The rise and fall of Allbirds: The sneaker company, once valued at $4 billion, just sold for $39 million

Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger cofounded Allbirds in 2015 as a sustainable-footwear company

According to its initial filing with the SEC, Allbirds' mission was to "make better things in a better way, through nature."

Zwillinger previously worked as a vice president of industrial products at a biotechnology company

Brown's background included serving as the vice-captain of New Zealand's soccer team.

Allbirds roared to life in 2016 with a Kickstarter campaign that hit its $30,000 goal in five days.

The company raised nearly $120,000 to make a wool running shoe designed to make a lighter environmental impact than traditional athletic shoes.

In 2016, Allbirds received B Corp certification, a designation given to companies that work to advance environmental and social causes, and shareholder concerns.

For Allbirds, the designation codified, "how we take into account the impact our actions have on all of our stakeholders, including the environment, our flock of employees, communities, consumers, and investors."

In only its second year in business, Allbirds gained the title of world's most comfortable shoe.

Time magazine said Allbirds' hero product, the Wool Runner, was the "World's Most Comfortable Shoes."

By 2017, Allbirds, Warby Parker, and Casper were considered among the "DTC pioneers" shaking up their respective industries — sneakers, eyeglasses, and mattresses.

By 2018, direct-to-consumer business plans proliferated. In 2018, Inc. reported that more than 400 startups were trying to "become the next Warby Parker."

Allbirds sneakers became synonymous with Silicon Valley dressing

In August 2017, Allbirds got another shot of national publicity when The New York Times described Wool Runners as part of the Silicon Valley uniform.

A month later, Allbirds opened its first store,

The 1,450-square-foot store is located in New York City's Soho neighborhood. In 2022, the company operated 58 stores.

By 2020, Allbirds' popularity had spread well beyond Silicon Valley. President Barack Obama was repeatedly spotted wearing Wool Runners.

But the shoe started to fall out of favor with the trendsetters and the press, with GQ even lamenting the sight of Obama wearing them. "Can't someone send him a pair of Jordans?" the magazine wrote.

Allbirds launched the Dasher in 2020.

With the success of Wool Runners waning, Allbirds launched its first performance-running shoe, called the Dasher, in May 2020. Gear Patrol called it "shockingly good."

Also in 2020, Allbirds partnered with Adidas to make a low-carbon shoe, another sign of the company's willingness to disrupt industry norms.

Large footwear brands are typically reluctant to partner with one another. The shoe, called the Adizero x Allbirds 2.94 kg CO2e, had the lowest carbon footprint of any Adidas or Allbirds sneaker.

In August 2021, ahead of a public offering, Allbirds disclosed growing annual sales and mounting losses.

Sales increased from $193.7 million in 2019 to $219.3 million in 2020, but losses also increased, growing from $14.5 million in 2019 to $25.9 million in 2020.

Allbirds went public in 2021.

A little more than 2,100 days after it launched its Kickstarter campaign, Allbirds went public on November 3, 2021. Shares soared 90% on the opening day of trading, a sign of Wall Street's bullish outlook for the company.

Allbirds dropped claims about being the first "sustainable" IPO.

After the Securities and Exchange Commission objected, Allbirds dropped claims about being the first "sustainable" IPO, the Financial Times reported in November 2021.

Allbirds launched wholesale in 2022.

Although it was launched as a direct-to-consumer company, in May 2022, Allbirds announced its first wholesale partners, Zalando and Public Lands, then Nordstrom — a signal that DTC sales would not be enough to get the company to profitability.

As Allbirds added wholesale partners, the backlash began to build against DTC companies.

"It's the de-DTC era," said Simeon Siegel, the managing director for equity research at BMO Capital Markets. Analysts including Siegel said the benefits of direct sales were often overstated.

As DTC companies started to fall out of favor and investors started to pay more attention to profitability, Allbirds' stock started to drop.

Allbirds shares, which hit $28.64 on the company's first day of trading, had fallen to under $5 fewer than eight months later. Stock pickers said the company needed to expand beyond Wool Runners.

In 2022, Allbirds officially lost its novelty in Silicon Valley wardrobes.

