Signals

Every Friday, The Future Laboratory team offers an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, senior foresight analyst Alice Crossley celebrates the Lionesses’ path to another Euros final – and the rise of the inner-city Norman.

: My stress levels have just about recovered from the Lionesses’ nail-biting UEFA Euro 2025 semi-final on Tuesday, just in time for Sunday’s final against Spain. We haven’t made it easy for ourselves, but I’ve got faith the Lionesses will see it through! 

: Nineteen-year-old Michelle Agyemang might be the future of the Lionesses, but I loved this campaign from White Stuff honouring the original 1972 women’s team. Julia, Sue, Jeannie, Lynda, Maggie and Pat played England’s first ever women’s international match. Dressed by White Stuff, they share stories of what it was like playing 50 years ago.

: Not all brand campaigns are scoring, though. This Substack from Sibling Studio analyses the current sponsorship landscape in women’s sports and highlights the need for brands that ‘don’t just show up and slap a logo on something, but shape how people experience the game’. Look out for our Women’s Sports Economy microtrend, going live next week, which spotlights the female founders building a better, more creative sports industry from the ground up. 

: And finally, a weekend read: Clive Martin’s latest article for VICE introduces us to ‘the Normans’ – a new inner-city Zillennial typology defined by mullets, moustaches and love of novelty t-shirts featuring anthropomorphic peanuts, pickles and pizzas. The Norman is obsessed with the following things, Martin writes: ‘bikes, beer gardens, day festivals, Turnstile, ‘chilled reds’, Confidence Man, The Bear, weekends in Marseille, Instagram chefs who use death metal typefaces, sharing-plates with orange writing on them, soft-scoop ice cream, Loyle Carner and steady-state cardio.’ Every Londoner knows a Norman – or maybe has a little Norman in them.