Allbirds Is Not Just A Burst Of "Wool Shoes" To Make "Comfortable Shoes" Ugly.

Since 2016, the first "exploding" wool shoes have been launched to the nearest valuation of US $1 billion 400 million. Over the past three years, we have recorded almost every milestone in this phenomenal brand growth, providing a fresh reference model for the new generation of brand entrepreneurs.

As a rare "unicorn" enterprise in fashion start-ups, Allbirds has a great aura, but the pressure may be even greater. Its challenges are more complex: new channels, new categories and new crowds. After the rapid rise of brands, how can we replicate past successes in more new markets? And let the brand go deep into the hearts of the people?

In April of this year, Allbirds opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai. Recently, Allbirds co founder and chief executive officer Joey Zwillinger came to China. "Gorgeous ambition" and his in-depth communication, from which we can not easily feel that Allbirds is exploring how to build up a higher competitive barrier by strengthening product strength, channel power and brand power.

　 To simplify and simplify, let "comfort shoes" no longer be synonymous with "ugly shoes".

In 2014, another co founder of Allbirds and the New Zealand Football Player Tim Brown launched a warm response to the project of raising wool shoes on the Kickstarter website. In just four days, the project won $120 thousand in start-up capital. After two years of research and development, when Allbirds formally launched Wool Runners wool casual sports shoes in March 2016, it immediately moved the Silicon Valley elite who had always been "insulated" with fashion. Not only by "Time magazine" as "the most comfortable shoes in the world", but also supported by a series of heavyweight investment institutions, Oscar Leonardo DiCaprio and former Starbucks CEO Schultz (Howard Schultz) and others, DiCaprio.

Kyle Russell, an investment partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a famous Vc firm in Vc firm, wrote on Twitter: "after receiving the shoes of Allbirds, I only go through two other shoes."

"In addition to attending weddings and funerals, only wear Allbirds, or barefoot." This is the rule set by Joey and Tim together.

"Many colleagues focus on the innovation of shoes and attract consumers with fancy designs. Our innovation is just the opposite. We need to get rid of all unnecessary things and simplify them. Joey is like introducing a pair of wool shoes.

According to the report of market research firm Euromonitor, the trend of consumer behavior owners in 2019, "Minimalism", "manual" and "return to basics" are the design concepts that young consumers admired. But the "minimalist design" also created convenience for counterfeiters. In the first year of the launch of wool shoes in 2016, Allbirds found fake goods on the market. Even on the website Kickstarter, there was even a project to imitate Allbirds wool shoes for crowd raising. Joey had to hire a company specially searching for infringement and counterfeiting and selling to assist MarkMonitor in this regard.

The best way to avoid being imitated is to improve your product strength. In the interview, Joey defined Allbirds as "design driven" company: "in traditional people's concept, comfortable shoes may be acquiescence to ugly shoes. What we have to do is to break this kind of thinking. " The new style of low class boat shoes, flat bottomed casual shoes and ballet shallow shoes launched in 2018 shows us the new attempt of Allbirds in designing fashion.

But if Allbirds relies on shoe design only, it will be difficult to get rid of traditional brands and enterprises in PK, and soon someone will say, "comfortable shoes have too many choices. Why should I buy wool shoes?"

　　 Focusing on new environmental protection materials, breaking the ceiling of wool shoes

"Tiny New Zealand Merino wool with a diameter of 17.5 microns", "Reda made in Italy famous wool mill", "can be thrown directly into the washing machine". With the excellent material and technology proven by the market, the Wool Runners casual sports shoes, which were first promoted by Allbirds, have created a brilliant record of 1 million pairs sold for two years, but the positioning of "wool shoes" will also become the ceiling of Allbirds, such as the characteristics, supply and design of products may be limited by the single material of wool.

So how do we break the ceiling of wool shoes?

When we entered the Allbirds store in Shanghai, we found the answer on the wall: "changing materials will make everything different?"

Allbirds's unique positioning from "wool shoes" to innovation based on environmental protection is inextricably linked to Joey's work history. Before co founding Allbirds, Joey worked in Biotech Corp Terravia (formerly Solazyme, Inc.) for six years, leading the renewable chemical business, developing and selling high performance algal chemicals, and applying products to fast moving, personal care and industrial fields. Previously, the biodegradable material expert also worked as a consultant and investment related position in Industry Ventures, an investment agency (Allbirds's first offline store in San Francisco is near the company).

