Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Aussie activewear brand Suave controversy, Harry Styles upset concert-goers + Gabbie Gonzalez arrest
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up today on Mini Scroll, Australian active Wear brand
- 0:03swabs fall from viral grace, Harry Styles concert stage
- 0:08backlash and the TikTok star accused of hiring a hitman on a
- 0:12former boy band singer. Hi everyone.
- 0:16Welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast
- 0:20bringing you the biggest stories from social media, the creator
- 0:23economy and the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
- 0:26and sometimes Fridays. I'm your host Lauren Meisner,
- 0:29the founder of the Australian youth digital media brand
- 0:32Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
- 0:36everyone. I'm wearing this light blue top
- 0:39and these hot pink pants and Annabelle told me that I look
- 0:42like a gender reveal today. Savage.
- 0:46OK, before I get into it, Please remember to rate, review and
- 0:49subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 0:52Please join our Patreon if you want extra behind the scenes
- 0:55type of content every single month and also sign up to our
- 0:58newsletter. Keep scrolling for let's get
- 1:01into the stories for today. So the first story that I have
- 1:04for you guys today is an Australian activewear brand
- 1:07named Suave had a viral explosion and now implosion.
- 1:13So Australian activewear brand Suave has had this mighty fall
- 1:17from grace after finding viral support just a couple weeks ago.
- 1:22Suave is owned by a husband and wife named Chloe and Connor
- 1:25Wright. Connor works fly in fly out and
- 1:28Chloe manages the operations while he's away.
- 1:30This is how they say they like, split the business.
- 1:33Essentially, they launched the brand in 2023.
- 1:37Now, a few weeks ago, Connor went viral when he posted a
- 1:39video talking about how the brand was failing, and he asked
- 1:43for advice from fellow business owners on what they could do
- 1:46differently. My active web business is
- 1:48currently failing and I have no idea what to do anymore.
- 1:51I've been embarrassed to make this video for the longest time
- 1:53and I don't know what else to do.
- 1:55We've been this fucking close to quitting because this shit is
- 2:00hard, but I'm not ready to give up yet.
- 2:02Like, I need to see a lot of videos that are like this when
- 2:05people actually coming out and being honest about how it's
- 2:08going because it's all smoke and mirrors and you want to act like
- 2:10your business is doing absolutely amazing so people
- 2:12continue to support her. But fuck man, we are struggling
- 2:16by posting this video. I'm hoping that some guru sees
- 2:19it and makes like a breakdown video and goes through suave and
- 2:22just gives me all the nitty gritty and gives me all the
- 2:24constructive criticism that we need to sort of maybe make it
- 2:28better and improve because that is all I want to do.
- 2:31Like I know that the product is good.
- 2:34We've got 675 reviews and out of those reviews there is only 9
- 2:39reviews that are on the four stars. 28 of them are four
- 2:42stars. The rest of five star reviews.
- 2:44The product is fucking good. I've no idea what I'm doing
- 2:47wrong. The website looks good, the
- 2:48social media looks good. We've got a big following.
- 2:50It just doesn't make sense that we're not doing really well.
- 2:53Like this shit is hard and I'm ready to take on any criticism
- 2:59or any construction that we can fucking do before I'm ready to
- 3:02give up on this business because this shit is hard and this video
- 3:06has been really hard to make as well.
- 3:08This video went super viral on like an incredibly specific
- 3:13niche area of TikTok, one that I am a part of Australian small
- 3:17business talk. I actually consider talking
- 3:20about this situation a couple weeks ago when it was first
- 3:23happening, but I'm glad that I waited because now we have, you
- 3:26know, an even bigger story out of this.
- 3:28And also it felt like incredibly niche at the time.
- 3:30And now it's really blown up for different reasons.
- 3:32So naturally, like I said, I saw it when it first went up and he
- 3:35was getting so much valuable advice, like tons of advice in
- 3:38the comments, tons of stitches from really successful people in
- 3:42business. And more than just advice.
