley for $50. It stands 35.25 inches tall and weighs roughly 35 poundsuntil you lift it, the traditional saying goes. Then it weighs nothing. With leaguewide revenue hitting $6.3 billion in last seasonan 8.6% increase over the previous yearthe NHL is flourishing. The Stanley Cup is the centerpiece, proving that organic storytelling and emotional connection transform ordinary objects into brand powerhouses and that value comes not from an object’s monetary worth but from the stories, traditions, and emotional resonance it carries. The Florida Panthers are defending the Cup this week in a rematch of last years Final against the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers took game one 4-3 in overtime, and nobody yet knows whether they will become the first Canadian squad to claim the Cup since the Canadiens topped the Kings in 1993. But one thing is for sure: whichever team earns the right to hoist the trophy will also add another handful of stories to the Stanley Cups lore.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Arturo Polichuk got his first college internship in September 2020, he was introduced to corporate life via virtual onboarding and fully remote work, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. I never got to go to the office, other than to pick up my computer and then to drop it, Polichuk said of his nine-month business planning internship at Nike. While Gen Zers like Polichuk might have gained many of the same experiences as other entry-level employees, return-to-office mandates are proving that Gen Z missed out on one big lesson: navigating office attire. Gen Z, the generation born after 1996, may comprise a quarter of the global workforce by 2025. Flooded with obscure dress codes like business casual, which Vogue says is dead, or TikTok office attire trends like office siren, which promote sexier iterations of office wear, Gen Z is entering the workforce confused. To make navigating office attire easier, Fast Company asked Gen Z professionals in various industries what they wear to the office, and how they figured it out. Are dress codes still a thing? Yes and no. Kyndal Midkiff, a recent law school graduate and associate attorney at a Florida law firm, explained that at work she opts for business casualthink closed-toed shoes, modest skirts, slacks, and button-up shirts with no tie. In court, Midkiff is required to follow guidelines, including modest clothing and wearing a dress jacket. Midkiff says she learned about dress codes at law school. At school we had seminars about what’s appropriate, what’s not. That was helpful for figuring out what the attire is, she says. For others, like Polichuk and Max Baevsky, who both work in consulting, no guidelines were explicitly given. Instead, they were encouraged to follow business casual while in the office, and to wear suits while holding client meetings. Nick Arreguy, who works in tech sales in New York City, says a dress code is included in his company’s employee handbook. The policy is not specific, stating that dress code is casual, and that employees are expected to use their judgment in choice of clothing. With uncertainty, he decided to dress overly formal the first day, as did Polichuk and Baevsky. It’s like an overcompensation,” Arreguy says. “I remember showing up on my first day working in tech, wearing dress pants and a collared shirt buttoned all the way up. And I realized that that’s not the reality anymore, he adds, referencing a shift toward more relaxed attire following the pandemic. The reality is, however, that there is a uniform and there is a standard to which people dress. It’s not based on a level of formality. It’s based on a level of identifying with a given group, Arreguy says. In practice, the young professionals learned what to wear not from written guidelines, but by mirroring what those around them wore, slowly building up their go-to attire. What does Gen Z wear to work? Finding a uniform, as Arreguy puts it, focuses on finding wardrobe staples that fit into the particular workplace culture. For instance, there’s the infamous finance bro vest, which is popular among men in the financial industry. Baevsky says that while more senior analysts tend to wear more formal attire like a full suit, younger consultants err on the side of comfort, with a particular popular style. That sneaky Lululemon pant. While Lululemon ABC pants look like regular slacks, they come in various fabric options including cotton blends and sweat-wicking synthetic blends, and in various styles like relaxed or skinny. Think of them as the meeting point between “gym comfort” and a 9-to-5. Baesvky adds: You sneak in the comfort while also giving the illusion of formality. I think I’ve definitely seen that with younger consultants. Polichuk is an avid user of the Lululemon slacks, relying on them during work trips. The first thing that I pack are my work pants from Lululemon, he says. Midkiff is a believer in the capsule wardrobe, owning similar styles of pants and shirts in various colors to make dressing easier. I actually just bought the same pair of pants in four different colors, she says. Once you find something good, you better buy it in every color before it’s gone. Additionally, all professionals said they try to find garments that can be used inside and outside of work. Arreguy shares that he regularly wears Wrangler pants and a button-up shirt. While at work, he keeps the sleeves down and tucks in the shirt, but in his free time, he rolls up the sleeves for a more relaxed look. Retaining self-expression in the workplace While there is an intention to blend into the workforce, Gen Z also values self-expression. McKinsey Quarterly says this young generation places a greater value than other generations on setting themselves apart as unique individuals. Because of the nature of how long we were in remote work, there’s almost this romanticization of office wear, where people have this glamorized ideal of what it is, Arreguy says. But there’s a lot more infusing of your own style into what you’re wearing at work. Whether it be through jewelry and accessories, makeup and nails, or simply opting for bolder colors, young professionals are not leaving individuality out of the equation. Arreguy brings in Western flair to his attire by adding boots, an ode to his upbringing in Odessa, Texas. I joke with my friends that, you know, the farther from Texas you get, the more Texas you become, he says. Polichuk has observed that his younger peers use shoes to make their outfits unique. They try to bring different sneakers every time,” he says. “It’s part of their brand and part of who they are, and I think that’s what [distinguishes] themwithout losing the formal part of the consulting business. Midkiff opts for silhouettes she wears outside of work, saying, I really like a high-waisted trouser pant. I’ve always been a bell-bottom girl, even with my jeans. I love the flair. So I try to stick to those because, one, they’re comfortable, and two, I like the way they look. Baevsky plays around with color and proportions, building out his funky wool sweater collection, which he wears at work and in daily life. I also like to experiment with pants sometimes, like a wider pant or a funky plaid pant, and balance it off with something maybe mor muted, he says. The playfulness is also inspiring older generations, notes Gregory Patterson, celebrity hairstylist and styling expert for Sally Beauty. He has been helping his 16-year-old niece to apply for jobs. While he’s been at Sally Beauty, the brand has worked toward destigmatizing colored hair in the workforce. There are magical micro moments where you can express yourself, whether it’s a little glitter eye, or you put a couple brooches on to express yourself. It’s for you, Patterson says. I would suggest that Gen Z push the pedal to the floor. You all are rewriting the playbook. The playbook ended with COVID, and we have a new opportunity to define beauty and to create culture.
Category:
E-Commerce
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