Looking Back, Staying Present - Year 2025
When I look back at 2025, I go back to a paragraph I had marked in Shoe Dog, a memoir on how Phil Knight created Nike.
“But first I’d need to change my whole approach. I was a linear thinker, and according to Zen linear thinking is nothing but a delusion, one of the many that keeps us unhappy. Reality is nonlinear. Zen says. No future, no past. All is now.”
TPB is now in its 11th year of existence, and with each passing year comes a deeper sense of clarity and understanding—not just in terms of the values we want to stand for, but also in the products we want to create and the people we want to work with. We are in what we call the 20-mile march.
This is an antithesis to the conventional idea of what direct-to-consumer stands for. If I were to ask our community right now what they would like to see from TPB, none of them would speak of marketplace distribution or anything in that realm. Instead, they would ask us to push the boundaries of authenticity, deepen exploration, and find new, meaningful ways to represent what we do—not through buy-one-get-one offers, but through purposeful design.
Like authenticity, self-awareness will be a MOAT you can’t compete with. We can’t be everywhere and yet be nowhere.
Practice is the antidote
As a person, the creative streak has persisted since the early years. Between taking photographs, spending time with creatives, and archiving print and video footage from the past, much of what I do here stems from constant practice. Progress comes from repetition, not perfection.
The need to practice what you do every day, irrespective of outcome, is critical for compounding to show its true effect.
As AI accelerates, human discernment becomes essentials
AI will continue to make inroads into a lot of what we do everyday.
An over stimulaton of repeated AI generated patterns will result in humans seeking more human connections built on authenticity, where wabi-sabi will be championed giving your dopamine a shot of undiluted flavour.
People at the center of everything
Common alignement does what force never can. Culture is the ignition for innovation.
Trust and collective responsibility amongst our partners continue to be at the centre of everything we do here. Constant conversations, clarity, and a deep understanding of the brand’s values help enable clear execution.
We are at a point in our journey where we are comfortable knowing we cannot be loved by everyone. Our focus will remain on creating value through what we do.
That being said, this year we’ll push ourselves to create—and be part of—experiences we consciously believe in, while diving deeper into the subcultures that shape what we represent.
Enjoy 2026. Surprise yourself.
Nikhil Joseph
Creative Director
