Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace, advancing from simple generative tasks to autonomous decision-making through agentic models. Now AI is moving beyond the digital realm into the physical world. This next frontier, known as physical AI, combines advanced algorithms with sensors and actuators, enabling machines to perceive, reason, and act in complex real-world environments.
At Hexagon LIVE 2025 in Las Vegas, a physical AI humanoid robot named AEON made its debut. Think Tron meets I, Robot, but powered by next-gen AI and hardware rather than movie magic.
Developed by Sweden-based industrial tech giant Hexagon in partnership with Nvidia, AEON is designed for real-world industrial work. It can inspect equipment in cramped industrial corridors, navigate hazardous construction zones, and manage logistics in understaffed warehouses.
Spencer Huang, Product Lead for Robotics at Nvidia and the son of CEO Jensen Huang, sees a massive opportunity in humanoids, as their form allows them to perform tasks that are dangerous and demanding for humans.
Humanoids are one of the many embodiments of Physical AI. To be able to perform human-like requires powerful brains trained on massive amounts of data, Huang tells Fast Company. During the test phase, the biggest challenge was to ensure these robots can safely perform tasks in complex, dynamic environments.
Humanoid robots like AEON aim to help solve an emerging labor crisis. A report from the World Economic Forum shows nearly 50 million manufacturing and logistics jobs remain unfilled globally. In the U.S. alone, the manufacturing sector will need up to 3.8 million new workers by 2033. Hexagon plans to deploy AEON across key industrial applications, including sorting and moving parts, inspecting for defects and compliance, and performing complex tasks such as precision scanning with high-end sensors.
What sets AEON apart from other humanoids, including Teslas Optimus Gen 2 and Figure AIs Helix, is its ability to learn. Traditionally, training industrial robots requires months of manual programming and physical testing. AEON skips that. Tasks such as balance, locomotion, and precision manipulation, which usually take five to six months of coding and trial-and-error, took AEON just two to three weeks.
The key lies in AEONs ability to generate its own synthetic training data, learn through autonomous simulation and reinforcement, and apply those lessons in the real world. This self-learning AI loop marks a shift in how quickly physical AI systems can adapt to complex environments.
Simulation helps solve the robotics data challenge, enabling faster, safer development and testing cycles. It also cuts costs by reducing the need for physical prototypes and hardware, Huang says. A simulation-first approach lays the groundwork for robots to ultimately improve on their own and even generate new scenarios to challenge themselves, all in virtual environments.
[Photo: Hexagon/Nvidia]
A Platform Shift for Physical Intelligence
To build AEON, Hexagon used Nvidias AI supercomputers to train and fine-tune foundation models; the Nvidia Omniverse platform to test and optimize those models in simulation; and IGX Thor robotic computers to run the models on the robot itself. The company also employed Isaac Sim, a robotic simulation tool built on Omniverse, to train AEON on tasks.
AEON features 22 multimodal sensors and 12 cameras that enable AI-based spatial awareness, asset scanning, and digital twin creation, without needing retraining for each new environment.
AEONs wheel-based locomotion allows it to traverse factories and pivot in all directions at speed, says Arnaud Robert, President of Hexagons Robotics division. It has a battery self-swap mechanism by which it can change its own battery with no downtime, allowing for continuous operations. These design choices separate it from what we have seen on the market.
For initial training, human demonstrations are collected using teleoperation tools such as the Apple Vision Pro, which streams natural hand movements into a simulated environment in Isaac Lab.
These authentic human actions serve as the foundation for all subsequent data generation. Synthetic motion generation takes these demonstrations and creates a large number of new motion trajectories, says Huang. This multiplies the available training data, enabling robots to learn from a much wider range of scenarios than manual collection alone.
Hexagon is also exploring the use of Nvidias Isaac GR00T N1.5 open foundation model to enhance AEONs reasoning capabilities, and GR00T-Mimic to generate larger volumes of synthetic motion data from just a few human demonstrations.
