Every Friday
2026 Ins & Outs: Read for our very cool and informed opinions
To kick things off—and shake things up—we’re bringing you 2026 through the Relay lens. Our take on the Ins and Outs: what’s cool, what’s not, and everything in between (according to our somewhat informed and moderately online opinions). It doesn’t get more dialed in than this, folks.
We hope your first week of 2026 has been a good one. The Nashville arm of Relay is officially in moving mode—what better way to kick off the year than with everyone’s favorite activity? Send us your luck and good vibes in the comments.
Let us know what you think of our list.
Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced.
– John Keats
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.
– Winston Churchill
Relay 2026 Ins
Mens Bags
Relay is terminally early to things—mostly because we’re terminally online. One of the major movements we campaigned for in 2025 is the death of the backpack. This continues in ‘26. Whether it’s a thrashed L.L. Bean tote or a boujee leather tote from somewhere like The Row, men’s bags are in.
This decline is only getting steeper. Over the past decade, American students’ reading abilities have plummeted, and their reading habits have followed suit. In 2023, just 14 percent of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day, down from 27 percent a decade earlier. A growing share of high-school and even college students struggle to read a book cover to cover.
Hobbies
Everyone can feel the quietly building anti-technology and anti-social media sentiment among the younger crowd. Positives and negatives regarding that, for sure. But, as recovering chronically-online TikTok scrollers pull back from their screen, they’re going to start picking up things like woodworking, knitting, or crafts of varying styles. I think I should learn how to sew.
Substack being able to embed X posts
Truly a mystery how our beloved platform went this long. This cuts down our screenshot time significantly. In.
Overpriced Niche Online Object Sellers
This year I’m excited by eclectic home goods. I’ve collected a small cohort of these niche overpriced sellers. From instagram accounts to boutique online antique shops, I am on the hunt for weird and cool objects (see: aarticles, tihngs, trinket la).
Large Art
Large, definitive art pieces are hard to fit in small New York City apartments, but we’re not letting that stop us in 2026. One of my favorite artists I’m praying does something in a city I’m near this year is Jack Penny.
Top 100 (T100) Golf Courses
This one is more of a manifestation (see hobbies above), but in 2026 playing more T100 courses is critical to my wellbeing. The first is lined up for May at Broomsedge, in South Carolina.
American Dynamism
Venture capitalists are raising $1.776 billion dollar funds, South American leaders are being kidnapped by Delta Force, Anti-Islamic protests rattle Iran, Greenland purchase bids are back on the agenda, and vacations in Cuba could be coming back.
Prediction Markets
Nothing has ever been more in. To all you decentralization nerds, there’s a new sheriff in town and we love her. The Relay boys are prediction-maxxing this year. Fingers crossed 2026 is the year we lay transactions to rest—predictions only.
American Art Deco
Born out of the original Roaring 20s, Art Deco style is quintessentially American. We’ve lost our way in America, architecturally. The dazzling vision of a glamorous and technologically advanced future, blending machine-age dynamism with luxury is ripe for revival.
Creed
In our circles they were already back in 2025, but 2026 is the year Scott Stapp is re embraced by the masses.
Print Media
It is no surprise that we’re print media fans here. From old school media like Foreign Affairs or The New Yorker to new school media like Arena Mag, we’re zigging while others are zagging and subscribing to physical media.
Quick Hits:
Drinking at lunch
Ordering a Chicken Club
Sparkling water
Maximum Conviction Plays
Cigarettes (on foreign soil or while drunk)
Watching music videos at the after party
Frolicking
Old School Runescape
Sultans of Swing
Mid 2000s pop-rock bands
Egg salad
Chicken salad
Drinking tea throughout the day
Relay 2026 Outs
It’s an impressive event, without a doubt, kudos to you users. Unfortunately, it smells of fitness fad. We’re betting it strikes out. Writ large, we’re out on fitness as a spectacle.
Protein (in its 2025 form)
We went too far in 2025, everyone knows it. I’m now hearing rumblings that 2026 will be the year of fiber. Can’t begin to imagine what that will bring.
I mean… what are we doing?
Skinny Jeans/Pants
There are rumblings, rumblings of a dark return to the twenty-teens. I’ve been seeing zoomer tik toks romanticizing millennial hipster life in Williamsburg in 2010. Articles coming out the the skinny jean could be “back”. We simply cannot let it happen.
Infinite Scroll
Everyone knew this was going to be on here, but we’re putting infinite scroll platforms on notice in 2026. TikTok, Reels, YT Shorts, Reddit, X, it doesn’t matter.
Staying Up Late
Night owls be damned, this year we’re going to bed early (on school nights).
Not bringing your clothes to a tailor
Imagine walking around with sleeves that are too long, or ill fitting pants? In 2026 we’re absolutely not doing this. I recently found out how easy it was to get clothes adjusted at a tailor and I’m never going back. We’re wearing perfectly fitting clothing in ‘26.
Social Program abuse/fraud
Here at Relay, we don’t disavow societal social programs, but we vehemently shun their abuse and fraud. The Somali daycare fraud exposed this week by Nick Shirley is just one example in the bleeding of the American Welfare system.
Performative Supplementation
We’re not saying your morning stack of LMNT, Huel, and AG1 are doing you wrong. Unless the lead claims were in fact true… regardless, it probably isn’t patching the fact that you doom scrolled until 3am and clocked 3 hours of sleep. In 2026 we’re locked in on the maximal-effect protocols only.
Tapas
There is nothing worse than going to a group dinner at a tapas place - unless you’re with family/best friends that you can steam roll into making the process efficient. The jockeying for getting your favorite app on the order list, the portioning dynamics, the nightmare performance art of splitting the bill—all of it’s out. We’re putting down one card and one card only in 2026.
Posthumous Album Releases
It’s a shame we’re still on this but posthumous releases are bullshit and very out. Yall are weird and RIP Mac.
Quick Hits:
Airbnb
Food delivery
Amy Schumer
Being politically correct in social settings
Microplastics
Drinking coffee within the first 90 minutes of rising
Still water
Using a microwave
AI Slop
Doing Due Diligence
Socialism
lollygagging
It’s Not That Deep, Randy
Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.
The internet is an overwhelming mess of headlines, ads, and mid takes from the worst people you know. Big Tech owns our attention spans. Everything is content. Nothing makes sense.
We’re not here to “fix discourse” or “build a better internet.” Relay is just our attempt to riff on what we’re already talking about at happy hour without feeling like we’ve been hit by a content truck. Some analysis, some memes, call it a day.
You might like it. Tag along.
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Stg dave has been on bags since 2018
The X embeds are all the rage