Roughly five years after The New York Times christened Wool Runners part of the Silicon Valley uniform, The Wall Street Journal in December 2022 said that "tech bros" had moved on.

In March 2023, Allbirds' shares plummeted 47% after a disastrous earnings report that included a $101 million annual loss.

On a call with stock analysts, executives announced a sweeping four-part reorganization, including slowing the pace of store openings, adding more wholesale partners, and working to "reignite product and brand." Co-CEO Joey Zwillinger also said some of the company's marketing veered too far from what Allbirds consumers wanted, including marketing for the Tree Flyers, above, which focused on its technical-performance attributes.

Allbirds began to rethink its big bet on DTC.

As part of the reorganization plan, Zwillinger said the company was considering adding more wholesale partners. By then, the company's wholesale partners included Nordstrom, REI, Scheels, and Dick's.

In 2022, while still based in San Francisco, Allbirds quietly opened an office in Portland, Oregon, to take advantage of the city's talented-footwear workforce.

Nike is based in a Portland suburb, and Adidas has its North American headquarters in the city.

Allbirds hired several Nike and Adidas veterans to run the office, including Ashley Comeaux, who spent more than 10 years at Nike before becoming Allbirds' vice president of product design.

In early 2023, Allbirds released a string of products designed and developed by Comeaux and her team.

Risers and Pacers got strong reviews from Business Insider. Although the new products were well received, shares of the company traded below the $15 IPO price, trading for $1.23.

In March 2023, Allbirds announced disappointing earnings, and Zwillinger told analysts that the company had lost focus on its core.

Since then, the company has focused on its best-sellers, the Wool Runner and Tree Dasher, while it discontinued underperforming products, like much of its apparel, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In June 2023, the company released what it said was the world's first carbon-negative shoe, which it calls the M0.0NSHOT.

In May 2023, Allbirds announced a leadership shake-up.

Brown said he would step into the role of chief innovation officer, leaving fellow cofounder Joey Zwillinger as the sole CEO.

The company also laid off 21 employees globally in May 2023, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shoe company generally had a disappointing start to 2023. The company reported a 13% decline in year-over-year revenue in the first quarter.

'As we've tried to expand and grow the brand, we created products that haven't quite met the mark,' Brown told The Wall Street Journal.

In a July 2023 article, Brown and Zwillinger told The Wall Street Journal that their attempts to appeal to customers younger than its 30- to 40-year-old base didn't go over well. The Tree Flyer was one of those attempts that missed the mark.

The company reported second-quarter earnings were above expectations. Sales fell 10% compared to a projected 18%.

"We laid out a road map for our strategic transformation back in March, and now two quarters into our work, we have gained traction and are solidly on track to drive toward profitability expectations," Zwillinger said in an August 2023 earnings call.

In November, Allbirds released an updated version of its first Wool Runner.

The Wool Runner 2 has been updated with a new version of its SweetFoam midsole and improved durability.

Full-year earnings for 2023 were dismal indeed, with sales down 14.7% and a net loss of $152.5 million for the year.

The company also promoted Joe Vernachio from COO to CEO, with Zwillinger stepping down to serve as a special advisor and remaining on the board of directors.

The company continued to struggle with declining sales.

Allbirds lost more than $20 million in the quarter ending September 30, according to its most recent earnings report. The company noted "substantial doubt" about its future in that filing and said it could "engage in strategic transactions."

From March 2025 to March 2026, shares slid more than 50%.

In January, the company said it would close its remaining full-price stores in the US by the end of February, leaving it with two discount stores in the US and two full-price stores in London. The US made up the bulk of its revenue.

Allbirds said in March 2026 that American Exchange Group would buy it for $39 million.

Allbirds said in a statement on Monday, March 30, that American Exchange Group, a New York-based fashion and consumer company, would acquire it for $39 million.

The company added in the statement that the sale would close in the second quarter. The distribution of the net proceeds of the sale to stockholders would be made in the third quarter, it said.

Allbirds' stock has fallen about 50% in the past year. However, it rose about 24% in after-hours trading on Monday after the sale was announced, to $3.70 per share.

Matthew Kish, Ben Tobin, and Jennifer Ortakales-Dawkins contributed to earlier versions of this article.