Unlike many humanoids still in the R&D phase, AEON is headed for production. It is already set to pilot in real-world environments with German automotive company Schaeffler and Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus, taking on tasks ranging from part inspection to reality capture.
AEON can do a reality capture of an average factory in an hour, and this could be done multiple times a day, says Robert. AEONs awareness and spatial intelligence algorithms give us a significant edge. If the humanoid is moving quickly across a factory floor and detects a person 10 feet away, it will automatically slow down or adjust its trajectory to avoid getting too close.
A New Playbook for Robotics
AEON suggests that physical AI is catching up fast. Could its simulation-first, agentic approach be the blueprint for a new class of physical AI systems?
Nearly every, if not all, humanoid company is exploring and embracing simulation to bootstrap their development and alleviate the bottlenecks and constraints of capturing real-world data, Huang explains. Not every company has the time or the resources to ely on human demonstrations only. Simulation will continue to play a critical role in robotics.
Robert adds that growing labor shortages and the need for uninterrupted operations are pushing companies beyond automation toward fully autonomous solutions.
In todays landscape, industry leaders increasingly view a cost-effective humanoid as not just an advantage, but a necessity, says Robert. Our vision is to build an autonomous future, and AEON is our flagship product in executing that strategy. We expect to introduce several variants in the years ahead, all in pursuit of that vision.
Music streaming service Deezer said Friday that it will start flagging albums with AI-generated songs, part of its fight against streaming fraudsters.Deezer, based in Paris, is grappling with a surge in music on its platform created using artificial intelligence tools it says are being wielded to earn royalties fraudulently.The app will display an on-screen label warning about “AI-generated content” and notify listeners that some tracks on an album were created with song generators.Deezer is a small player in music streaming, which is dominated by Spotify, Amazon and Apple, but the company said AI-generated music is an “industry-wide issue.” It’s committed to “safeguarding the rights of artists and songwriters at a time where copyright law is being put into question in favor of training AI models,” CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a press release.Deezer’s move underscores the disruption caused by generative AI systems, which are trained on the contents of the internet including text, images and audio available online. AI companies are facing a slew of lawsuits challenging their practice of scraping the web for such training data without paying for it.According to an AI song detection tool that Deezer rolled out this year, 18% of songs uploaded to its platform each day, or about 20,000 tracks, are now completely AI generated. Just three months earlier, that number was 10%, Lanternier said in a recent interview.AI has many benefits but it also “creates a lot of questions” for the music industry, Lanternier told the Associated Press. Using AI to make music is fine as long as there’s an artist behind it but the problem arises when anyone, or even a bot, can use it to make music, he said.Music fraudsters “create tons of songs. They upload, they try to get on playlists or recommendations, and as a result they gather royalties,” he said.Musicians can’t upload music directly to Deezer or rival platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. Music labels or digital distribution platforms can do it for artists they have contracts with, while anyone else can use a “self service” distribution company.Fully AI-generated music still accounts for only about 0.5% of total streams on Deezer. But the company said it’s “evident” that fraud is “the primary purpose” for these songs because it suspects that as many as seven in 10 listens of an AI song are done by streaming “farms” or bots, instead of humans.Any AI songs used for “stream manipulation” will be cut off from royalty payments, Deezer said.AI has been a hot topic in the music industry, with debates swirling around its creative possibilities as well as concerns about its legality.Two of the most popular AI song generators, Suno and Udio, are being sued by record companies for copyright infringement, and face allegations they exploited recorded works of artists from Chuck Berry to Mariah Carey.Gema, a German royalty-collection group, is suing Suno in a similar case filed in Munich, accusing the service of generating songs that are “confusingly similar” to original versions by artists it represents, including “Forever Young” by Alphaville, “Daddy Cool” by Boney M and Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5.”Major record labels are reportedly negotiating with Suno and Udio for compensation, according to news reports earlier this month.To detect songs for tagging, Lanternier says Deezer uses the same generators used to create songs to analyze their output.“We identify patterns because the song creates such a complex signal. There is lots of information in the song,” Lanternier said.The AI music generators seem to be unable to produce songs without subtle but recognizable patterns, which change constantly.“So you have to update your tool every day,” Lanternier said. “So we keep generating songs to learn, to teach our algorithm. So we’re fighting AI with AI.”Fraudsters can earn big money through streaming. Lanternier pointed to a criminal case last year in the U.S., which authorities said was the first ever involving artificially inflated music streaming. Prosecutors charged a man with wire fraud conspiracy, accusing him of generating hundreds of thousands of AI songs and using bots to automatically stream them billions of times, earning at least $10 million.
Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
The share price of crypto and fintech company Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL) is rising yet again today in early market trading.
After the stock jumped over 33% on Wednesday (markets were closed for Juneteenth on Thursday), shares in the newly publicly traded company were up as high as another 15% in premarket trading this morning. And you can thank the U.S. Senate for that. Heres what you need to know.
What is Circle?
Circle Internet Group, better known as Circle, is a fintech company that offers a range of financial products. Circle was founded in 2013 as a Bitcoin payments processor. The company currently offers a range of fintech developer services, including digital wallets and blockchain transfer solutions.
However, Circle is best known for its two stablecoins, USDC and EURC. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that is much less vulnerable to wild price swings because a stablecoins price is tied directly to a real-world asset. In the case of the USDC stablecoin, its value is tied directly to the U.S. dollar. Circles EURC stablecoin is tied to the value of the Euro.
Stablecoins thus help provide investors with stability while still allowing them to invest in crypto assets. In terms of market cap, USDC is currently the seventh most valuable cryptocurrency with a value of over $61 billion. The most valuable stablecoin in terms of market capitalization is Tether, which has a total valuation exceeding $155 billion. Cryptocurrency king Bitcoins market cap is currently north of $2.1 trillion.
In March 2024, Fast Company named Circle as one of its Most Innovative Companies based on the impact its stablecoin was having on the crypto industry.
Why is CRCL stock rising today?
Shares in Circle Internet Group were at one point trading over 15% higher in premarket trading this morning. Some of those gains were lost when the markets opened, but currently, CRCL stock is still up over 12% in early market trading. That follows an impressive 33% rise in the stocks price on Wednesday.
So why is Circle popping today?
Well, you can thank the U.S. Senate. The congressional body passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) on Tuesday. The act is the first to seek regulation of stablecoins.
Its passage would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins, further legitimizing the digital tokens and integrating them more closely within the U.S. economy. Such a move would likely only benefit stablecoin providers, like Circle.
The GENIUS Act would also benefit stablecoin investors because it would require that stablecoins be backed by liquid assets, including U.S. dollars or short-term Treasury bills, notes Reuters. Issuers of stablecoins would also be required to disclose their reserves composition on a monthly basis, leading to greater transparency.
Circle stock price may depend on House now
However, while Circle investors continue to cheer the Senates passage of the GENIUS Act on Tuesday, the act may still not become law. Thats because it now must go to the House for approval. And as Reuters notes, various groups, including the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, are calling for critical changes to the bill.
If the bill stalls in the House, or is killed, CRCL stock may give back some of the gains it has made this week.
But as of today, Circles stock price run has been nothing short of impressive. Circle Internet Groups initial public offering (IPO) was held just over two weeks ago on June 5.
Since then, the price of CRCL stock has surged a staggering 589%.
The IPO price of CRCL was $31 per share. As of the time of this writing, CRCL shares are trading at over $225 per share.
Rather than the Sunday scaries or toxic bosses, employees have unlocked a new workplace fear: office chair butt.
While not a new concern, the term has resurfaced on TikTok to describe how sitting for long stretches affects the look of your behindwhat medical professionals call atrophy of your gluteal muscle group.
A lack of conditioning in your gluteus maximus and surrounding tissue leads to weakness, making it build up fat tissue and appear flatter or saggy, occupational therapist Michael Milicia told the Cleveland Clinic.