- 3:45The video, it got 700,000 views and because Australians love to
- 3:49support Australian businesses, they got a ton of orders and it
- 3:52seems like this vulnerability really paid off.
- 3:54He made videos saying things had really turned around for them
- 3:57and he was excited to keep going.
- 3:59So obviously the video about my active web brand currently
- 4:02failing has gone fairly viral and it's actually been an insane
- 4:07couple days. We've had an insane response.
- 4:11It's crazy to me what happens when you allow yourself to be
- 4:15vulnerable and allow yourself to open up and receive criticism.
- 4:18And we've received a lot of amazing advice, but I've also
- 4:22received a lot of terrible advice.
- 4:23So it's just going to be picking through and figuring out what's
- 4:27good, what's bad, and what's going to help us proceed and be
- 4:29better as a business. I'm sorry over the moon by the
- 4:34support that we've had. Like here I am sitting in the
- 4:37car about to take another 2 bags of orders off to the post
- 4:40office. We've had like 30,000 people on
- 4:43our website and this week alone and had a really.
- 4:45Good week. So just weeks after all of this
- 4:48happened and they were getting so many orders and people were
- 4:51applauding them for being vulnerable and taking advice and
- 4:55all of that stuff. It seems their redemption arc
- 4:58was short lived because earlier this week Chloe posted a video
- 5:02on her Snapchat mocking someone using a rowing machine at the
- 5:06gym. So the clip was filmed from
- 5:09outside a gym through the gym windows.
- 5:11She wasn't even in the gym. And it showed a man that was
- 5:15using the rowing machine and he was using it.
- 5:18Honestly, I don't know if he was using it incorrectly.
- 5:21I am a gym girly myself, but I never used a rowing machine.
- 5:24And he looked like he knew what he was doing.
- 5:26But then he would, like, lift his arms up like this, like he
- 5:29would, you know, pull it and then like, lift it up like this.
- 5:31And it basically kind of looked like he was using one of those,
- 5:34you know, parachute things, those like, like big round, like
- 5:37parachute things that we used to do in gym class.
- 5:39That's what he looked like he was doing when we were kids.
- 5:41You know, he looked like he was using one of those or something.
- 5:43And so, yeah, she posted this on her stories and basically was
- 5:48like mocking his technique. And for me, if you guys are into
- 5:52rowing and stuff like, let me know if this is accurate.
- 5:54But for me, sometimes I see people doing things at the gym
- 5:58and I'm like, OK, I must actually just not be advanced
- 6:01enough to understand what they're doing.
- 6:02And that is kind of how I took his technique, but I don't know.
- 6:05So given Suave was getting a lot of attention online around this
- 6:09exact time, especially in the Australian fitness space, her
- 6:13video was pulled from Snapchat and quickly spread across social
- 6:17media and it ended up getting posted by Joe We Swole on his
- 6:22Instagram account. He has 5.4 million followers and
- 6:25he's a hugely influential presence in the fitness space.
- 6:28Whether you agree with him or not on a lot of his takes,
- 6:32there's no denying that he's a massive influencer and he posted
- 6:36this calling Chloe out. Being filmed at the gym is
- 6:41literally every gym goers worst nightmare.
- 6:44There's so many takes right now because of the situation.
- 6:46Being like This is why beginners are so scared to be at the gym.
- 6:49Like this is so uncomfortable for people that don't understand
- 6:51gym equipment and stuff like this is our worst nightmare.
- 6:54This is everyone's worst nightmare at the gym.
- 6:56Whether you are super experienced or not or super
- 6:59comfortable or not. The fact that it's become
- 7:01increasingly common to film at the gym and like this is coming
- 7:05from someone who used to film my workouts at the gym.
- 7:07OK, I completely understand why it's so uncomfortable for anyone
- 7:13at any stage of their fitness journey.
- 7:16So Needless to say, those customers who bought their
- 7:19activewear to support this failing Australian activewear
- 7:23business are pretty pissed right now.
- 7:25Tons of people are saying like can I return this?
