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For more than 40 years, the investment banking firm Allen & Co. has attracted a selective group of moguls to Sun Valley, Idaho, for its annual Sun Valley Conference. The gathering calls on tech tycoons, entertainment CEOs, and an assorted whos who of billionaires to socialize their way through a four-day networking retreat. Despite the astronomical amounts of wealth represented at the event, the Sun Valley uniform has largely remained the same for the past decade: understated polo shirts, blue vests, jeans, and, every so often, a semi-interesting pair of sunglasses. As of July 9, the 2025 guest list includes Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sam Altman, and Bob Iger. Compare the attire of this years attendees with that of the event’s guests in 2015 and, if not for a few familiar faces, you probably wouldnt even be able to tell the difference. Looking back on Sun Valley events of old, it seems that the gathering was a kind of progenitor for modern-day quiet luxury. While quiet luxury and stealth luxe have become buzzwords in recent years, this way of dressing has long been embraced among wealthy elites. Opting for simple, understated, well-made clothes can signal status without appearing gaudy. Quiet luxury was instantly adopted by the players in this space as a way to speak to their success through what they wear. It’s designed to go unnoticed, even if they’re publicly powerful and influential figures, says L.A.-based personal stylist Mary Komick. The color palettes are muted shades or monochromatic neutral, and their clothes are refined, clean-cut, and tailored. They’re showing off to each other, with their stealth luxe style noticeably recognized by those in these circles. Nowadays, Komick adds, the accepted dress code has become almost an ironic mainstay at Sun Valley. Men stick to canvas jackets, low-key tees, polos, and denim jeans, while women choose a similar combination of designer tees and tanks paired with tailored trousers. Here are a few of the common themes emerging this year. [Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images (Iger, Cook), Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (Nadella)] The polo club Those looking to play it as safe as possible at this years gathering have all turned to a timeless mainstay of tech bro fashion, the beige living room of tops: the polo shirt. Iger, Cook, and Satya Nadellathe CEOs of Disney, Apple, and Microsoft, respectivelywere just a few of the attendees who opted for a polo in either crisp white or blue for their arrival at the conference. The majority of attendees are deliberately choosing to wear nondescript, understated outfits in an effort to prioritize function over fashion, Komick says. They’re photographed in outfits purposely chosen to look like they’re heading to the golf course in Patagonia vests, going on a hike, or wearing Western hats meant for a scenic horseback ride. This is most likely preferred simply to reduce decision fatigue, because everyone is thinking about the next newsworthy tech or entertainment deal they’re making behind closed doors. [Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (Armstrong, Altman)] The humble (or not-so-humble) T-shirt Another popular look, which takes an even more casual spin on the popular polo and khakis, is the T-shirt-and-jeans combo. These shirts will make you ask, Does that T-shirt cost $10 or $600? And, chances are, your first guess is probably wrong. This years T-shirt wearers include OpenAI CEO Altman, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone, and OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor. [Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (Khosrowshahi, Wiedenfels)] The walking billboard Immediately upon arrival at this years retreat, a few attendees signaled that they were already members of the club by donning official Sun Valley merch. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stepped out in a Sun Valley hat, while Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels chose a navy Sun Valley-branded (you guessed it) polo shirt. Casey Wasserman, CEO of the Wasserman Media Group, took wearable advertising in a more personal direction by repping his own companys logo on his ball cap. They’re not going to be caught dead in a logo that isn’t their company’s, Komick says. [Photos: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images (Blakely, Trump)] Western cosplay In April, The Wall Street Journal dubbed 2025 as the year that the tech bro started dressing like a cowboyand it seems that a few brave attendees are bringing that trend to Sun Valley. Komick says both Western and sporty aesthetics have come to the fore this year. [Attendees are] cosplaying cowboys and cowgirlsfrom Ivanka Trumps silver Western belt to Sara Blakely in the Western hat against her white tee and dark wash Mother jeans, Komick says. The men are trading solid tops for plaid button-downs or terry overshirts. Sunglasses were the statement accessory this season. [Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images] The sunglasses are your outfit outfit The fashion may be predictably tame at this years Sun Valley, but that only makes it all the more visually jarring that a few notable names arrived sporting some of the wildest sunglasses money can buy. Altman chose to pair his casual navy tee with a $400 pair of Vuarnet Altitude 01 sunglasses, a design inspired by 1970s ski masks. John Elkann, the chairman of Ferrari, donned what appeared to be a pair of vintage Tom Ford Cassius 78MM Pilot sunglassesan accessory so chunky that a passerby could be forgiven for mistaking them for an Apple Vision Pro.