And its not just an aesthetic issue. Other symptoms of office chair butt can include poor posture, lower back pain, and limited mobility over time. Theres a reason researchers have dubbed sitting the new smoking, linking chronic sitting to serious health problems including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, and anxiety.
Now, the term has gone viral on TikTok. And theyre not taking it sitting down.
I refuse to be a victim, posted one TikTok user, showing the routine of squats, lunges, and standing leg lifts she performs at her desk. I dont think youre in danger, one person commented.
@dan.paulaa I wil not fail my glutes #gymtok #fitness EoO – Bad Bunny
No office chair butt for us, another user posted, leading her coworkers through a series of exercises. The video quickly inspired others: Just saw this while at work and immediately put my desk to standing, read one comment.
@nikkiiim aw hell nah #fyp #officechair #deskchair #corporatelife #workoutmotivation #corporatetiktok #corporatehumor #lmao Bunna Summa – BunnaB
Since most workplaces dont come with a fully equipped gym, employees have gotten creative. Some use the office escalator as a makeshift StairMaster. One video shows an employee swapping out traditional weights for a water cooler while performing Bulgarian split squats. Me every 30 minutes when I find out what office chair butt is, another TikTok user wrote, running up and down stairs and doing laps around a conference room.
@krystinamaysonet I REFUSE TO FALL VICTIM! sooo its actually a thing, I was legit shook. You wont catch me sitting during a shift again #officelife #gymtok #officechair #playboycarti #fyp #parati #lilyachty #future #glutesworkout som original – Trap Music Fun
If youre reading this: Give me 10 squats. Stat.
If youve spent any time reading the news, listening to the radio, or talking to just about anyone, you know that a big heat wave is expected to make its way across the United States. But you might not be able to expect much help from the federal government if you want to monitor heat-related risks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appears to have stopped updating part of its Heat & Health Tracker. The top of the page reads, This website is no longer being maintained, and no new data will be added.
Fast Company has reached out to the CDC for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
The Heat & Health Tracker allowed users to gather information about their county, such as daily heat-related illness rates. The map rated each area from little to none to extreme based on emergency department visits due to heat-related illness.
The map currently only displays information up until May 21, 2025.
Some functions are still working
Despite the websites statement that no new data will appear, some of the Heat & Health Trackers information is still up to date. The HeatRisk tool, which is sourced by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was still showing updated data as of Friday. Notably, in May NOAA stopped tracking weather disasters brought on by climate change after decades of doing so.
As of publication, visitors to the site can still plug in their zip code and see todays HeatRisk, air quality, and actions they can take to protect their health. It also shows the HeatRisk forecast for the next six days.
The HeatRisk map, launched last year, does come with a disclaimer stating, HeatRisk is an experimental product and is not supported 24/7. Changes may occur without advance notice.
Under President Donald Trumps second administration, government resources and funding have disappeared left and right.
On Tuesday, the Trevor Project received notice that the national suicide hotline must close its LGBTQ+ youth services by July 17. Since 2022, the nonprofit for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention group has worked with the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to support individuals who contact the 988 Lifeline.
The government has also taken steps to remove potentially lifesaving information about topics like vaccines, sexually transmitted diseases, and dementia.