- 7:29I'm so pissed that I just spent my money on supporting them.
- 7:32Now on the suave Tiktok account, their official brand account,
- 7:36Connor apologized. He made a video apologizing
- 7:39essentially like on Chloe's behalf, which actually pissed
- 7:43people off even more 'cause they were like, why are you speaking
- 7:46for her? And in his video, he tried to
- 7:48play it off as if they're not Co founders, but publicly they call
- 7:52themselves Co founders. Like on their website it says
- 7:54that they're Co founders. So people feel like he was
- 7:56trying to like, protect the brand from her in this
- 7:59situation. Time to address the video that
- 8:01Chloe posted to a personal Instagram story the other day.
- 8:04If you don't know me, my name's Connor Wright.
- 8:06I own Swab Active and Chloe Wright is my wife.
- 8:10I own the business. She helps out while I'm away
- 8:13working. 502-IN-1 roster. I did really want to wait until
- 8:16I was home with Chloe to be able to make this video because she
- 8:18really wants to apologize, but my community means the world to
- 8:21me and you guys deserve an explanation.
- 8:23Now to give a bit of back story to the situation that's happened
- 8:26on the weekend she's gone out for dinner with her family and
- 8:29while sitting down at dinner they could see into a gym.
- 8:32In the gym there was a man that looked like her twin brother
- 8:34that did rowing in high school and he was using a different
- 8:38technique on the rowing machine. She is non consensually videoed
- 8:41and posted this man to a story with the caption.
- 8:44Turns out we have been doing the row of wrong all these years.
- 8:47There's been screenshot and then shared on a group called tea
- 8:49Time and also posted on Joey Swells Instagram story.
- 8:53I'm not on here to excuse the behaviour.
- 8:55She understands that what she did was wrong and she is truly
- 8:58sorry. People think swabs a big team
- 9:00and it's not. It's just me and Chloe helps
- 9:02out. I am dealing with business for
- 9:04the first time myself. It's my first time living.
- 9:06It's her first time living and in the public eye think things
- 9:09hit differently and we really need to be more cautious of what
- 9:12we post every single day. I work to take on the feedback
- 9:16of our community and continue improving and making it a better
- 9:19product for you guys. Like when we first launched,
- 9:21there was a lot of unhappy people that we only went to size
- 9:24large. The very next launch we went up
- 9:26to extra large and now some products we go up to three extra
- 9:29large. For some, going to the gym is a
- 9:31no thought process. It's not scary, it's not
- 9:34daunting, but for some, it's a very scary place full of
- 9:37judgement and everything like that.
- 9:39Thing about the gym is that it takes a certain amount of
- 9:41vulnerability and we have violated that trust when you do
- 9:45go into those public space and we truly understand.
- 9:49A few weeks ago I was the most vulnerable I have ever been in
- 9:52my entire life. Looking for advice and looking
- 9:55to you guys for guidance. The insane community that you
- 9:58guys are, you all came together. You gave advice, you gave
- 10:01feedback, you gave guidance, you purchased and you supported and
- 10:04interacted and helped the business so much.
- 10:06And we are eternally grateful and we are extremely, extremely
- 10:10sorry that we have disappointed you guys with a poor taste joke
- 10:13like this. Like I said, this is my first
- 10:16business and I'm learning every single day.
- 10:18But this has been a major, major lesson, and we truly hope you
- 10:22can accept our apology. And then, of course, because
- 10:24people were not satisfied with the fact that he apologized and
- 10:27not her, she has now issued her own apology on that same
- 10:30account. I'm sure we will see the video
- 10:32by now and I do apologize. It's taken me a few days, I just
- 10:35needed some time to stop and reflect and to be honest I owe
- 10:39you all an apology. I took a video of someone in the
- 10:42gym just doing their thing and it was thoughtless and stupid
- 10:45and two hours it never should have happened.
- 10:46I'm sorry to hear around that I offended and to the swell
- 10:48community I am really sorry for letting you guys down.
