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Why Columbia’s HikeFest is making healthy hedonism the new wellness

Columbia HikeFest, UK

UK – Sportswear brand Columbia’s annual HikeFest returned to the Peak District this month. Now in its third year, the event is held as part of the brand's Columbia Hike Society programme.

It brought together hikers, outdoor enthusiasts and music lovers for a day of steep trail walks and culminated in an off-grid rave headlined by London electronic producer Duskus inside a subterranean venue known locally as The Devil’s Arse, beneath the hills of Castleton.

Groups navigated rain-soaked trails before reuniting underground, where the markers of conventional wellness culture were stripped back, including no phone signal, optimisation agenda or recovery metrics. Instead, physical exertion, community and cocktails were embraced.

The activation points to a broader shift in how outdoor and sportswear brands are positioning wellness. Today, it’s less about performance tracking and more about experiences that are physically demanding but socially rewarding. As The Future Laboratory explores in The New Gen Z Wellness Consumers, next generation are rewriting what a healthy lifestyle looks like as a result of years of relentless self-optimisation culture leaving them burned out and searching for joy.

Strategic opportunity

Outdoor and sportswear brands should consider how to balance the benefits of health with the reward of joy, whether through music and nightlife tie-ins, community-first event formats or partnerships that sit outside the traditional wellness space

Foresight Friday: Alison Farrington, foresight content manager

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, foresight content manager Alison Farrington provides some takeaways from the Tax Free World Association (TFWA) Asia Pacific conference in Singapore.

A new floor layout at the conference featured TFWA’s Taste of the World space, where there was a clear focus on how food and beverage is becoming a powerful differentiator for airport environments as the unique retail channel evolves into an experience-led marketplace.

During the opening Agora session, Jesús Abia, L’Oréal Travel Retail’s Asia Pacific managing director, explored the future of beauty experiences through a global lens. Abia positioned the sector as a ‘point-of-discovery and point-of-experience’, calling for more immersive, consumer-centric journeys that engage travellers before departure.

Abia highlighted standout activations, including a 90% conversion rate for YSL Beauty and 10m impressions generated by a Kérastase campaign featuring Chinese actress Jang Mi in Hainan. Abia also stressed travel retail’s power as a recruitment channel, citing the company’s research projecting 750m additional beauty consumers globally by 2030.

Lancôme Absolut Longevity TFWA, Singapore

As part of the extensive L’Oréal ‘brand worlds’ stand showcase, Lancôme debuted its elevated traveller experiences through a series of immersive activations, including an Oxygen Boost headset designed to deliver an ‘instant cell energy reboost’. Developed in partnership with a Singapore start-up, the technology draws on systems used by pilots and elite athletes to enhance wellbeing and recovery.

TFWA’s workshop, AP Travel Retail Pulse: A Health Check and the Innovation Imperative, highlighted the structural shifts shaping Asia Pacific travel retail. The session explored changing traveller demographics, evolving spending patterns and increasingly fragmented consumer expectations. One standout statistic revealed that Indian outbound travel is projected to grow to 240m by 2040, becoming the world’s fifth largest market and underlining the rise of new traveller groups beyond China.

Quote of the week

‘The most important thing is understanding the consumer. We have more nationalities and traveller needs, and we need to better understand the consumer. With the portfolio we have, especially with the integration of Kering Beauty, we are well equipped to unlock new growth opportunities’

Jesús Abia, Asia Pacific managing director, L’Oréal Travel Retail

Stat: Why trust will define the future of facial recognition

Photography by Rizky Sabriansyah, Indonesia

UK – New research around facial recognition technology (FRT) suggests people expect transparency and accountability about how biometric systems are deployed.

A survey of 2,000 British adults conducted by Opinium for Face Int found that 69% of respondents believe the public should have a say in how facial recognition technology is used in the UK.

Concerns extend beyond privacy into issues of trust and governance. More than six in 10 respondents (61%) worry that errors with FRT systems could wrongly implicate innocent people, while 57% are concerned about how facial images are stored, and the same percentage believe facial recognition signals a shift towards a surveillance society. Meanwhile, 54% say the technology creates an unsettling sense of being constantly watched.

Despite this, attitudes remain nuanced. More than half (54%) agree that people should not worry about facial recognition if they have done nothing wrong.

In our 2023 Safety Fits report, we highlighted how growing privacy concerns are laying the ground for innovative solutions in clothing and accessories, such as garments that bypass artificial intelligence and facial recognition.

For brands and organisations deploying AI-powered identification systems, this highlights the growing pressure to prioritise transparency, public consultation and ethical safeguards.

Strategic opportunity

Design privacy-first customer journeys. As facial recognition expands throughout retail, transport and events, brands that clearly explain data usage and minimise biometric storage will gain trust with increasingly sensitive members of the public