What's Rising: Week of January 25th

Introducing What's Rising, our new, agency-wide initiative reporting on trends as they’re happening, before they become mainstream. Each week, we'll bring you a weekly drop of cultural moments, creative work and breakthrough trends from across the internet landscape.

• Mystery Box...New startups are taking advantage of surplus luxury apparel sitting in warehouses by selling hypebeasts boxes of clothing with a twist: they don’t know what they’re buying.

• This Food’s the Bomb...First, there were Hot Chocolate Bombs. Then, there were Broth Bombs. And now, there are Tea Bombs! Not only are these food bombs fun and flavorful, but they’re also ideal for those of us who are sick of cooking in quarantine.
  

• Needle Felting....New Year, new quarantine hobby. The craft is quickly taking off on social, with~175m views on TikTok, 925k+ posts on IG, and 60k+ monthly searches on Google. There’s also a handful of Needle Felting Facebook Groups (#client) like this one, which boasts 16k+ members.

• Everyone's Reading (*Listening to Books*)...Alongside the rise of audio-first social apps like Clubhouse, people are increasingly buying audiobooks.

• On Tonight's Episode of The Simpsons...From Donald Trump becoming President, to Disney buying Fox, to Kamala Harris’ Inauguration Day outfit, and even a Kith collaboration, the internet is once again questioning how The Simpsons makes such eerily accurate predictions of the future.