- 10:50I will do better. The gym is a very vulnerable
- 10:53place and I did violate that. I promise you I have learnt from
- 10:56this and I hope you guys can accept my.
- 10:57Apology. I will say the only redeeming
- 11:00thing of this situation is that they posted these on the brand
- 11:03account because his initial video was posted on his own
- 11:06personal account. So sometimes I feel like in
- 11:09situations like this, especially because they're like a new
- 11:12brand, I'm sure they don't have like APR team helping them with
- 11:15this. This is like a lot of backlash,
- 11:16a lot of attention. I feel like it would be
- 11:19unsurprising if they posted these videos like on his account
- 11:23and they tried to keep their brand account free of all of
- 11:27this. So I do think they are making
- 11:29the right decision from APR perspective to post this on the
- 11:31brand account. That is a good decision from
- 11:33them. OK, I've jumped back on the mic
- 11:35because I have since seen a lot of discourse about how people
- 11:39are like, well, this is exactly what they wanted.
- 11:42They're going so viral now, whether it's for something good,
- 11:44whether it's for something bad. But in this case, I fear it's
- 11:49going to be hard for Suave to come back from this because they
- 11:53are a newer brand and as the founder Connor told us, they
- 11:58were not doing very well. So they presumably did not have
- 12:01a large customer base, a lot of strong brand affinity amongst
- 12:05their customer base and a lot of loyalty amongst a larger sample
- 12:10group of customers. And so this is the first
- 12:14introduction for most people to this brand.
- 12:17If they were more established, if they had a larger, more loyal
- 12:21customer base, if we knew what the personalities behind the
- 12:24brand before this, then like maybe they would be able to
- 12:28properly recover from this. But I don't know if this was an
- 12:30established enough brand yet. And the majority of the
- 12:34customers that they have over these past couple of weeks have
- 12:37come from his viral video. And, you know, they were trying
- 12:39to, like, help them out and support them in some way.
- 12:42And now this feels like a slap in the face.
- 12:45The next story that I have for you guys today is Harry Styles
- 12:48and his team are facing backlash around his set design or stage
- 12:53design for his new tour. So Harry Styles launched the
- 12:57Together Together tour on May 16th in Amsterdam.
- 13:00And this was his first show in 2 1/2 years.
- 13:03And so far, the online reception has not been super great.
- 13:07So clips are circulating on social media that show some
- 13:10concert goers in the VIP floor section we're struggling to see
- 13:14due to the height of the stage equipment and a large production
- 13:17setup. Specifically the culprit of this
- 13:20blockage seems to be a 10 foot tall walkway that circles the
- 13:23stadium's floor that Harry like runs around on and like performs
- 13:27on SO1. User wrote on X.
- 13:29I'm sorry but what the fuck is this?
- 13:30I'm at the barricade and I can't even see the mainstage anymore.
- 13:33I want my money back. This is not OK.
- 13:36And they tagged at Harry Styles HQ, someone else on X wrote that
- 13:40big ass stage and for what? For him to run around like a
- 13:43toddler with no production, no dancers, and for people who paid
- 13:46the most to see him closer to only have obstructed views.
- 13:50Not even talking about the whole greediness.
- 13:51All of these things are just giving me the ick.
- 13:54And another user wrote so many artists are making these huge
- 13:57stages just to have a ton of barricade spots to charge more
- 14:00for and then barely use them. Harry the scammer isn't the 1st
- 14:04and won't be the last. Calling him a scammer is crazy.
- 14:07I see what they're saying. I actually never thought about
- 14:09it from that perspective that if you have like, you know, I
- 14:13suppose more stage area throughout the venue, then you
- 14:17can technically say that it's floor VIP.
- 14:19There's more space for people to be at the front and at the
- 14:22barricade, I suppose, and that's why they're saying they can
- 14:24charge more for those seats or those tickets.
- 14:27Now, obviously there are people that are like this is not a real
- 14:29problem, like stop complaining. So Tory on X Rd.
- 14:33I understand that people are frustrated.