In the year 2018, Allbirds launched two innovative products: the new series of South African eucalyptus pulp, and the new shoe material Sweet Foam, which is made from sugarcane in Brazil. The former is complementary to the woolen series in different seasons, and the latter is named "the 50 best invention in the world in 2018" by time magazine. In this process, Allbirds has again strengthened the brand's material innovation and environmental protection concept, such as:

Compared with traditional materials, the production of wool shoes is reduced by 60% of energy consumption.

Compared with traditional materials, the production of Eucalyptus shoes reduces water consumption by 95% and 50% of carbon emissions.

SweetFoam sugarcane in Brazil relies on rainwater instead of irrigation and can also remove carbon from growth.

ZQ Merino, FSC, Proforest, these third party environmental protection organizations certify the materials.

As for the impact of environmental protection on consumers, Joey said, "although environmental protection may not be the first reason to attract consumers, it can make them a loyal customer of the brand."

According to a recent survey by National Retail Federation/NRF, "authenticity" is one of the three values most valued by consumers in this report. The transparency of the supply chain of fashion industry, the higher requirement of "cleaning beauty" on component safety, and the high concern of food safety. All of them reflect this trend, and the environmental protection concept to fashion products, to a large extent, is due to the transmission of real transparent information.

At the end of last year, the Brand Co operated with the US media platform Complex, promoting activities in the Foley Gallery in Lower East New York, highlighting the characteristics of brand environmental protection and sustainable development. Many of the opinion leaders including the American street artist WRDSMTH participated in the promotion.

According to Shanghai store staff, Allbirds global stores have highlighted the environmental protection concept of their products in design. During the interview, Erick Haskell, the president of Allbirds international business, who was responsible for Adidas and Under Armer China business, described Hua Zhi, a Chinese consumer in his eyes, "they have a strong thirst for knowledge and are good at asking questions. They have done enough homework before buying, hoping that the goods will be worth the money."

However, Joey admits: "in the existing supply chain environment, trying new materials and constantly updating test standards is always a difficult point along with brand growth." For example, at present, the brand is still facing a great challenge in material innovation, looking for environmentally friendly waterproofing materials suitable for rainy days.

Allbirds in China

"China's new generation of fashion consumption white paper 2018" shows that shoes have become the most popular fashion among Chinese consumers.

"Retail sales in China are US $70 billion per year and $80 billion in the US." Joey predicts that the shoe market in China has potential over the United States in a few years. He believes that the layout of stores, so that consumers can easily buy authentic goods, to a large extent, reduce their chances of buying fake goods. For example, in the Chinese market, before opening Shanghai, Beijing stores and Tmall flagship stores, Chinese consumers can only buy them through purchasing channels.

Celebrity endorsement, quickly open shop, third party business platform cooperation. These are usually the path of an overseas brand entering the Chinese market. But this is not what Joey is thinking. He said that in the year after entering China, he will not actively seek celebrity endorsement products, nor will he quickly open shop.

Entering the Chinese market for five months, Allbirds said that the consumer repeat rate has exceeded 50%. But on the basis of two stores in Shanghai and Beijing, the second half of the year, the brand only plans to open two new stores in Guangzhou and Chengdu.

Facing the highly digitized Chinese market, there is no doubt that Allbirds born on the Internet has natural advantages. Erick believes that most of the big brands have entered the Chinese market before establishing electricity business, so they have to deploy huge infrastructure in China. "By contrast, we can enter this market through healthier business and retail portfolios."

We are open to the third party e-commerce platform. Joey said: "as long as this platform can help us find suitable consumers, convey our brand story and let us directly manage, and have direct and close interaction with consumers, we will be interested." At present, Allbirds has opened an online direct store in WeChat's small program besides China's official website and Tmall flagship store.

The pricing strategy of Allbirds is also a lot of thought. For example, two different series of wool and eucalyptus, most of the shoes of different men and women are priced the same, and each pair is 899 yuan (except the high price Toppers 1099 yuan).

Joey believes that unified pricing can convey a consistent brand impression to consumers. "The cost of developing wool and eucalyptus is very close," he said. Although the materials are different, they are different from the needs of different seasons, and the comfort is the same. Consistent pricing is a very simple feeling, and we want to eliminate people's worries about price. "

In 2019, Allbirds also introduced socks made of wool + Eucalyptus blended Trino fiber. In the interview, Joey said that this is not only an important step from single material to multi performance materials, but also marks the beginning of Allbirds's entry into the field of clothing. It has left more imagination for the brand to enhance the fashion. This is just the beginning.