Company type | Public |
---|---|
Nasdaq: BIRD (Class A) | |
Industry | Footwear |
Founded | 2016 |
Founders |
|
Headquarters | San Francisco, California, US |
Number of locations | 60 (2023) |
Revenue | US$254 million (2023) |
US$−118 million (2023) | |
US$−153 million (2023) | |
Total assets | US$312 million (2023) |
Total equity | US$185 million (2023) |
Number of employees | 927 (2023) |
Website | allbirds |
Footnotes /references [1] |
Allbirds, Inc. is a New Zealand and American company that sells footwear and apparel. Allbirds is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The footwear company 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 co-founder Tim Brown got the idea for the company while he was vice captain of the New Zealand football team. [2] He had previously attended business school and used to make leather shoes for friends, but was aware of how uncomfortable they were. [3] In 2014, he received a research grant from the New Zealand wool industry to engineer a sneaker. He then launched his idea on Kickstarter, raising US$119,000 in five days. [4] [5] After launching on Kickstarter, Brown teamed up with Joey Zwillinger, a biotech engineer and renewable materials expert. They began developing their process and officially launched Allbirds in March 2016. [6] [4] The name Allbirds is a reference to New Zealand having almost no native land mammals, being a land of "all birds". [7]
The company launched with one product, the Wool Runners casual sneakers. [8] During their first year in business, the company raised US$7.25 million from investors including Maveron, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and other firms. [9] [10] Bloomberg's Jordyn Holman and Matthew Townsend credit articles in well-known publications like Time and The New York Times in 2016 and 2017 respectively are credited with granting the company early publicity victories. [11]
The company received a B Corporation score of 81.9 in 2016, earning it certification. The company was re-evaluated in 2020 and received an 89.4. [12] [ better source needed ]
In December 2017, Allbirds sued Steve Madden, alleging that the company's Traveler shoes look nearly identical to its Wool Runners. [13] Similarly, in November 2019, Zwillinger accused Amazon of stealing the design of one of its shoes. [14]
As of 2017, the company had 50 employees in their headquarters in San Francisco, US; 40 employees at its warehouse in Nashville, US; and 350 contractors in a factory in South Korea. [3] In the end of 2017 the company launched in Australia. [15] In October 2018, the company raised US$50 million in Series C funding, bringing its total valuation to US$1.4 billion. [16] The company also expanded into other footwear, including running shoes and flip flops, which expanded into athleisure in collaboration with Outdoor Voices and Nordstrom. [17] [18] Continuing in May 2020, Allbirds announced a partnership with Adidas. [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 17 October 2018 in London's Covent Garden. [21] By 2020, the company raised US$100 million in Series E funding, and had 21 retail stores globally. [22]
Prior to its initial public offering, the company raised over US$200 million. [23] 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. [24]
The company went public on the Nasdaq on 3 November 2021 under the ticker symbol BIRD at a price between US$12-US$14. [25] 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. [26] A month before its IPO, the company reduced references to "sustainability principles and objectives" by half. [27] 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. [28] 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. [11]
By 2022, the company began to decline in annual sales according to a GlobalData consumer panel,[ citation needed ] as the brand became seen as part of a style of 2010s Silicon Valley attire and its shoes' lack of durability became better known. [29] 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. [30] 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. Complaints about the shoes' lack of durability 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. [31] [32] 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. [33]
Closing out in 2023, the IPO traded at 10% of its IPO price. [34] Chief financial officer Mike Bufano stepped down on 9 March 2023, being succeeded by Annie Mitchell after 24 April 2023. [35] The company began to downsize plans to open more physical stores during this time. [36] On 8 April 2024, the company received a non-compliance notice from the Nasdaq for its share price being valued at $1 for 30 days straight. [37]
On 12 March 2024, Zwillinger was replaced by prior Allbirds Chief Operating Officer Joe Vernachio as CEO. [38] [39] Earlier in the year, the company promoted Kelly Olmstead to chief marketing officer and recruited Adrian Nyman as chief design officer. [40] [41] In May 2024, Aileen Lerch, who had previously published spreadsheet data detailing the company's sustainability data, had promised further transparency and work through Carbonfact, as well as details on a new shoe called M0.0nshot. [42] [43]
According to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times , Allbirds initially gained some popularity among tech industry professionals, particularly in Silicon Valley. The brand's minimalist, logo-free design and eco-friendly wool fabric have resonated with the tech community, leading to widespread adoption of Allbirds as a sort of unofficial uniform among "tech bros." [3] [30] 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. [44] 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. [45]
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. [46] After their announcement in 2018, actor Leonardo DiCaprio pledged investment in the company's Zeffers sandals. [47] [21]
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. [48] In 2020, an article in men's magazine GQ by Cam Wolf criticized his wearing them while recording a podcast as "Zoom Formal." [49]
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. [50] The judge dismissed the case in 2022 on the grounds that the company adheres to the FTC's Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, and that depictions of happy sheep in advertising were puffery. [51]
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. [52] The plaintiffs alleged that this was misleading, leading investors to buy shares at artificially inflated prices, and was therefore securities fraud. [53] The case reached stipulation on 28 May 2024.
In December 2017, Allbirds sued Steve Madden, alleging that the company's Traveler shoes look nearly identical to its Wool Runners. [54] 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. [55] 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. [56] Later that week, Zwilinger 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." [57]
The company claims to keep its products as eco-friendly as possible, using materials such as merino wool and eucalyptus, and is a certified B Corporation. [58] [10] [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]
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