No longer the Silicon Valley uniform darling, Allbirds has had the roughest post IPO performance of any brand. The company has all the tools to turn the ship around but appears to be mired in an unwillingness to venture outside of their norms. The company is ridiculously vanilla and non-threatening. A company unwilling to challenge is a company lying down to be trampled. It is unfortunate. The company has a few winners in their closet but one look at their IG and there is not anything exciting or enticing to drive a need to be affiliated. Two down quarters into 2024 will see the brand in a position where they might not be able to pay their bills to manufacturers and suppliers. This could lead to layoffs.
The only thing which will prevent a potential bankruptcy is a buyout. The company worked with adidas a year ago. The result was not particularly good (pairs were sold on eBay for a fraction of SRP), but adidas is working on a lot of sustainability strategies and Allbirds does have a reputation as a more thoughtful brand.
All of this is negative. I’m going out on a major limb and saying Allbirds will figure some things out.