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E-Commerce
Rewards startup Bilt, which made its name by offering renters the opportunity to earn points on rental payments, is building itself a lofty valuationand introducing a handful of new cards to boot. The company announced on Thursday that it has raised $250 million in new funding, bringing its total valuation to $10.75 billion, more than twice its valuation from roughly a year ago. Its also introducing Bilt Card 2.0, an upgraded credit card offering that will launch in February of next year and is being developed in partnership with Cardlesswhich also had a hand in launching the American Express Coinbase card earlier this year. In a blog post, Bilt said that its Card 2.0 will have three different options: A no-fee option and two premium levels with $95 and $495 annual fees. The announcement is a sign that Wells Fargo and Bilt are ending their partnership on the Bilt Rewards Mastercard earlier than expected. The partnership had been slated to run until 2029. That card originally launched to the public in March 2022 with a novel points-on-rent reward and quickly took off among points and miles enthusiasts. Within 18 months, it had activated 1 million accounts. The Wall Street Journal has reported Wells Fargo was losing money on the deal, raising questions about the card’s sustainability. Both Wells Fargo and Bilt declined to comment bout the specifics of the partnership when contacted by Fast Company. New York-based Bilt has built a $1 billion-a-year business on the strength of its rewards program, as Fast Company reported in June, and most of its revenue now comes from its partnerships with property managers. The company processes rent payments for property managers and offers their tenants access to its expanding loyalty program, which now includes some 40,000 merchants. Jain told Fast Company that he imagined the credit card occupying a relatively modest place in his company’s overall strategy. Its not our core business, he said. Our job is to provide the best rewards ecosystem, the best commerce platform, the best [customer] acquisition, the best brand, so that our partners can create a great card product around it. According to Jain, only 15% of Bilts rewards program members are cardholders. As for how things will work with Bilt Card 2.0? Well need to wait until next year to find out. At that time, “current cardholders will be seamlessly moved from Wells Fargo to our new card platform,” according to Bilt’s blog post. In the meantime, Bilts leadership is exuding confidence. Bilt represents the convergence of America’s largest spending categorieshousing and local commerceinto a single, powerful network that benefits everyone involved, said Bilt chairman and former American Express CEO Ken Chenault, in a statement. What we’re building goes beyond the four walls of your apartment; we’re connecting you with your entire neighborhood and making every aspect of where you live more rewarding.
