A bull rider, an electrician, and a Gen Z shopper walk into a store. It isn't the beginning of a joke. It's Ariat's next decade, and the store is 10,500 square feet in Mall of America.

Every so often I go deep on a company just to see if I can see where things are going. This morning it was Ariat, and I came away thinking they are one of the more interesting brand stories in consumer right now, so I thought I'd share it.

A quick reminder from our friends at Apple on how to lead with emotional branding (and sell) instead of listing features, using techie gibberish, and presenting screen shots. You'll notice they change it up a bit after the fold, but they always use language that connects their products with feelings rather than performance.