Jess & Stef Dadon from TWOOBS | Checkout

Nathan Bush: Meter maids, bikies and one of the best dam retail events in the country. That's what the Gold coast is known for. Retail Global is coming up on the 29th to the 31st of March and features amazing speakers from e commerce leaders like Amazon, Kogan and Booktopia. But the best part is catching up with some of the greatest people in E commerce. I'm going to be putting on my Budgie Smugglers and heading down there and I hope to see you there too. Tickets for the three day festival start at $450 and are still available over at retailglobal.com that's retailglobal.com au get your ticket, drop me a note. I'd love to see you there. Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous guests of Add to Cart where we ask them five quick questions to understand more about them and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Jess and Steph dad from Tubes. Tubes are an Australian footwear brand who have the goal of being Australia's most sustainable footwear company. Jess and Steph also host the very popular and hugely entertaining podcast how to Live Tw O Live, where they talk all things business, lifestyle and fashion. Jess and Steph Dadden, welcome to the Checkout. We have five quick questions for you and we will throw all of them at you and you can both answer separately. So we get kind of a double double value checkout this week.

Steph Dadon: Two for the price of one.

Nathan Bush: Exactly. Number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?

Jess Dadon: Weird to describe.

Nathan Bush: We get some random answers here.

Steph Dadon: Scanning through every purchase I've ever made in my head.

Jess Dadon: I will tell you something that I purchase online like I am a cereal purchaser of vegan protein powder and I hate every single one that arrives. But they all come in like a kilo bag. So at my house, in this drawer that I have because I hate throwing things away, I have about seven right now, one kilo bags of vegan protein powder that I don't like and I'll probably never have, but I just can't help but buy it online because they describe it like it tastes so good and then I get sucked in and then it comes and it's disgusting.

Nathan Bush: So you can't even see through the marketing chips.

Steph Dadon: No. Jess is starting an ebay store selling her unwanted protein powders.

Jess Dadon: I probably have them probably by now.

Nathan Bush: I love it.

Jess Dadon: Something for Panther.

Steph Dadon: I know. That's what I was thinking.

Jess Dadon: What about that dog camera?

Steph Dadon: Oh okay, yeah, I know one. I bought a dog Santa costume which was a really essential purchase because I needed to be dressed up like Santa because we were doing an appearance with him at our pop up store last year and he absolutely hated it. It even came with a dog beard and like a dog hat and like a dog like little vest. I think he would only wear maybe the hat, but he was not down with the beard.

Jess Dadon: Wait, but the best part about that weirdness is that we're Jewish and we don't celebrate Christmas, so he doesn't really have that many occasions to wear it because on the 25th we aren't celebrating.

Nathan Bush: You know what I love as well is that it took you like almost 5min to think of the Jewish dog getting a bearded Santa costume as the weirdest thing you've ever bought online. Like it didn't even come naturally. That that was weird.

Steph Dadon: There are a lot of weird things of just scanning through for the best one.

Nathan Bush: Awesome. You delivered. Number two, who is your favorite retailer?

Jess Dadon: Okay, one of my favorite retailers is Glossier in the US So they're a makeup brand, cosmetics brand, and have totally reimagined what a retail experience should look like. And as a company that sells shoes, people are always saying to us that brick and mortar is dead. And we are firm believers that is not dead. And I think to look to a company like Glossier who have created so much hype around their stores that there is literally a line outside, rain, hail or shine, that is really, really deeply inspiring to me. And I would add that I would love to be seeing them dabbling in the sustainability space as well, because I feel like it's time for them.

Nathan Bush: Good call.

Steph Dadon: Yeah. And off the back of that, we do love doing US trips when we can do them. And there isn't a global pandemic because there are so many awesome retailers. When you walk through Soho or West Hollywood, we're always very inspired by what's happening over there. And without fail, the most popular shop in Soho and I think Abbot Kinney in Venice, other than the Glossier store in Soho, which is also always packed, is the Allbird store. And obviously being a sustainable footwear brand, we really look up to them and what they're doing. And I think it's so awesome to see how many people flock to them and how many people really want to shop with their values. So that's always super inspiring to say, yeah, they're incredible.

Nathan Bush: And I think they've got a New Zealand store, don't they? But they don't have Any in Australia yet?

