Join SEED CLUB 🌱 It’s our private, decentralised research community where insight journalists and cultural curators sow and nurture articles, essays and ideas – what we call SEEDS – before the best are planted on Protein XYZ.
As a member you’ll have the opportunity to get commissioned to write SEEDS, collaborate with Protein AGENCY on client projects as well as connect with 300+ other incredibly smart contributors.
Apply now through the link in our bio :)
Introducing DEBRIEFS and QUESTION CREDITS
We’re excited to launch two new, bespoke features that will help MEMBERS dig deeper and turn your ideas into action.
Scroll for more info and click the link in our bio to book a demo.
Somewhere between defence tech and internet culture, the fashion pipeline flipped. Trends no longer flow from runway to high street — they emerge from tech companies, military-adjacent spaces and developer culture, repackaged as limited-edition drops with just enough irony to feel wearable.
The new streetwear isn’t coming from the street. It’s coming from systems.
Read the full SEED at Protein.XYZ
Welcome to the fog economy, where you’re waiting in line but your phone isn’t.
While real life stalls – jobs, visas, recognition – the feed keeps moving. People launching, winning, becoming. Or at least they’re looking like they are.
From AI influencers to one-click portfolios to fake event images, the tools to signal success are everywhere. Visibility no longer follows reality – it often comes first.
We’re in a moment where attention is currency and reaction is the metric. Being right matters less than being seen. And in that shift, brands aren’t just navigating the fog – they’re deliberately helping build it. The question isn’t how to escape it, but how to be seen within it.
Read more at the link in bio or on Protein.XYZ
Our FORUM last week dug into the significance of memes in culture, how they’ve evolved and, despite how deeply embedded they’ve become, whether brands should engage with them.
Following our panel discussion with @catty , @cybervolta and @splashpant , we took a temperature check with our attendees. The results speak for themselves 📊
Become a MEMBER to watch the recording, link in bio
@dankartdirectormemes distills the creative industry into something sharp, sly, a little cruel. A decade in, he questions what memes mean now, who gets to use them and if they’re built to last.
This interview lands just ahead of our online FORUM today (29 April, 5pm GMT): Do Memes Still Matter?
Register via link in bio
2030 will inevitably draw new brands into North Africa – some for the first time, others more seriously than before.
Kit deals are the most visible layer. But the brands that are genuinely embedded show up elsewhere: in retail environments, in grassroots partnerships, in street-level pricing. The kind of quieter, unglamorous work that rarely makes headlines between tournaments.
Read the full SEED on Protein.XYZ
There is one thing that nobody predicted for 2026: a collective outpouring of disorientingly unironic joy. Maybe it’s not that shocking that this wave is breaking now. Maybe, as things get darker and more fearful, embracing explosive, radiant joy is less a reaction and more a necessity.
Read the full SEED on Protein.XYZ
Meet the panellists for our upcoming FORUM exploring if memes still matter – and what comes next.
Join us on 29th April to pressure-test meme culture as it exists today, how they’re changing culture in real time, and if brands should engage with memes at all.
This is a free online event open to all, go to the link in bio to register ✨
