| Allbirds, Inc. | |
| Type: | Public company |
| Industry: | Footwear |
| Location: | San Francisco, California, US |
| Num Locations: | 60 (2023) |
| Num Employees: | 927 (2023) |
| Assets: | (2023) |
| Equity: | (2023) |
| Footnotes: | [1] |
Allbirds, Inc. is a New Zealand and American public benefit company that sells footwear and apparel, co-founded in 2014 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It mostly uses a direct-to-consumer model in conjunction with distribution via select additional stores in addition to select Nordstrom and Dick's Sporting Goods locations.
Allbirds was founded as part of a suite of corporations funded via Kickstarter such as Warby Parker, and has based its corporate identity heavily on its sustainability. Since the 2020s, the company has faced criticism by legal scholars for "greenwashing" after it brought Dwyer v. Allbirds, Inc., a case accusing the company of misleading carbon offsets, to a motion to dismiss. Allbirds went public on November 3, 2021, but began to suffer from poor sales soon after, leading to a reworking of the company's C-suite from 2022 to 2024. On April 8, 2024, the company received a non-compliance notice from the Nasdaq for performing below $1 for over 30 days straight.
In the cultural sphere, the company's shoes are best known for their minimalist designs; association with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles; and Silicon Valley. During the mid-to-late 2010s, the company became a fad among tech workers in major American cities and was worn by individuals such as Barack Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Tim Brown, co-founder of Allbirds, developed the idea while serving as vice captain of the New Zealand national football team.[2] He had previously made leather shoes for friends while attending business school, but found them uncomfortable.[3] In 2014, he received a research grant from the New Zealand wool industry to engineer a sneaker.[4] The grant came during a period of reduced demand for Merino wool due to the rise of recycled polypropylene and a lack of unified industry representation.[5] Brown then launched his idea on Kickstarter, raising in five days.[6] [7] After launching on Kickstarter, Brown teamed up with Joey Zwillinger, a biotech engineer and renewable materials expert who previously sold algae fuel.[8] They officially launched Allbirds in March 2016.[9] The name "Allbirds" references New Zealand's lack of native land mammals, making it a land of "all birds."[10]
The company launched with one product, the Wool Runners casual sneakers.[11] During their first year in business, the company raised US$7.25 million from investors including Maveron, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and other firms.[12] [13] Bloomberg's Jordyn Holman and Matthew Townsend credit articles in well-known publications like Time and The New York Times with granting the company early publicity.[14] By the end of 2017, Allbirds had expanded across the United States and into South Korea and Australia.[15] In October 2018, the company raised US$50 million in Series C funding, bringing its total valuation to .[16] The company also expanded into other footwear, including running shoes and flip flops, as well as athleisure in collaboration with Outdoor Voices and Nordstrom.[17] Further collaborations were coordinated with Adidas and independent designers like Nicole McLaughlin through to 2021.[18] [19]
The company began to offer its shoes to brick and mortar stores in the United States in 2017.[20] The company opened its first store in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2018, in London's Covent Garden.[21] Additionally, it secured in funding from Bubble Group during a seed round. Some of the funders include SignalFire Telemetry, BoxGroup, and Nas.[22]
By 2020, the company raised US$100 million in Series E funding, and had 21 retail stores globally.[23] Prior to its initial public offering in 2021, the company raised over US$200 million.[24] Forbes contributor David Trainer believed the company was overvalued at US$2 billion, instead suggesting US$119 million due to market competition and difficulties in business scaling.[25]
Allbirds went public on the Nasdaq on November 3, 2021, under the ticker symbol BIRD at a price between US$12–$14.[26] That same year, the company dropped a line claiming to be "the first 'sustainable' IPO" from its listing due to pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[27] A month before its IPO, the company reduced references to "sustainability principles and objectives" by half.[28] The year prior, the company was at a loss of US$25.9 million on a US$219 million revenue, which Zwillinger claimed was in pursuit of a sustainable business model.[29] In this time, the company was leaning further into its brand as sustainable by collaborating with Adidas to create a sneaker "that promises to have almost no carbon footprint" and by focusing on environmental impact in its ads.