- 14:35I also couldn't see him at most part, but I actually think that
- 14:38was good because I was living the moment, listening to the
- 14:40music and really watching everything and there was a
- 14:43moment he came really close to me.
- 14:44It was amazing overall. OK, like, I understand that
- 14:47perspective. Sure.
- 14:48That's like truly making, what's that saying lemonade out of
- 14:52lemons, like seeing the glass half full.
- 14:55But this girl being like, it was totally fine.
- 14:57I also didn't see him at most parts.
- 15:00When you paid for VIP tickets, No, no.
- 15:04And someone else wrote also, I don't think you should feel like
- 15:07you have to have eyes on him every single second of the show.
- 15:10Dance, take pictures, have some fun, look at the screens.
- 15:13I agree with that. Like of course, if there are
- 15:16parts of the show that you cannot see him because of where
- 15:19you are standing, I think that's fine.
- 15:22Like of course if it's like an intricate stage, really big and
- 15:25all that kind of stuff. Like, I don't think anybody goes
- 15:27to a concert and expects to be able to see the act like 100% of
- 15:31the time based on how they're moving on the stage, right?
- 15:34But for this one girl to be like, I also couldn't see him at
- 15:37most parts, but it was fine like that, no.
- 15:40OK, so after tons of backlash online, Harry's team responded
- 15:44yesterday through Harry Styles HQ, which is the official
- 15:47Instagram account that represents his team.
- 15:49They wrote. We've heard concerns from fans
- 15:51regarding sightline obstructions on the floor.
- 15:53We want every person in the room to have the best experience
- 15:56possible and we are actively working on making adjustments to
- 15:59improve visibility while keeping everyone's safety a priority.
- 16:02Beginning Friday, the front bridges will be altered in
- 16:05Amsterdam and London for future venues.
- 16:07We are working as quickly as possible to make adjustments
- 16:09that also fit within safety code and local compliance.
- 16:12In the meantime, temporary barricade adjustments have been
- 16:15made to the left and right front GA pits for tonight's show to
- 16:19improve two stage visibility. They did give a slightly more
- 16:23defensive statement to Billboard.
- 16:25UKA tour representative explained that the floor concept
- 16:28was meant to give fans freedom of movement and the ability to
- 16:32experience the show from different positions rather than
- 16:35being confined to one fixed angle.
- 16:38I don't like, OK cool. Like that could have been a
- 16:40really interesting design choice and concept.
- 16:44But like, I don't know how practical that is or how
- 16:47realistic it is to imagine that a stadium filled with fans like
- 16:53Harry Styles is so famous and people stand him so hard.
- 16:56Like people are just going to be pushing against that barricade
- 16:59to be as close as possible. I don't think it's realistic to
- 17:01assume that they're going to, like, take on that vibe where
- 17:03they're like, oh, we're just all moving around.
- 17:05Like, sure, you go in the front. OK, I'll go to the back now.
- 17:07Like, whatever. I don't know if that's the vibe
- 17:09of like a Harry Styles show like that.
- 17:11I think there are artists where that works and there's genres
- 17:14where that happens. I don't know if going to a
- 17:19concert for like a main pop star, if that's like the target
- 17:22audience for that type of like free flowing style.
- 17:25Do you know what I mean? Now, as somebody wrote in one of
- 17:28the first tweets that I read, this is not the tour's only
- 17:31friction point. So when tickets went on sale in
- 17:34late January, fans were criticizing the high prices and
- 17:37the tour's limited routing. So they're only doing one US
- 17:40venue and two in Europe. All right.
- 17:43And the last story that I have for you guys today is TikTok
- 17:46creator Gabby Gonzalez has been charged for allegedly putting
- 17:49together a murder for hire plot against a boy band singer named
- 17:54Jack Avery. That sentence literally sounds
- 17:58like a Gossip Girl plot. OK, so Gabby is 24 years old.
- 18:03She's a lifestyle influencer and she has close to half a million
- 18:06followers on TikTok. Jack is an artist and he used to
- 18:09be part of the boy band. Why don't we?
