How Do Wool Sports Shoes Allbirds Sweep The Technology Circles And Fashion Circles?

Four years ago, Allbirds launched a crowd raising campaign for the design of the minimalist wool sports shoes at a price of 98 US dollars. 970 supporters were sold in five days, and 1064 shoes were sold out, which raised 119 thousand US dollars, far exceeding the expected $30 thousand.

At that time, its name was 3/7, meaning "three days a week for 7 days".

At that time, several distinctive features of shoes were listed on the crowd raising website.

2., it can absorb sweat and fight pollution, and raw materials are renewable resources.

3. suitable for running, jogging, walking and other sports.

4. machine washable, wash directly into the washing machine, wash out the same effect as new.

Four years later, the company, officially named "Allbirds", acquired a total of more than $77 million after acquiring $50 million C round of financing.

Related reports, Allbird valuation of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, while the Wall Street journal believes that its valuation of about 1 billion 400 million U.S. dollars.

At present, Allbirds has three original raw materials for making shoes: New Zealand Merino wool, Eucalyptus fiber and sugar cane extract EVA.

Among them, the New Zealand Merino wool sports shoes, launched in March 1, 2016, are the main products and sold 1 million pairs in two years.

Its upper is made of merino wool and its sole is

The polyurethane insole with rubber foam bottom is more environmentally friendly than the traditional rubber foam bottom, and the shoelace is made of recycled plastic bottles.

Making shoes with wool is also a crazy idea of Tim Brown in New Zealand for a long time.

Tim Brown, a member of the New Zealand national football team, took part in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

New Zealand, who lives in more sheep than men, went to school in his family's knitted sweater and grew up listening to the story of Peter Blake, who lost his fortune in a sweater on the sea but fortunately returned to.

Like all new Zealanders, sheep and wool are part of Brown's daily life.

"Wool has natural, antibacterial and deodorant properties. I wonder why no one ever used shoes to make vamp before," Brown wondered.

He found that there were no renewable environmental protection materials in the field of sports shoes.

And wool is renewable and biodegradable. It is a natural environmental protection material, which will bring a great change to the sports shoes industry.

At a new risk inquiry class at Northwestern University's Kellogg business school, Brown mentioned her idea to Carter, a teacher and a venture capitalist, at Carter Kast Cast.

In Custer's view, it is really fantastic.

But Brown received financial support from the New Zealand wool industry association and began experimenting. After trying many kinds of wool, he chose the 1/10, which is 12.5 microns in diameter and only one hair, so fine, from the wool of Merino.

Merino wool is very light, but easy to pilling and felting. It is not easy to make durable shoes.

Brown is finding partners.

After the scientist Joy Zwillinger (Joey Zwillinger), the two hands together to make the germination test finally realized, has become the embryonic form of Allbirds.

According to Forbes, when it was launched in 2014, it almost touched the nerves of pop culture. Now it has become one of the most popular lifestyle brands in the United States.

It is named "the most comfortable shoes in the world" by time magazine.

Hollywood actor Gail Kim (Gayle King) gave it to his good friend Oprah as a birthday present, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jasinda Ardern (Jacinda Ardern) also gave it to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Malcolm Turnbull) and his wife.

In fact, reviewing the process is not smooth.

They also encountered investors who did not approve of this model.

For many people, sports shoes are a mature industry with many competitors. It is not an ideal track.

Despite their recognition of the prospect of the market, sales of American sports shoes have risen continuously in recent years, according to The NPD Group survey, which reached a total of $19 billion 600 million in 2017.

However, the financing reaction on the public website and the brand new material for the sports shoes made some investors of Silicon Valley voted in favor.

As a result, Allbirds got $2 million 200 thousand in seed financing, and they were able to start producing 10 thousand pairs of shoes to test the water.

Later, he received $7 million 250 thousand in A round of financing and $17 million 500 thousand in B round of financing, opening stores in San Francisco and New York, and opening up markets in Canada and Australia outside the United States and New Zealand.

It first became popular because of its simplicity and comfort and the convenience of cleaning, which led to the trend culture of Silicon Valley.

In March 1, 2016, after the brand name "Wool Runners" wool sports shoes were put into the market, the first fans of Allbirds were Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Their comfortable feet and minimalist design were in line with their aesthetic appreciation, attracting many fans including Google founder Larry page.

In July 10, 2016, Brett Jackson Jackson, an investor at v1.vc, a Silicon Valley venture capital company, said on social media that she had just finished her 10 day trip to Spain, and she only took Allbirds with her 270 thousand steps to wear it.

In August 15th, Kyle Russo, an investment partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley venture capital agency, said that since wearing Allbirds, she had only worn two times through other shoes. (Kyle Russell)

Henry McNamara McNamara of another venture capital company, GreatOaks, said Amway had the highest praise of Allbirds among its friends and relatives in various items of Amway.

Another Steven Sinofsky, a practitioner of the wind industry, has become a follower of this trend. She said she bought a pair of Allbirds, "just want to integrate into the environment".

It also appeared in the HBO American drama Silicon Valley.

This has made Allbirds a success. Tim once said that the first year sales of sports shoes were 5 times higher than expected.

At the same time, the endorsement of these entrepreneurs in social media has triggered the spread of Allbirds in social media.

Co-founder Joey once made an investigation. He found that the environmental health of wool sports shoes will not be a factor affecting consumers' purchase. But the brand concept of environmental protection can stimulate young people to spread products on social networking sites with a proud mentality.