By 2022, the company began to decline in annual sales according to a GlobalData consumer panel as the brand became seen as part of a style of 2010s Silicon Valley attire and its shoes' lack of durability became better known.[30] [31] Other brands, such as Atoms and Veja, were claimed to be taking some of Allbirds' market share as early as 2020 in a Wall Street Journal article by Jacob Gallagher.[32] The 2022 release of the Tree Flyer marked the end of a period of experimentation with the company's offerings, including leggings, jackets, and dresses, which were unpopular with its customer-base. The Financial Times
Complaints about the shoes' lack of durability also increased, and a division between the company's co-CEOs over consumer audience visions emerged. Brown believed that younger customers would drive sales, which conflicted with Zwillinger, leading to Zwillinger being named sole CEO, putting Brown as chief innovation officer. The company thereafter returned to a primary focus on sustainable shoes.[34] [35] To recover from the loss in sales and investor confidence, the company also began to sell their products at brick and mortar Nordstrom and Dick's Sporting Goods stores between April and June 2022.[36]
By the fourth quarter of 2023, Allbirds disclosed a quarter net revenue decrease of 14.5%.[37] The group of companies that Allbirds went public with, including Casper Sleep and Warby Parker, was noted by Bloomberg News
On March 12, 2024, Zwillinger was replaced by prior Allbirds chief operating officer Joe Vernachio as CEO.[39] [40] Vernachio outlined plans to focus on already-successful products rather than experimenting with new ones, and that the company would rely on its retail partners.[41] Zwillinger remained as a member of the board of directors. Earlier in the year, the company promoted Kelly Olmstead to chief marketing officer and recruited Adrian Nyman as chief design officer.[42] [43] Chief financial officer Mike Bufano stepped down on March 9, 2023, being succeeded by Annie Mitchell after April 24, 2023.[44] That same year on April 8, 2024, the company received a non-compliance notice from the Nasdaq for its share price being valued at $1 for 30 days straight.[45] The company began to downsize plans to open more physical stores in countries like Germany during this time.[46] [47]
Allbirds was the subject of a 2017 lawsuit, Dwyer v. Allbirds, Inc., accusing the company of misleading consumers about its sustainability practices. Namely, the plaintiff accused the company of not mentioning the carbon impact of its wool sourcing, which through Higg Material Sustainability Index only measures the impact of individual products rather than the supply chain.[48] The judge dismissed the case in 2022 on the grounds that the company adheres to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, and that depictions of happy sheep in advertising were puffery.[49] [50]
In December 2017, Allbirds sued Steve Madden, alleging that the company's Traveler shoes look nearly identical to its Wool Runners.[51] Similarly, in November 2019, Zwillinger accused Amazon's 206 Collective of producing a "look-alike" of the Wool Runners' design for nearly half the price.[52] Unlike the Steve Madden suit, the company did not bring Amazon to court, which Zwillinger called "risky," and referred to Amazon's large legal teams.[53] Later that week, Zwillinger and Brown wrote a Medium article inviting Amazon to use some of its materials, such as those made from sugarcane waste streams, to "jointly make a major dent in the fight against climate change."[54] The case with Amazon was cited as an example of the company's willingness to lose money in the name of sustainability by Sasha Rogelberg.
The company was sued by its shareholders in May 2023 amidst a decline in sales for moving from focusing on footwear to other products, which was revealed to have lower core consumer interest.[55] The plaintiffs alleged that this was misleading, leading investors to buy shares at artificially inflated prices, and was therefore securities fraud.[56] The case reached stipulation on May 28, 2024.