- 18:11So Gabby and Jack started dating in 2018 when they were both
- 18:14teenagers. A year later, in 2019, they had
- 18:18their daughter named Lavender. The relationship ended soon
- 18:21after that and then they apparently got into a really
- 18:24bitter custody battle. As a result of this custody
- 18:27battle, in 2021, Gabby allegedly teamed up with her father and
- 18:31her boyfriend, who is now her ex-boyfriend, to try and have
- 18:35Jack killed. So all three of them, Gabby and
- 18:38her father Francisco, and her ex-boyfriend Kai, are now facing
- 18:42three charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit
- 18:45murder, and solicitation of murder.
- 18:47Prosecutors claim that between October 2020 and May 2021, Gabby
- 18:52repeatedly talked about wanting Jack dead.
- 18:54And during that window, they say that she brought in her then
- 18:57boyfriend Kai to find a hit man on the dark web, someone who
- 19:00could kill Jack and make it look like an accident.
- 19:03In April 2021, Gabby's father supposedly sent Kai $10,000 to
- 19:08pay for the hitman. I feel like that's not enough
- 19:11money for a hitman. I don't know.
- 19:13I've never known anybody to Commission a hitman.
- 19:16But that price, I feel like it's got to be much higher.
- 19:20So the court filing says that Kai set up a dark web murder for
- 19:23hire account and then in May 2021 he passed along information
- 19:27identifying Jack as the target and also gave away Jack's
- 19:31address. Two months after that, the
- 19:33supposed hitman asked for another $4000 and prosecutors
- 19:37say Gabby's father again sent the money to Kai to pay for
- 19:41that. However, this is where it takes
- 19:44a turn. It turns out that the so-called
- 19:46hitman was an FBI agent. Investigators say Kai discussed
- 19:51payment with this agent, asked for proof that the murder had
- 19:54been carried out, and at one point told the agent that Gabby
- 19:56wanted the murder to happen and that her father would be the one
- 19:59covering the costs. OK, every once in a while I go
- 20:03on like a dark web. Rabbit hole not like actually
- 20:08going on the dark web myself, but like watching video essays
- 20:11about it, learning more about it.
- 20:13I feel like it's important to understand how it works for like
- 20:15our line of work and Centennial as a business, understanding
- 20:19those dynamics. And everything that I have
- 20:22learned about the dark web is that it's not like you just go
- 20:26on tour and like go on the dark web and just find listings of
- 20:30people who wants people killed. Like it's not that obvious.
- 20:35I think maybe it was that obvious like at one point, but
- 20:40like the quote UN quote, golden days, the golden era of the dark
- 20:44web, if you will, that's a crazy sentence is very much over.
- 20:48So if you're putting up like some type of listing that is
- 20:52this obvious, like I'm not surprised that it was an
- 20:54undercover FBI agent that answered it.
- 20:57I feel like that's dark Web 101 and I've never even been on the
- 21:00dark web. I don't know.
- 21:02OK so now Gabby and her father have been arrested and there's
- 21:06no word so far on if Kai has been arrested, but I'm sure that
- 21:09he will be arrested. On Tuesday, Jack filed a
- 21:11temporary restraining order against Gabby and he's also
- 21:14seeking sole legal and physical custody of their daughter.
- 21:17Her TikTok account is still up. Like it still has nearly 500,000
- 21:21followers. She hasn't posted in a long
- 21:23time. It's like 2024 was the last time
- 21:24she posted on that account. She does have a spam that she
- 21:27seems to use more that she posts like more recently on.
- 21:29But yeah, her main account has been pretty dormant for about a
- 21:32year. But as you can imagine, since
- 21:34this is all over the news now, her comments section is truly
- 21:39flooded. Anyways, guys, that's it for
- 21:41mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
- 21:43I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
- 21:46and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 21:48It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
- 21:51I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow for Friday.
- 21:54Mini scroll bye. Centennial World Podcast Network
- 21:57operates on Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
- 22:00Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
- 22:03land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.