Consumer Goods & Shopping

Las Vegas – October 01, 2026 -- Nicotine brand LUCY has signed NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton as the face of a new campaign challenging the dominant tobacco players in the convenience store aisle.

LUCY pairs Payton's intensity with CEO David Renteln's calmer pitch

The campaign features Payton, known for his aggressive on-court style and trash talk, alongside LUCY CEO David Renteln in digital and social content aimed at reaching new customers. Payton already appeared under the partnership at Power Slap in Las Vegas on July 10, 2026, and at a Gary Payton charity golf tournament on August 3.

Payton heads to the NACS Show in Las Vegas from October 7 to 9

The rollout continues with retail appearances and meet-and-greets, including a confirmed stop at the NACS Show in Las Vegas. LUCY says key moments from each appearance will be shared across its social platforms.

New York – – September 30, 2026 -- Tmrw, a daily longevity drink formulated to replace more than 20 individual supplements with a single scoop, officially launched in the U.S. today. The NSF Certified for Sport product packs 88 science-backed ingredients into one clinically dosed formula covering longevity, gut health, cognition and foundational nutrition.

Founders Anthony Baxter and Stuart Vaughan, previously behind Simply Nootropics, spent more than two years and over 100 formulation iterations developing the product. Baxter said the idea grew from watching customers stack one supplement for energy, another for gut health and another for longevity, and from his own burnout while running a high-growth digital agency.

Ridgefield, Conn. – September 30, 2026 -- A new concierge-style evaluation service in Fairfield County is helping homeowners find out if the coins and jewelry gathering dust in their attics are actually worth a fortune.

A client's inherited coins turned out to be worth $60,000

Liberty Ridge Coins & Bullion, founded in 2025 by Ridgefield resident Jay Goodman, recently evaluated a customer's inherited coin collection and identified two rarities: a 1907 High Relief Saint-Gaudens $20 gold coin, one of only 12,367 struck, and a rare 1801 $10 Draped Bust gold coin. Graded by PCGS at the ANA coin show in Pittsburgh at MS64 and AU53 respectively, the pair is worth roughly $60,000 in certified condition. Goodman noted that exceptional examples of these same coins can fetch more than $1.2 million combined.

Dallas – September 30, 2026 -- Slate Auto is letting buyers of its $24,950 pickup wrap their vehicle in Monster Jam livery, starting today with two new accessory Starter Packs.

Two designs bring arena spectacle to daily driving

The purple and green Grave Digger Starter Pack draws on the famous monster truck's colors, while a black and yellow Monster Jam Starter Pack reflects the motorsport series' branding. Each pack includes a full vehicle wrap, wheel wraps, a grille logo wrap, and decals, built for the Slate Truck's factory design as the first vehicle intended to be wrapped from the ground up.

Buyers can mix individual pieces instead of full kits

Slate is also selling standalone accessories: a two-piece decal set, a five-piece Slatelet set combining Monster Jam and Grave Digger icons, and key fob caps in either logo. Customers can order the Starter Packs outright or assemble their own combination of pieces.

Los Angeles – September 30, 2026 -- Comfytemp has launched what it calls the market's first electric heating patch designed specifically for period cramps, giving women a reusable, wearable alternative to bulky heating pads and single-use disposable patches.

The patch targets the lower abdomen and lower back with electric warmth

The compact device delivers targeted heat to areas commonly associated with menstrual discomfort. Unlike traditional heating pads, which require users to stay near an outlet or remain in one position, the patch is built for movement.

It aims to solve the portability-versus-reusability tradeoff

Disposable menstrual heating patches let users move freely but must be replaced after each use. Comfytemp's version combines that portability with electric heating technology in a reusable format, letting women wear it during work, commuting, travel, or exercise.

United States – September 29, 2026 -- Celebrity barber VicBlends (Victor Fontanez) has launched BetterDays, a men's grooming brand selling two barber-grade hair products priced at $20 each.

The brand debuts with a leave-in conditioner and a texture powder

Rebound Cream, a lightweight leave-in conditioner, uses Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, and Pro-Vitamin B5 to hydrate dry hair and strengthen follicles. Grip Powder, a texture powder made with Arrowroot Powder and Silica, offers styling control without residue. Both products are made in the USA and feature a custom fragrance called "Scent No. 26."

Hong Kong – September 29, 2026 -- Ruko has launched the R1 Mini Robot Dog, a toy for children ages 3 and up that righting itself, performs four-way flips, and includes a bedtime storytelling mode.

The robot dog automatically rights itself after tumbles

The R1 uses a self-righting mechanism that returns it to its feet whenever it tips over or lands upside down, removing the need for a child to reposition it manually.

It performs over 10 routines including flips, dancing and push-ups

Beyond forward, backward, left, and right flips, the toy runs more than 10 programmed routines such as dancing, push-ups, and swimming. A built-in programming mode lets children sequence their favorite moves into custom combinations, introducing basic sequencing logic tied to early STEM concepts.

San Francisco – September 29, 2026 -- Flourish Robots has emerged from stealth with Flourish 1, a $3,555 home robot that owners can teach to do household chores in about 30 minutes using a mobile app.

Owners demonstrate tasks with a phone, no coding required

Users physically show Flourish 1 how to perform a task while recording the motion on their phone. The robot then repeats and schedules the task going forward. Demonstrated capabilities include picking up shoes, clothes and toys, loading the dishwasher, wiping tables, watering plants, fetching items, and clearing a cat litter box.

Pre-orders open for the first 50 units

Pre-orders for the initial batch of 50 robots opened September 29 at $3,555 each, with deliveries expected to begin in December 2026.

Omaha, Neb. – September 29, 2026 -- Halloween shopping has stopped being a one-night errand, with 49% of shoppers starting in September or earlier and total U.S. spending on track to hit a record $13.5 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation.

The average celebrant will spend $115.14, and decorations alone account for $4.3 billion of the total. Retailers point to a simple shift: 74% of Americans now celebrate Halloween, and the holiday has expanded from a single evening into a season that includes early yard decorating, school parties in mid-October, church or neighborhood trunk-or-treats, and door-to-door candy on the 31st.

Georges Mills, N.H. – September 29, 2026 -- Actor Josh Duhamel has joined footwear brand STOKE Shoes as a partner, aiming to spotlight wide-fit sneakers for the estimated 97 million American men with wide feet.

Duhamel says he was already wearing the shoes before signing on

Duhamel, who wears a wide width himself, began wearing STOKE Shoes on and off set before formalizing the partnership. "I got tired of paying over 200 bucks for sneakers that made my feet hurt. I'm on my feet all day and STOKE Shoes is the only shoe I wear," he said.

STOKE designs shoes around wide feet instead of scaling up standard models

The brand offers footwear from E/2E through 3E/4E widths, built using proprietary technologies it calls Big Ball Girth, Mansplay Midsole and PowerStack cushioning. According to STOKE, roughly 75% of men have wide feet, a group the athletic footwear industry has largely treated as an afterthought.