Allbirds claims to keep its products as eco-friendly as possible, using materials such as merino wool and eucalyptus, and is a certified B Corporation.[57] [58] [59] Other shoe components, such as the laces and insoles, are made from recycled plastic bottles, castor beans, plant starch, and wood pulp, and Tencel. In 2018, shoe manufacturing occurred in Shenzhen, China.[60]
In conversation with Ryan Gellert of Patagonia, Zwillinger stated that Allbirds made the trade association Footwear Distributor Retailers of America to adopt an carbon price.[61]
Compared to traditional athletic shoes, Allbirds use "SweetFoam" instead of rubber, which are a source of contention for the shoes athletic performance. Runner's World
According to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Allbirds initially gained popularity among tech industry professionals, particularly in Silicon Valley. The brand's minimalist, logo-free design and eco-friendly wool fabric resonated with the tech community, leading to popular adoption of Allbirds as a sort of unofficial uniform among American "tech bros." A New Yorker article by Rachel Syme further claimed that the shoes, "cannot really be categorized as ugly footwear, because the idea behind them is not proud unstylishness but technical perfection," linking it to a trend towards comfortwear in professional jobs, namely in technology, as well as a form of conspicuous consumption.[64] Similarly, New York Times critic Jon Caramanica criticized the shoes for being "studiously unstylish," drawing a connection between the shoes' utility and the occupations of their wearers.[65]
Other observers, such as Ian Servantes of Inverse, critiqued the shoes for gentrifying the sneaker market, historically associated with Black culture in the United States.[66] Servantes further argues that the shoes' appeal to Silicon Valley workers, characterized as affluent and White, lack authenticity.[67]
In 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gifted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull a pair of Allbirds sneakers during a state visit to Australia.[68] [69] After their announcement in 2018, actor Leonardo DiCaprio pledged investment in the company's Zeffers sandals.[70]
Former United States President Barack Obama was documented wearing the shoes by fashion magazines at numerous occasions. A 2019 article in Esquire made positive notice of him wearing a pair at a basketball game.[71] In 2020, an article in men's magazine GQ by Cam Wolf criticized his wearing them while recording a podcast as "Zoom Formal."[72]
Numerous observers have identified Allbirds as a sustainable brand.[73] Journalism professor Myles Ethan Lascity describes this framing as a discursive strategy that puts the company in a separate category of "anti-fashion," similar to Japanese casualwear brand Uniqlo. Uniqlo, Lascity argues, promotes itself as a technology brand rather than a clothing company, and in Allbirds' case, the company frames itself as a sustainability brand rather than a shoe company.[74]
Numerous legal analysts have criticized Allbirds in light of Dwyer v. Allbirds, Inc. for supposed "greenwashing," or presenting as environmentally-friendly for promotional purposes while failing to deliver on sustainable promises.[75] Writing for The University of Kentucky's Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law blog, Abigail Barford claims that while demands for corporate transparency have increased, few standards have been implemented at the governmental level. Barford specifically mentions that environmental, social, and governance guidelines are often used as marketing to secure IPO status, as she alleges Allbirds of doing during and after the Dwyer case.[76]
Ciara Peacock for West Virginia University College of Law writes about the case in a discussion of American courts' tendencies to grant corporate carbon offsets and credits a high bar to legal criticism, referencing how cases charging corporations with unrealistic usages of carbon offsets like Earth Island Institute v. Coca-Cola and Dwyer overwhelmingly end in motions to dismiss. In Dwyer, Peacock notes a lack of consistency for "where the carbon-neutral calculus ends on the supply chain," allowing corporations to establish and publicize their own environmental boundaries.[77] Fellow legal scholar Valerie J. Peterson labelled Allbirds' presentation of their life cycle assessment as lacking the wool manufacturing portion of the "cradle to grave" analysis.[78]
After securing independent reviews as a B Corporation, an ESG rating from Sustainalytics, and a Sustainability Principles and Objectives (SPO) Framework analysis from ISS ESG, Allbirds filed for S-1 registration with the SEC. Uniquely in IPO law, Allbirds was subject to SEC review for this, whereas other bonds used to fund environmentally safe projects do not have to. Alexander Coley analyzes this dynamic as both a weakness and a strength of the securities regulation industry, with Amanda Schwaben explicitly tying Allbirds' projection as a public benefit company as a means of gathering investment with dubious returns.[79] [80] Yet other management analysts cite Allbirds' B Corporation ranking as a positive example of the private sector's potential in place of weak legislation.[81]