The billionaire slated to take over the controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers has built a career leading businesses investing in everything from sports franchises to artificial intelligence.Mark Walter is CEO of the global investment and advisory company Guggenheim Partners, which is estimated to have more than $325 billion in assets. He’s also cofounder and CEO of holding company TWG Global.Forbes estimates Walter’s net worth is $6.1 billion. The publication ranked him at No. 216 on its Forbes 400 list last year.Walter received an undergraduate degree in business administration from Creighton University and a law degree from Northwestern University, but ultimately chose business over a career in law.In the mid-1990s, he cofounded Liberty Hampshire, an investment management firm in Chicago. That business became part of Guggenheim Partners, which Walter cofounded in the late 1990s.In addition to Guggenheim, Walter cofounded TWG Global with film producer Thomas Tull. The company holds a portfolio of finance and insurance sector companies, including Guggenheim Investments, Guggenheim Securities, Group 1001 Insurance, and Delaware Life. It also includes aerospace and defense technology company Shield AI.Last month, TWG Global announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies and Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, maker of Grok, aimed at developing artificial intelligence for use in the financial services industry.TWG Global also includes investments in sports, media and entertainment franchises, such as the controlling interest in the Los Angeles Dodgers, Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women’s Hockey League andthrough TWG Motorsportsownership of several auto racing teams including Cadillac Formula 1.Beyond business, Walter and his wife, Kimbra, have founded or contributed to various philanthropic organizations, including the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, the Academy Group, Chicago Beyond, and OneGoal.
Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
An appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids.The decision halts a ruling from a lower court judge who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.The deployment was the first by a president of a state National Guard without the governor’s permission since 1965.In its decision, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing control of the guard.It said that while presidents don’t have unfettered power to seize control of a state’s guard, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters.“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid, and other objects’ at the officers. Protesters also damaged federal buildings and caused the closure of at least one federal building. And a federal van was attacked by protesters who smashed in the van’s windows,” the court wrote. “The federal government’s interest in preventing incidents like these is significant.”It also found that even if the federal government failed to notify the governor of California before federalizing the National Guard as required by law, Newsom had no power to veto the president’s order.Trump celebrated the decision on his Truth Social platform, calling it a “BIG WIN.”He wrote that “all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done.”Newsom issued a statement that expressed disappointment that the court is allowing Trump to retain control of the Guard. But he also welcomed one aspect of the decision.“The court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court,” Newsom said. “The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”The court case could have wider implications on the president’s power to deploy soldiers within the United States after Trump directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities.Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops were necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said the move inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The protests have since appeared to be winding down.Two judges on the appeals panel were appointed by Trump during his first term. During oral arguments Tuesday, all three judges suggested that presidents have wide latitude under the federal law at issue and that courts should be reluctant to step in.The case started when Newsom sued to block Trump’s command, and he won an early victory from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said only allows presidents can take control during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,'” wrote Breyer, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton and is brother to retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.The Trump administration, though, argued that courts can’t second guess the president’s decisions and quickly secured a temporary halt from the appeals court.The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit continues to unfold.
Associated Press
Life is composed of seasons, and today marks the beginning of the hottest one of all for those in the Northern Hemisphere.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the summer solstice takes place today (Friday, June 20) at 10:42 p.m. EDT. Weather permitting, the first official day of astronomical summer sees the most daylight of the year. Let’s dive into what all that means and how you can celebrate.
What is the science behind the summer solstice?
The Earth rotates on its axis every day, creating night and day. According to NASA, its axis is tilted 23.4 degrees. This tilt, as the Earth orbits the sun, creates the seasons. For half of the year, the Northern Hemisphere is pointed at the sun producing summer. The other half, it points away, producing winter.
This also means the sun rises and sets at different points in the sky during the orbital process. The summer solstice occurs when the sun is at the highest point in the sky and appears to metaphorically pause there for a time. While scientists can give an exact time for this occurrence, most people celebrate the whole day.
Different perspectives on the beginning of summer
There are different schools of thought on the starting date for summer. If you ask a meteorologist, she will tell you June 1. This is because meteorologists focus on temperatures, and organizing the months into seasons helps them compare data.
The summer solstice focuses on astronomical summer. This begins June 20-22 each year when the sun reaches the northernmost point in the sky.
Why is there more daylight on the summer solstice?
Most people say the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, but there are 24 hours in a day, regardless of the time of year. The “longest day” moniker actually refers to the number of daylight hours. Because the sun is at its highest point, it takes longer to rise and set, granting more light.
What does Stonehenge have to do with the summer solstice?
