Use Allbirds ReRun™ to buy slightly used Allbirds shoes. By shopping ReRun™ can help extend the life of shoes while lowering your impact on the environment.
Source: Shop Pre Owned Shoes with Allbirds ReRun™
In 2017, during an Investor’s Day named the ‘Scale of Sport’ Nike laid out its plan of action. Since that event the company has risen to new heights. Allbirds doesn’t have a cool branding name for their business strategy, but they should. Nike named their plan Consumer Direct Offense to highlight their Nike Direct approach to reaching the consumer. Allbirds is working in reverse and attempting to offset the stagnation created by remaining a digitally native brand solely. In the last year, they’ve added wholesale (Nike has contracted). Allbirds has added their own new doors (Nike is doing this also). Allbirds created ReRun in a partnership with Trove (Nike created Refurbished). Allbirds finally introduced a non-fiber, wool upper sneaker in the innovative Pacer (Nike created a warehouse). While a comparison to Nike is a stretch, I think it provides some guidance as to Allbirds’ work to right their momentum. After a year where they had to do layoffs, these corrections are emblematic of a company being shaped by their responsibility to shareholders and that’s a good thing.
The Underlying Importance of REI and Wholesale Accounts
Allbirds has a serious issue with the grey market which thoroughly undercuts the foundation of the business. Remaining a DTC brand solely for so long led to closeout issues and discounted product finding its way into the third-party marketplace. While ReRun looks fairly pedestrian, it is an initial step in regaining control over old SKUs and discounted products. I’ve researched this on several occasions, but today I took about ten minutes to click through active listings on eBay. I stopped clicking on page 115. There are 50 entries on each page. The total active listings on eBay are 5,750 so far. There is “distribution of listings” option available for research and it places the total active number at 12,690. While this could be considered insignificant since all brands end up on eBay, and even a brand like Nike is being forced to hold promotional events with up to 60% off, Allbirds can’t continue to allow this filter of products into the grey market, especially at an average listing price of $48.59. A yearlong search on SOLD listings presents this:
Allbirds decision to open wholesale accounts should staunch this funnel of inventory at bargain brand pricing. Wholesale accounts will provide a buffer and an introduction to new potential customers. Full price sell-through is more likely and when promo creates reduced prices at wholesale, even if products reach the third-party marketplace, listings will be comparable to the Trove x ReRun relationship. While most posts on the expansion into REI highlights the potential of this partnership, it’s important to find an underlying problem to explain why Allbirds needs to expand wholesale. The simple, “Reaching more consumers,” angle fails to acknowledge how clearance pricing on almost a million dollars in sales in the grey market can shape the retail strategy of the company. The Allbirds Action Initiative sounds like a good name for this strategy, because from where I sit, the brand is finally entering the part of the movie where the hero puts together the tools needed to fight the battle. Now the action begins.
Note: the performance running sneaker Tree Flyer accounted for 24% of net revenue. 18.7 million. eBay research shows that in the last year only 45 of those sneakers old at $3,884 for an average of $86.32 a pair. This is the safe spot for Allbirds and gives the brand the information needed to make serious corrections.