Source: Sustainable Running Shoes | Athletic & Performance Footwear | Allbirds
The analysts in the footwear industry have been touting the trend of athleisure and the decline of performance footwear for years. I’ve been pushing back with the comment that categorization for footwear no longer holds as a correct means of segmenting the sportswear category. Twenty years ago it made sense to place shoes for sports in different categories. Today it doesn’t make any sense at all because every shoe is designed to perform. The tech may be different, but when compared to sneakers from 30 years ago, all footwear has elements of comfort and performance built in. The categories are all blended, although sports specific footwear still exists; almost any shoe can be worn casually. More important, almost all footwear is inspired by sport.
Allbirds announced their new running shoes and the result is articles are popping up stating that the shoe is a debut. The problem is articles on sites like Runner’s World are writing, “RW Takeaway: For a debut model by a company that doesn’t play in the athletic footwear space, we’re genuinely surprised by how this running shoe performs.” The reality is when Allbirds first launched they considered themselves a performance running company. I’ve explained this on countless occasions because I operated a performance running shoe company and it had the poor misfortune of launching a Kickstarter on the same day as Allbirds, which wasn’t always known as Allbirds.
Insider Ties Ep. 123: Why is Allbirds Worth 1 Billion Dollars?
In the post above I explained why Allbirds won and I stumbled. There is a video in this link as well.
What isn’t in this list is a discussion I recently had on performance model launched by Vans. In that post I talked about Three Over Seven/Allbirds again and I stated, “Vans is a shoe that is not in the performance category. If it was, the growth the company has seen in the last two years would deliver a report that performance is growing in certain categories, right? Of course it would; which leads me back to the original point I made a few years back as a counter discussion”:
Vans Understands What Analysts Don’t, Performance Informs Fashion | Built ROWLEY Strong
Performance in the long term becomes fashion and that fashion remains functional although analysts place the shoes into the lifestyle category after new advancements are created.
Allbirds had to add a demographic. I finished my new book recently and in it and I explained that Allbirds only had 5 shoe styles. Those shoes are popular among a certain demographic and while the company is performing admirably, for it to compete longterm, they would have to add new demographics and that can only happen through performance.
The introduction of the Tree Dasher is a reset of the original shoe launched by the brand that takes their Roshe inspired sustainable design and adds performance cues in an outsole that looks a lot more stable and athletically inspired. The upper captures every quality required to reach the consumer, eco-friendly Eucalyptus fiber knit and Sugarcane based outsole tech with wider base at the heel and an obvious nod to Nike’s Vapor shoe shape.
Check out this video of the Allbirds Tree Dasher and use the link at the lead. I think it’s interesting how they have taken their ‘nothing’ and made ‘something’ when they began in this space in the first place. Nice tweak and a very cool shoe. I can’t hate.