While many unanswered questions remain about Stonehengethe famous large circular stone monument located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, Englandone fact is certain. Its creation was meant to line up with the sun during solstices. In the summer, it is breathtaking to see the sun rising behind the Heel Stone, causing its rays to pour into the center of the structure.
How can I celebrate the summer solstice?
No matter where you are located, you can celebrate the day and watch the festivities at Stonehenge. English Heritage, the organization manages the popular tourist attraction will live-stream the summer solstice festivities, beginning on June 20 at 20:00 BST.
The stream will start the following day at 04:00 GMT and sunrise takes place at 04:52 GMT.
Do you love summer? And ice cream? Then you are going to love today. Thats because Friday, June 20, is officially the start of summer in North America, and in celebration of that, grocery store giant Kroger is giving away 92,000 free pints of ice cream. Yep, you read that right: 92,000.
Heres what you need to know, including how to get your free pint.
Summer begins in the northern hemisphere
Astronomical summer officially begins on the summer solstice every year. It’s the day that the sun travels its highest arc across the northern hemisphere. Due to that arc, the summer solstice is also the longest day of the year.
However, one note about the summer solstice: Depending on where you are in the northern hemisphere, it actually may not occur until a day later than it occurs in some countries. This is because of the time zone difference between countries.
As ABC News points out, the sun will be at its highest point in relation to the northern hemisphere at 10:42 p.m. ET tonight, which means that the summer solstice will occur in all countries in North America and Central America today, June 20.
However, 10:42 p.m. ET June 20 is June 21 in countries across the Atlantic, which is why astronomical summer starts a day later in those countries.
But youre really here for free ice cream news, right? And Kroger is in North America, which is why it is celebrating the summer solstice by giving away 92,000 pints of free ice cream today, June 20.
How you can get a free pint from Kroger
Kroger is giving away 92,000 free pints of ice cream today to celebrate both the start of summer and its new limited-time Summer in a Pint collection of ice cream. This new summer collection of ice cream includes four flavors:
Italian Style Summer Fizz
Fireside Nights
Sandy Shores
Poolside Tan Lines.
With Krogers ice cream giveaway today, you can try any one of those flavors for free. However, the grocery store chains free ice cream pint giveaway isnt limited to only one of those four flavors. Customers can get a free pint of the new Summer in a Pint collection or any classic Kroger Brand ice cream flavors. Heres how:
Go to FreeKrogerIceCream.com.
Choose the Kroger-owned store that you want to get your free ice cream pint from. In addition to Kroger locations, you can get a free pint from Krogers other brands, including: Bakers, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer. Frys, Gerbes, Jay C Food Store, Marianos, Metro Market, Pay-Less Super Markets, Pick’n Save, and Smiths Food and Drug.
Youll then be able to download a single-use digital coupon good for one free pint of ice cream.
The coupons will go live using the steps above at 12 pm EST today, Friday, June 20. As long as you get your digital coupon, you can use it at the Kroger family of stores listed above any time between today and July 4.
However, note that these digital coupons are limited to 92,000, so once they are gone, so is your chance of getting a free pint of ice cream.
The free pint promotion is available in all U.S. states except California, Colorado, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Nevada.
And if youre wondering why Kroger decided to give away 92,000 pints, its because there are 92 days in summer this year, and Kroger is giving away 1,000 pints for every day of the summer period.
Kroger faced Juneteenth backlash this week
While Kroger may win a lot of customer goodwill for giving away bucketloads of ice cream today, yesterday the company faced notable backlash after a Georgia location offered Juneteenth-themed cakes that appeared to be quickly and haphazardly decorated.
One widely circulating video showed multiple Kroger Juneteenth cakes with their icing appearing to be sloppily applied. One cookie cake read “Free @ Last.
Today reported that Kroger has removed the cakes in question and issued an apology to customers, stating, Juneteenth holiday marks a commemoration and celebration of freedom and independence. However, we received feedback that a few items caused concern for some of our customers and we sincerely apologize.
