The Wall Street Journal

James Dean wore their shoes. So did Elvis. Brad Pitt wears them today. The inside story of a trio of classic sneaker makers—SeaVees, Jack Purcells and P.F. Flyers—founded by a tire company. 👟 https://on.wsj.com/3IXSfKk

Beer and music have long been a popular pairing. Now bands are collaborating with breweries on beers, hop waters and other drinks sold at shows and stores. 🔗 Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4760n5i

Exclusive: Autonomous trucks are now driving highways at night, hauling food and dairy between Dallas and Houston.

🔗: https://on.wsj.com/4f6UkiM In the ultra-commodified Hamptons, scoring a mat at one of the trendiest workouts is yet another status symbol. “It’s like owning a really nice bag,” says Caroline Rose Kenlon, 27, who works in finance in New York and blogs about fitness. Kenlon keeps a running spreadsheet of Hamptons workout-class prices, which are often jacked up from their city counterparts. Most hover around $50 for one class but can go up to $75 for a Tracy Anderson class, or well into the hundreds for small-group and private classes. In a region where weekenders routinely scarf down $97 lobster salads and $10 tomatoes, those prices aren’t quelling demand. Some classes open their spots one week in advance, others at the beginning of the season. Wait lists of over 20 people are common.

Not many people paid attention to the pictures Nicole Wade posted of her cat, Princess Honeybelle. Then she put up an image of the pet in a pink cable-knit sweater—and a pet influencer was born. The post brought Wade 500 new followers, and the numbers soared in the thousands as she posted more cute images. Honey got so popular that the cat began landing endorsement deals, collecting enough income for Wade to leave her retail job and manage her pet’s online presence full time. Over the past few years, pet influencers like Wade—and her cat—have become a huge presence online. If pet owners find the right gimmick, they can reap the benefits—landing money from social-media platforms based on the number of views and securing deals with consumer brands to advertise products and services. Pet influencers may even be seen as more trustworthy than human ones. But how do some people turn their pets into online success stories? 🔗 Here is a closer look at two influencers who are making it work: https://on.wsj.com/4o8qgY7

American history is more polarizing than ever. But the country’s leading storyteller hopes to prove there’s still an appetite for hard truths. “We were forged in violence,” Ken Burns, 71, said, “and that’s OK.” His new six-part, 12-hour documentary, “The American Revolution,” tackles America’s complicated creation story. Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4op3vj4

The inventory of homes for sale is finally rising. Buyers aren’t interested. After years of frustration with fast-rising prices and bidding wars, buyers now have the upper hand in many parts of the country. More sellers are cutting prices or offering concessions such as paying for buyers’ closing costs. The U.S. housing market had nearly a half million more sellers than buyers in April, the biggest such gap on record in seasonally adjusted data going back to 2013, according to an analysis by real-estate brokerage Redfin. The new listings haven’t been enough to jolt the housing market out of its slumber. 🔗 Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4lNOp4G

The growth north of Dallas has been so dizzying that people talk about it as if it were a storm, or some other force of nature. https://on.wsj.com/4lVrSDo It can be disorienting to land in a place that is growing so quickly, and where everything is so new. Holly and Andi Haven, a mother-daughter real-estate team in North Texas, talk about the opening of a local grocery store or Whataburger outlet as if they were historical events. Who is their typical home-buyer? A middle-class, conservative Christian family of four from California, who are searching for a good school district. They will likely end up trading a condominium for a four-bedroom house and feel like millionaires. It might be in a Prosper master community like Light Farms, where antique tractors are a decorative motif, or Windsong Ranch, which boasts a 5-acre man-made lagoon. The town’s median home price is a hefty $894,000. Mingling is easy, Holly said, particularly for the stay-at-home mothers. “You can just kind of pop in, go to the community pool and meet all your neighbors.” The vibe is Real Housewives-meets-blockparty: If someone is toting a Yeti cup, there’s bound to be alcohol in it. Far from remaking the place in the image of California, the Havens discovered, many of the newbies come to embrace Texas tradition with the zeal of converts. They attend the high-school football games on Friday nights and shell out as much as $300 for over-the-top chrysanthemum corsages to wear to homecoming. “They love it,” Andi said. “They didn’t have it [where they’re from].” Read more about how Dallas has become the city that just can’t stop expanding: https://on.wsj.com/4lVrSDo

Just pressing “delete” and emptying the Trash in macOS or the Recycle Bin in Windows won’t do the trick. Here’s a step-by-step guide: 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/3H9CGhV

Jen Goetz’s own experience as a young working mom, juggling twin girls and a son who are just two years apart, is never far from her mind. “In my former life as a mom with three young babies in diapers, I desperately wanted the support. I’m just so pleased to be able to offer it” now, the 57-year-old talent acquisition leader for Cisco says. She is among the newest grandmas in her friend group, who share baby essentials like strollers and bassinets with each other. “There’s a lot of us,” she says of working grandmas, “women who are mid to later part of their career, but we have a lot of runway left in our career. We’re not ready to hang it up.” Women like Goetz are redefining grandparenthood, managing to be both more hands-on with the grandkids and more professionally ambitious than previous generations. In some cases it’s a financial necessity, given how child-care costs have well outpaced inflation. Demonized for juggling careers and children in the 1980s and ‘90s, these women are eager to offer the help they never got. 🔗: https://on.wsj.com/3Uvuv2r