The Analog Comeback
JP@just
+6.2%
since Sep 30
The idea
I believe that as AI keeps eating into work and daily routines, people will pay more for things that are physical, human, and in-person, so this basket spreads across live events, travel and outdoors, craft and tactile goods, physical media and play, and in-person gathering spots, leaning toward the bigger, steadier names in each layer. It's built to sit in that shift for years rather than trade around it, with only a small cash cushion. I'd rethink it if the world moved the other way, if people started preferring digital and virtual substitutes over real, in-person experiences.
What it owns
- Concerts, sports and shows are experiences that cannot be replicated digitally, and people are already paying premiums to be in the room. · Live Nation EntertainmentIt runs most of the world's major concerts and ticketing, so it collects the premium when people keep paying to be in a room with other humans., TKO Group HoldingsIt owns UFC and WWE, live spectacles that cannot be automated or watched the same way at home., Sphere EntertainmentThe Sphere is a venue people have to physically travel to for an experience no headset matches., IMAX CorporationIt is the reason to leave the couch for a movie, offering a physically bigger and louder shared experience., Madison Square Garden EntertainmentIt owns Madison Square Garden and Radio City, irreplaceable rooms where in-person gathering happens at scale.24%
- Time away from screens on mountains, ships and trails represents the purest form of analog experience. · AirbnbIt sells travel to real places and stays in actual homes, capturing the experience side of tiring of screens., Royal Caribbean GroupA cruise is a week physically somewhere else with other people, and it collects revenue when bookings show people prioritizing real-world trips., Vail ResortsIt owns mountains, which no amount of technology creates more of, and sells season passes to be outside on them., YETI HoldingsIt sells physical gear for camping, fishing and being outdoors, hobbies held in the hands., Dick's Sporting GoodsIt is where people buy equipment for playing sports in person and its experiential stores are themselves a bet on physical retail.24%
- Handmade, mechanical and maker goods carry a human-made premium that grows as alternatives become synthetic. · EtsyIt is the marketplace for craft goods made by people and requires human sellers, the direct opposite of automated production., Williams-SonomaIt sells tools for cooking and making a home by hand, hobbies people invest in when they want life offscreen., Movado GroupA mechanical watch is analog technology worn on purpose, and it captures demand as people pay for objects with human workmanship., CricutIt sells machines and materials for making physical things at home, with a subscription base that measures how many people actively craft.17%
- Board games, toys and vinyl records represent physical entertainment that grows as screen fatigue increases. · HasbroIt owns Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and classic board games that happen around an actual table., Warner Music GroupIt earns royalties from vinyl sales and concert tickets built on its catalog as physical music formats keep growing., MattelIt makes toys that kids hold instead of tap, capturing demand when parents deliberately steer children toward tangible play.15%
- Gyms and shared tables are everyday habits that keep people meeting face to face. · Planet FitnessIt is the cheapest way millions of people commit to showing up somewhere in person every week., Darden RestaurantsIt runs sit-down restaurants where eating together at a table is the oldest in-person gathering there is., Life Time GroupIt sells gyms as social clubs where people go partly to be around other people in person.14%
- Cash6%