The Age of Heat: Case Studies

Our recent BRAND BRIEFING assessed heat as a cultural phenomenon: a force that’s changing our relationship with our literal, physical environment; stoking the flames of rhetoric, ideologies and politics; and reigniting our passion, desire and sensuality. 

'The sun itself is being met with increasing cultural ambivalence, signalling a semiotic shift from an unquestioned source of joy to something more harmful… The reality is that heat is already reshaping culture everywhere – and it’s only just getting started.' – Philip Teal, Hot World Bummer

To map this out, we identified three Rings of Fire:

• Environmental Heat is the macro layer
  The philosopher Bruno Latour argued we’ve entered a ‘New Climate Regime’ where our relationship to the Earth’s atmosphere has become the key thing that will determine our future. Brands are transforming their products and positioning in response to this rising heat.

• Discursive Heat is the meso layer
  In his book Hyperpolitics, Anton Jäger observes how we’re surrounded by ‘viral outrage, endless culture wars, and the digital rush of causes that flare and vanish overnight’. Once one area of discourse ignites, the flames quickly spread to other corners of culture. This tension is something brands are no longer able to ignore, and are now not only acknowledging but participating in.

'Shah spat bars on police harassment and class struggles, and the live audience responded passionately to their unspoken reality being put into words... On the eve of his inauguration, Shah chose to release his first official statement in the form of a rap track… Then he got to work.' – Nirukti Nayak, Hyperlocal Rap

• Affective Heat is the micro layer
  In The Spell of the Sensuous, philosopher David Abram argues how modern society’s reliance on technology has dulled and numbed our senses. Now, we’re observing a new wave of brands, products and experiences designed precisely to enliven our warm-blooded bodies and hot-running emotions. 

Below, we’ve pulled out one case study per ring from the full BRIEFING to illustrate the broad ways heat is blazing across culture.

Canada Goose:

Environmental Heat 

Canada Goose is a brand best known for their winter attire, cladding Arctic explorers and those venturing into the coldest conditions on the planet, but the brand is now expanding into clothes that help people in the scorching heat. 

Their SS 2026 collection with creative director Haider Ackermann marks this shift. The clothing is engineered with technology that makes the garments feel more like a second skin than defensive shield – lightness that is a direct response to what the brand calls the ‘heaviness’ and ‘turbulence’ of the world. It’s a collection that responds to environmental heat, while also noting the flaming nature of discursive heat.  

The clothes are also designed to adapt to light, posture, heat and energy. Carrie Baker, Canada Goose’s president of brand and commercial, says: 'For us, it’s not about simply taking a winter product and making a lighter version of it. It’s about going back to the function, construction, and design thinking that made those pieces distinctive in the first place and asking how that can solve a different need today'.

Start your HEAT CHECK

Patagonia:

Discursive Heat

Patagonia has always been a brand that’s embraced discursive heat: engaging in political discourse, protest and activism. They were one of the very first purpose-led brands, with everyone else following suit, especially during the millennial optimism of the late-2000s and 2010s. But in recent years, being a purpose-led brand has fallen out of fashion: Unilever has rolled back their environmental and social pledges, and Everlane, once a beacon brand for ethical supply chains and sustainable fashion, has been sold to Shein.

What's especially interesting about Patagonia is how self-aware they are regarding this significant shift, and that they’re remaining true to themselves while acknowledging the cultural mood has changed. For example, in their ‘Stick to selling clothes' YouTube video, this is something they directly address. And riffing on the term Anthropocene, their Shitthropocene campaign examines ‘the ways our central nervous systems have been hacked in the name of capitalism. It’s also about how we might begin to save ourselves from ourselves.’ Patagonia remains involved in hot cultural discussions, and is actively adapting to the ideological heat of sociological change.

Index:

Affective Heat

‘Our bodies were once thought of as centres for sensory delight, yet they’re now largely seen as systems to optimise and invest in, discussed in the co-opted language of venture capital.’ – Protein, The Pleasure Recession

Index is a bespoke perfume house founded by perfumer and fashion designer Isabella Smith and artist and creative technologist Tigris Li. Scent has always held an incredible ability to evoke memories, and Index have devised a method to bottle these ephemeral but deeply felt sensations utilising AI. Like anti-tech tech brand Modem, Index are subverting expectations around how technology can amplify the felt, tactile, human experience. 

The brand first began as an art installation with Li’s Emotional Alchemy, commissioned by Converse for London Fashion Week AW24. ‘I have synaesthesia, a neurological trait that causes involuntary sensory experiences,’ Li explained in an interview, ‘so I started by questioning what it would be like to taste your memories’. This installation organically evolved into a business, with the brand hosting their first pop-up at the end of September on Columbia Road, just round the corner from Protein STUDIOS.

Attendees were asked by a machine, ‘If you could relive one memory, what would it be?’, and then guided to tell this story in order to carefully distil their abstract memory into a distinct physical product. Index’s unique blend of AI, robotics, memory and emotion surfaces something deeply human: ‘I’ve formulated every perfume base myself and Tigris has soldered the machine; the entire project is handmade,' Smith explains. 

Index emerges in the midst of the niche perfume boom, which has risen in response to our decline in sensory experiences – something we explored in our SEED, The Pleasure Recession – and is a potent attempt to rekindle our connection with our physicality and emotions. 

Become a TEAM MEMBER to watch the full BRAND BRIEFING, which includes further cultural analysis, case studies and takeaways for brands.