Birkenstock Isn’t Having a Moment, It’s Building the Nike of the Comfort Market Sheena Butler-Young
It’s no secret: Right now, the comfort category is on fire.
And brands like Birkenstock, Crocs and Dr. Martens that suit the “work, play and do everything inside vibe,” as Beth Goldstein, executive director and industry analyst for accessories and footwear at The NPD Group Inc., put it are having “a moment.”
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However, it would be off base to think that the sustained momentum these labels are enjoying is a part of a fickle trend: Comfort categories have been on the upswing well before the coronavirus pandemic forced people indoors and into their cozy casual-wear and slippers.
Dave Gahan
Dirty Sticky Floors
Goodbye
The solo debut of Depeche Mode frontman David Gahan has been a long time coming, so you d expect the album to be brimming with messy ideas formulated while Gahan was forced to sing Vince Clarke and Martin Gore songs while .
more »his own were filed away. Yet Paper Monsters is not the wild work of someone newly liberated. These songs feel as if they were written over a short period, rather than plucked from 20-year-worth of unrecorded tunes. There are basically three types of track here: powerful Depeche-style glam ( Dirty Sticky Floors, Bottle Living ); quiet, urban mood music ( A Little Piece, Bitter Apple, Stay ); and rumbling industrial tracks ( Black and Blue Again, Hidden Houses, Goodbye ). Lyrically autobiographical, songs deal with Gahan s trouble with relationships and intoxicants and, though they lack Gore s sense of drama and perversity, they do have a maudlin charm. Dominic Wills