Assertion Supported
Allbirds Co-Founder: Amazon Profits Off Knockoffs Targeting Allbirds Search Terms
“If you look at how Amazon does, even when you're not selling on their channel, enough people have typed in all birds on amazon.com such that there is a lot of knockoffs and other, perhaps you would call it similar looking products. That are now sold through Am…”
Prediction Held up
Joey Zwillinger: Allbirds will refocus on its core active lifestyle category
“And so that is the core of where we started the brand. And that's where we're going to bring everything back to with a really sharp clarity for the consumer. And the potential when we do that is going to be pretty significant. So I think in, in, in part, you'r…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Zwillinger: Allbirds will consider going private if market valuation gap persists
“If along that journey the public markets don't see the value that we're creating, and there's a big gap between the value that we are creating and what the enterprise value is of the company, then I think it's prudent to consider all options. And we have a boa…”
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Zwillinger: Allbirds will be cash flow and EBITDA profitable in 2025
“What we've said to the market, we've got to be pretty consistent with that on your podcast as well. Is, is that will be cashflow and EBITDA profitable in 20, 25.”
Insight
Zwillinger: Remote Work Is Impossible for Physical Product Companies
“The conception of what productivity means is far too narrow. And particularly in an industry like mine, where Creativity and physical products are central to what we do that not being together is is impossible.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zwillinger: Almost 100% of new shoe brand discovery happens in physical stores
“For the 83% and for any of the discovery, almost a hundred percent of the discovery of new brands, you really want to go try things on people.”
Opinion
Zwillinger: Nike selling on Amazon is a canary in the coal mine for footwear brands
“I think Nike just announced that they're going to start to sell on Amazon as well, which I think is quite a bellwether for the industry and a bit of a, if you want to use the other analogy, a canary in the coal mine for what is to come.”
Insight
Zwillinger: Physical consumer brands cannot rely on minimum viable product strategy
“I just think it's a little less extreme than with a web product and the way that, that Reed might say, put your minimum viable product out there, get feedback and build it with a consumer product and a brand. Particularly one, you know, if you look at the grow…”
Opinion
Zwillinger: Stock market moves are largely driven by trading algorithms
“A large part of it is just algorithms.”
Assertion Supported
Zwillinger: Less than 15% of Americans know Allbirds exists
“We still have less than 15% aided brand awareness, meaning only 15% of the US population knows that all birds exist.”
Opinion
Zwillinger: Allbirds is a product company first, not tech or fashion
“We are a product company first and foremost, and we need to tell amazing stories around those products. That, that is what we are. And we happen to exist In a category where style and fashion is incredibly important. That, that is how I think about the company…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zwillinger: Allbirds leads multi-billion-dollar competitors in tech infrastructure
“Something that we have in spades relative to our competition, no matter what their size, even if they're many, many billion dollars in size, we have we are leading in terms of the infrastructure and the tech enablement that we've been able to bring into the bu…”
Disclosure
Zwillinger: Allbirds was not structured to capitalize on pandemic demand
“And I think we were in the unfortunate position of not being structured in a way that, that could capitalize exactly on the dramatic change that had happened in that world.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Joey Zwillinger predicts drop in consumer spending over next six months
“The consumer is in a more delicate and fragile situation than people understand and that it's going to be more difficult and there's going to be less spending than people think in the coming six months.”
Insight
Zwillinger: Big Brands Cannot Effectively Market Sustainable Material Innovations B2B
“When you're trying to sell from a business to business perspective, even if it's a great product, it's a good price. And it has this overwhelmingly positive message around sustainability. The big brands just don't understand how to take that and market it effe…”
Insight
Zwillinger: Incumbent brands couldn't effectively position green technology products
“And so it was a Sisyphean exercise for me where I realized that while the technology existed, the consumers wanted it. It was, there's no compromise offering was there for the taking and brands could not position it correctly.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Zwillinger: Quiet luxury trend will be a tailwind for Allbirds
“And I think if you think about what's happened from over the last couple of years with this, like maximal build in the trends of how shoe companies have been coming to the consumer marketplace and the fact that now quiet luxury is really coming back and people…”
Insight
Zwillinger: Domain expertise should be a reference book, not a playbook
“I often talk about with our leaders that what they bring in, Is deeply needed and deeply respected, but we need to think about it as a reference book, not a playbook.”
Insight
Zwillinger: Business cycles do not align with public quarterly reporting
“Businesses don't happen on quarterly cycles, but financial reporting and public markets do.”
Insight
Joey Zwillinger: Direct-to-consumer is a distribution channel, not a brand identity
“DTC is a way to do business. There's been great retailers who started this in our industry. If you broaden it beyond footwear into apparel, like the gap in the nineties and Lululemon has done a really wonderful job of being a great DTC company. But they're a p…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Joey Zwillinger: Allbirds' wholesale expansion will drive consumer awareness and adoption
“As we brought in now into the wholesale marketplace in the U S and eventually in, in the international geos that we serve, we're going to grow awareness. We're going to reach a lot more consumers and They're going to fall in love just like the early, early gro…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zwillinger denies ever asking Allbirds investors to sell their shares
“We've, I've never told someone to sell or not sell.”
Insight
Zwillinger: An acquisition offer isn't real until paper is in front of you
“If an acquisition offer is a real acquisition offer until the piece of paper is in front of you and you have the opportunity to sign it.”
Disclosure
Zwillinger: Multiple footwear and apparel companies asked to acquire Allbirds
“We've had a number of companies in the footwear space and the kind of ecosystem of apparel and footwear more broadly come to us and ask us if we were interested in selling.”