The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) is headquartered in Cincinnati. It runs more than 2,700 stores across America. In March, the company reported its full-year 2024 results. During fiscal year 2024, the company reported $147.1 billion in sales. As of the close of the market on Wednesday, KR stock is up 7% since the beginning of the year. Over the past year, KG shares have climbed 26%.
Today, Tyler, the Creator drops two new styles in his ongoing collaboration with Converse: a yacht shoe and a jogger, both of which are 1970s silhouettes pulled from the brand’s archives.
Tyler knows you’re probably going to wear these sneakers with jeans and a T-shirt. But that’s the wrong move, he insists. When I speak with him, he’s wearing the jogger with a button up, a cropped rain jacket, and trousers. He’d prefer if you wore these kicks with a more polished look. “Nah, bruh,” he says. “Wear them with the ill slacks and the ill sweater.”
As his stage name implies, Tyler is involved in too many different creative ventures to count. He’s a rapper and producer, who also writes for an adult cartoon show called The Jellies, and creator of a music festival called Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. But like his friend and mentor, Pharrell Williams, he’s become increasingly well-known for his personal aesthetic and his contributions to the world of fashion.
In 2011, he launched his streetwear label, Golf Wang, and in 2017, he began collaborating with Converse, a subsidiary of Nike, which generated $2.1 billion in 2024. (This was a 14% decline from 2023.) Over the years, his partnership with Converse has evolved into a separate, stand-alone brand called Le Fleur, a nod to his 2017 Grammy-nominated album, Flower Boy. The line is known for its pastel color palette; bold daisy icon, which encapsulates the Converse star; and the way in which it plays with traditional gender norms.
Tyler isn’t interested in a total redesign of the Converse silhouettes. For this collection, he worked with Lindsay Almeida, Converse’s director of entertainment and sports marketing, to explore the archives. He was drawn to the Naut-1, a yacht shoe first released in 1971, and the Coach Jogger, an Olympic running shoe from 1976. He liked these models because they seemed fresh and relevant. “I honestly hate the idea of nostalgia,” he says. “I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel because I think these shoes were perfect. I just wanted to do them in new colors.”
And indeed, Tyler designs the shoes in interesting colors. The joggers, which cost $100, come in a teal and yellow, a dark and light green, and a brown and mustard. The yacht shoes, which cost $90, come in a cream with delicate embroidered flowers, a dark brown, and a teal.
While some critics on social media argue that he hasn’t done much to bring his own point of view to these designs, Tyler believes that small changes can be impactful. It echoes fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who argued that you only need to change an idea by 3% to create something new. And ultimately, Tyler believes that his strength lies in curating pieces and bringing them together in interesting ways. “It’s in the styling, the way they’re worn, the color palettes,” he says. “I really love wearing a sporty shoe with an outfit that makes folks glitch and say, I didn’t know you could wear them like that.”
Tyler still designs for Golf Wang, which is grounded in streetwear, with hoodies and jeans. But he says that Le Fleur’s aesthetic is more reflective of his personal style these days. “I didn’t want to have to change Golf Wang because it would alienate folks,” he says. “But Le Fleur is a mirror to where I’m at in life, with unique styles and colorways.”
Converse has been struggling over the past decade; last year, its revenues declined 14% from the year before and in May, it laid off 2% of its workforce. A decade ago, it relaunched it’s most famous shoe, the Chuck Taylor, with new technology, but consumers did not take to the new version and sales dropped. Part of the company’s strategy to grow sales was to bring on new collaborators; Tyler was among them. Since the first release, in 2017, products from the collaboration have been popular and allow Converse to stay in the cultural conversation (not to mention connect with Tyler’s nearly 17 million Instagram followers).
Still, it’s a hard moment for Converse and its parent company, Nike. In an earnings call last December, Nike CFO Matt Friend said that consumers were pulling back on spending. He argued that newness is what would cause consumers to shop. Converse is counting on this new collab to get sneakerheads to pay attention.