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E-Commerce
On July 1, more than 9,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)s District Council 33 in Philadelphia went on strike. The work stoppage entered its second week with no end in sight, but a marathon bargaining session resulted in a 4 a.m. tentative agreement between the unions leaders and the city government on Wednesday, July 9. While Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker has tried to spin it as a win for the workers (and has embraced it as a victory for her administration), some union members public reaction to the deal has been far from positive. On Monday, July 14, theyll vote on whether to ratify the new contract, and the outcome is currently anyone’s guess. The unionknown better as DC 33represents the citys blue-collar municipal workers, who handle a wide range of job descriptionsfrom 911 dispatchers to library assistants to water department employees. Perhaps most notably, it also represents thousands of sanitation workers, and its that group in particular that became the most visible symbol of the strike due to the nature of their workand the visceral ramifications of their work stoppage. As the sixth-largest city in the U.S., Philadelphia generates a lot of trash. And with the trash collectors on strike, things quickly got ugly. Enormous piles of trash popped up all over the city once the workers walked out, spilling out of the citys designated temporary drop-off centers and onto the citys streets and sidewalks. In an unflattering homage to Mayor Parker, who became the face of the citys fitful negotiations with the union, some residents dubbed the garbage heaps Parker piles. Thanks to soaring temperatures, spiking humidity, and heavy rain, residents complained that the stench was becoming a serious problem before the agreement was reached. So how did the city get here? DC 33s most recent contract expired at midnight on July 1, following a one-year extension that the union agreed to at the beginning of Parkers term in 2024. While the mayors office indicated a willingness to continue bargaining, the unions leadership decided to call a strike, determined to secure a meaningful economic boost for their members. This marks the first time DC 33 has hit the bricks since 1986, when workers stayed off the job for three weeks, and 45,000 tons of garbage towered over the streets. The primary issue is money: Members of DC 33 are the lowest paid of the citys four municipal unions, as well as the only one with a predominantly Black membership; the other three include AFSCME DC 47, which is made up of white-collar city workers, and the unions representing the city’s police officers and firefighters. The average salary among DC 33 members is only $46,000 a year, which workers have decried as poverty wages. (Sanitation workers, by the way, generally take home about $42,000 a year, and Philadelphias sanitation workers are among the lowest-paid employees in the country despite serving a city of more than 1.5 million residents.) Those numbers place them well below a living wage for Philadelphia, which the Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculated as $48,387 for a single adult with no children. The union was most recently asking for a 5% yearly wage increase over a three-year contract, but the city refused to budge from its own proposal of 2.75%, 3%, and 3% increases over that same periodonly inching up to a 3% first-year raise in the tentative agreement. The city of Philadelphia currently has a budget surplus of $882 million, from which the mayor budgeted $550 million to cover all four municipal union contracts. The cost of the proposed DC 33 contract will be $115 million over its three years. In contrast, Parkers current budget proposal has already bookmarked $872 million for the Philadelphia Police Department, a $20 million increase that includes $1.3 million for new uniforms. City officials touted their lowball offer to DC 33 as a sign of fiscal responsibility, but even now that bargaining has ended, union negotiators and their membership remain adamant that its just not enough. There were other issues at play, too. Unlike other city employees like police and firefighters, DC 33 members are required to live inside the city of Philadelphiawhich, given the rising cost of living, only adds to the economic pressures they face. The union sought to remove the residency requirement in order to give their members more flexibility, but the city ultimately shot down their request. In addition, the union fought to preserve and improve members healthcare and pension plans, and saw some success. With an embattled mayor facing criticism over her own staffs lavish salaries and mixed results on her campaign promise to make the city “safer, cleaner, greener, the city took an increasingly combative posture toward the union. Multiple injunctions forced certain strikers (like those at the airport, the medical examiner’s office, the water department, and the 911 dispatch center) back to work, while the city paid private contractors to clear the trash drop-off sites and called in non-union workers to perform union labor. Meanwhile, DC 33 maintained picket lines outside libraries, sanitation centers, and city buildings during a week of sweltering heat. Workers danced, sang, marched, set up impromptu cookouts, and waved signs at passersby. The Wawa Welcome America concert on the Fourth of July lost both of its headliners, LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan, who both canceled their performances in solidarity with the strikers. Thre was also tragedy: Two striking DC 33 workers, one of whom is pregnant, were the victims of a hit-and-run accident last week when an intoxicated individual drove into their picket line; Tyree Ford, a sanitation worker and father of four, sustained serious injuries and is still in critical condition. Ultimately, the citys strong-arm approach led to the current tentative agreement, which falls far short of what the workers wanted and is not guaranteed to survive the membership vote. Union leadership has been open about its own disappointment, too. The strike is over, and nobodys happy, Greg Boulware, president of DC 33, told The Philadelphia Inquirer as he left the marathon bargaining session. We felt our clock was running out.
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E-Commerce
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