Steph Dadon: Oh, I didn't know they had a New Zealand store, but yeah, never been. Never seen one in Australia. But that would be really cool to see.

Nathan Bush: I'm not sure if it was permanent or pop up, but. All right, number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?

Steph Dadon: Oh, I know. So I feel like we can thank the Kardashians for a lot of terrible trends that they have imparted on young women in particular, like needing to look a certain way and needing to drink these teas that give you diarrhea. But for me, one of the worst legacies that they have left is these horrible bikinis that everybody is wearing that like, are hiked up so high around the waist and they're like pulled up tight between the bum cheeks. And my boyfriend and I were hanging around a pool the other day and he was like, I think they look so sexy. And I was like, no, I just think they look terrible. And coming from a fashion background, I think they look so unfashioned. I just can't stand them. And we constantly have this debate in our office zooms with our team because Jess and I are the oldies and they're the young ones who are like in their early 20s and they think it's so cool. And I just can't with that trend.

Nathan Bush: I was speaking to someone the other day and they were like, it was a couple of weeks before Christmas and their 14 year old daughter had sent through the Christmas list of all the stuff that she wants. And on it was a bikini. And it was one of those bikinis. And because they're on fashion in fashion. The mum was like, I get it. Because when I was her age, I wanted the fashion, but I hate this fashion. I just don't know what to do. Like, I can't be around my pool at Christmas time watching my daughter in this bikini. It just.

Jess Dadon: Okay, I will see your Kardashians string bikini and I will raise you a Kardashian bike short with midriff showing trend. So that was something that I started probably at the beginning of 2019, if not maybe a little bit earlier, which is like bike shorts with like a little bra top. So then like you've got your midriff showing. And I just know, like, talk about not being fashion is not fashion to me. I think it's so awful. I don't even think it looks good on them. I don't think it looks good on anybody. I certainly don't think it looks good on me. That is something that I wish would stay in the past and not continue to follow us around.

Nathan Bush: Look, I just don't get any of it, so I'm just not even going to comment. Just not. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? Obviously, your own how to Live is a pretty good one.

Jess Dadon: How to Live is a good one. Okay, I am going to take a guess and say that since your listeners are already listening to this podcast, they're really into business podcasts and I think they need a break and they need to stop learning for a moment and they just need to have a really good laugh and switch off. Because I know that sometimes what I really need from podcasts, like if I scroll through, I'm subscribed to all of these ones where I can learn so much. But sometimes you just need to switch off and have a good lull. So Smartless is my new favorite podcast. It's with three comedians, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman. And I challenge you to not laugh out loud when you listen. It is so freaking funny and fun and just chill out and have a good half hour with them.

Nathan Bush: That's awesome.

Steph Dadon: So good. Love it. So a book that I am loving at the moment and I can't stop recommending to people is the Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. So Jess and I both have been on this tangent from our business fashion lives over the last. Did I just say it? How long? No. Okay, great. My brain's not on. Sorry. Over the last year and a half where we've been really diving into the wellness space and just kind of like, you know, going a little bit deeper and looking at the why, what drives us, why we do things. And a book that I have just found to be totally life changing is this one where he just talks about reassessing the way that you are, the thoughts that you have, the things that are important to you, and it's just really about shifting your insides so that you can create a better world for you on the outside. And these kind of things have really been what's led us to create a lot more purpose and bring our values into our business. So yeah, loving all the self work and that's been one of my faves.

Nathan Bush: That's a brilliant recommendation. All right, last one, finish this sentence. The future of retail is sustainable. Didn't require much thinking, that one, did it?

Steph Dadon: I was trying to think of whether to go like fucked or like going to be awesome and total fix the world.

Nathan Bush: I thought you were going to go pet costumes.

Steph Dadon: That too. Sustainable pet costumes. That's our new business idea.

Nathan Bush: Someone's got to do it. Jess and Steph Dadden, thank you for joining us on the checkout.

Jess Dadon: Awesome. Thank you.

Steph Dadon: Thanks for having us.

Nathan Bush: To hear more from Jess and Steph, jump back into episode 46 where we speak with the duo around how they hit it big with a New York Fashion Week style stunt, how they totally rebuilt their business after Covid hit, and why Steph carries a stack of shoes around with her everywhere she goes in Byron Bay. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.