When Spanish midfielder Pedri zips across the field this Sunday, microscopic pillars on the Nanostrike+ fabric of his Adidas Predator cleats will help him control the ball. The microstructure technology—designed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign mechanical engineering professor Bill King—uses a friction-engineered surface mesh to give World Cup players a constant level of grip in rain, shine, or mud. When a player dribbles with low pressure, the cleats have a low grip level. But when a player strikes, it activates the microstructures’ grip, hitting the ball with increased force and spin. [Screenshot: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign] But King’s technology wasn’t…
Author: Staff Writer
The FIFA World Cup comes to a close on Sunday, as Spain and Argentina face off for the championship. The tournament’s scale is difficult to overstate: More than 75% of the world’s population was expected to engage with it in some way, whether by attending matches, watching on TV, or following online, according to Bank of America Global Research data. Along with memories of unexpected upsets, festive crowd scenes, and controversies, many of the technologies and design systems showcased at the 2026 World Cup will live on in one form or another. Here’s a look at some of the innovations…
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. We’re currently amid a 14-month streak in which year-over-year nationally aggregated worker earnings growth (+3.4% YoY) has exceeded year-over-year nationally aggregated home price growth (+1.3% YoY). This period of housing market softness—with some pandemic boomtowns in the Sun Belt and Mountain West experiencing outright corrections—is helping improve underlying national housing affordability on paper, which became stretched following the overheating during the Pandemic Housing Boom and the subsequent mortgage rate shock. To better understand how far nationally aggregated housing affordability remains from its long-run…
How much money parents can invest in their kids is one of the biggest factors in upward mobility. The inability of many families to provide their children a financial leg up has helped drive income inequality in the United States. There is now a partial solution, offered by the last person I’d have expected to address America’s income inequality problem: Donald Trump. Trump child investment accounts (officially known as 530A IRAs), started accepting contributions as of July 4, and are designed to provide American children a head start on financial security. As part of this initiative, the administration is providing…
From tomatoes and berries to lettuce and peppers, shoppers are feeling sticker shock in the produce aisle. Recent headlines have focused in particular on soaring tomato prices. They spiked by roughly one-fifth from June 2025 to June 2026, according to consumer price data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But across the board, fruits and vegetables have gotten more expensive. Lettuce prices jumped by about 32% during that same 12-month period, while prices for all fresh vegetables increased about 10%. Fresh fruit saw smaller hikes, with apples up 7% and citrus fruit prices rising 6%. As an agricultural…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Burnout starts with subtle shifts in mood and focus, long before exhaustion sets in. Structure, boundaries and purpose — not constant busyness — are what sustain founders long-term. Entrepreneurship is often associated with passion, ambition and relentless drive. Founders are expected to solve problems quickly, make decisions under pressure and carry the responsibility of the entire organization.But there is a cost to the cumulative weight of that responsibility. Founder fatigue rarely appears suddenly. More often, it builds gradually through chronic stress, decision overload and the constant urgency that accompanies leadership.…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Brands are increasingly getting cultural moments wrong because they’re prioritizing speed over understanding and visibility over legitimacy. To get cultural relevance right, define your role before entering the moment, design for participation (not passive visibility), pressure test ideas through the audience lens, and commit to consistency beyond the campaign. A campaign launches with the right intentions, taps into a cultural moment that feels relevant, and within hours, the reaction shifts. What was meant to connect starts to divide. The comments tell the story before the brand has a chance to…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Investors aren’t evaluating how polished your pitch is — they’re testing whether your business can survive the structural realities of taking their money. From cap tables to burn rate to governance, the founders who close rounds are the ones who’ve pressure-tested the fundamentals long before they walk into the room. The first time I fundraised, I assumed my success hinged on the persuasiveness of my pitch. I refined the deck, rehearsed the narrative and memorized every metric. My belief was simple: if I could communicate the vision clearly enough, the…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Real estate is one of the world’s largest asset classes, yet the information behind those assets has remained fragmented for decades. Everybody knows the worth of a house, a building or land. But the information contained in those assets remains inaccessible, difficult to clean, and challenging to use. Over the years, property data has been distributed across thousands of counties, jurisdictions, MLS systems and private sources. They are all different in format, rules and limitations. For large businesses, it creates delays. For startups and developers, it can create major barriers to building…
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways Cost efficiency isn’t the same as operational health — a lean team hitting its numbers on unsustainable hours is a burnout risk, not a business model. Escape the paradox with two investments: the right tech to automate repetitive work, and the right hires to free your team for higher-value tasks. Rapid growth is the goal for just about every entrepreneur, but seeing your revenue go up is only half of the picture. While it’s essential that you keep your finances healthy, many businesses struggle during this phase because of what…