Allbirds also attaches great importance to its social media network. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are all "positions". Comic style pictures have spontaneously formed a trend in emphasizing the interest of brands.

This year, Allbirds has more than two investors, namely NBA star Andre Iguodala and Hollywood movie star Leonardo.

Moreover, with the rapid development of communications and convenient online shopping, this trend has spread to the whole world rapidly.

Although there are no online and offline shops in China, some of the opinion leaders who are committed to mining global trends have launched many live broadcast campaigns.

Some people also share the experience of washing shoes in Xiao Hong's book: "after washing, they are basically restored to just bought white, but there will be some wrinkles."

But it doesn't matter. When it's dry, put the shoe stays in it, and wait until the natural air is dry.

No pilling! No deformation! (shoe support is very important) simple and easy to operate! No more dirty! "

Allbirds, the first shop opened in San Francisco in May 2017, has also received many tourists. They deliberately bought a pair of net red shoes before returning.

Although in the same year, YAHOO Finance reported that this Silicon Valley's favorite sneakers had "wear and tear problems"; some buyers complained that the shoes would soon fall apart and that it was not worth 95 dollars at all.

But as the first brand to use wool material to make sports shoes, it caused a trend of wool sports shoes.

In the winter of 2017, Austria shoe brand Giesswein introduced wool running shoes; Italy luxury brand Zegna also introduced wool sports shoes at a price of 525 dollars.

Nike has added wool ingredients to some of the styles of Air Max and Air Jordan sneakers, and has launched the wool sports shoes products with the clothing company Pendleton. CONVERSE has launched the wool version of canvas shoes jointly with the clothing brand Woolrich, and Adidas has added wool materials in the sports shoes Ultra Ultra Boost.

In 2018, there was also a woolen shoe company called "Neeman's" in India, which was drawn from Australian Merino wool, and the same as Allbirds.

It has three shoe models: jogging shoes, board shoes and Lok shoes, and the price is 8000 lira (about 109 US dollars). At present, the official website 10 percent off is sold for about 98 dollars.

The popularity and application of merino wool on sports shoes increased its price by supply and demand. In 2017, the price of merino wool rose to $14 per kilogram (about 94 yuan), up 56% from 2016.

In 2018, it continued to rise. In January, it exceeded 100 yuan, an increase of 30% over 2017.

Will Cox, chairman of the international woolen Organization Information Committee and famous woolen economic expert, said that, in the past 26 years, it has never seen such a strong demand to meet such low output and supply, which has created the current high price. "All models of merino wool are currently benefiting from the current super cycle, the price is close to the highest level of history, and it is an important factor in the current Merino super cycle at both ends of supply and demand."

The price is $95 / double, with the famous brand sports shoes such as Nike and Adidas in the same price range in the United States.

It is regarded as a competitor of Nike and Adidas by the outside world, and will give the industry "catfish effect", but the two founders have different views on this.

"In the United States, the value of the footwear market reaches US $80 billion, and the average American buys 8 pairs of shoes per person per year, but the trend of footwear industry is changing faster, and we need to make more adjustments.

The company has a new direction. We will regard ourselves as material innovators. "

Joey said.

"Our goal is not just a wool sports shoe company," Brown said. "Our goal is to constantly explore new materials and design the most sustainable and environmentally friendly shoes in the world through innovative technology."

Although in 2017, Allbirds increased the category of children's shoes and expanded the target customers, the founders of the two companies agreed that they would not make too much innovation in the style of shoes, but would focus on the development of shoemaking materials.

In 2018, Allbirds released two new innovative materials and shoes made from them.

First of all, in March, the "Eucalyptus fiber" was introduced. It copied the two styles of running shoes and casual shoes of wool shoes, the same price was $95. Then in August, Allbirds made the carbon reduction EVA material extracted from sugarcane instead of EVA made from petro chemicals in the traditional process, making the world's first green carbon negative slippers, priced at $35.

On the day of listing, there are popular colors for sale.

Joey said that the new patent, called "SWEETFOAM", is expected to be more widely used in adhesives, automobiles and accessories, and solar panels. "Adding sugar cane adhesives to solar panels to achieve a green cycle is really special."

Allbirds is the main body of health and environmental protection. It is a joint venture that has been approved by B Corp and aims at realizing public interests. It attaches importance to environmental protection. The Merino wool used by them has ZQ certification, which is in line with agricultural sustainable development and animal welfare standard. Shoebox is made from recycled cardboard, and the volume is very small, which reduces 40% of materials and is more environmental protection than traditional.

Allbirds also works with sole 4 Souls, a non-profit organization. The latter launched an international charity campaign to donate old shoes to donate little wool sports shoes to those who need help.

This series of environmental concepts attracted Allbirds to Hollywood's "investor" Leonardo.

"Allbirds is at the forefront of developing new materials. These new materials will serve as an example for the footwear industry.

This innovation is crucial to creating a more sustainable future, "said the United Nations peace ambassador, who was concerned about climate change and donated money to 100 wildlife organizations, an environmentalist.

Previously, he invested in the jewelry brand Vrai&Oro, vegetarian vegetarian meat substitutes are the main environmental protection and sustainable development.

There is no doubt that Leonardo's accession will enhance the recognition of Allbirds brand in the world with its popularity.

In September this year, the Allbirds of second stores in the United States opened in the SOHO tidal zone of New York.

And ambitious.

In July this year, the brand appointed Eric Haas, Kell, executive director of the Asia Pacific region, the US sportswear brand Andrew, as the president of international business, and is preparing to expand the British market.

The Asian market is its 2019 plan.