Two weeks ago, Allbirds was a cautionary tale. The maker of the wool sneakers seemingly glued to the feet of every Patagonia-vested VC in 2019, once worth $4 billion, had a humiliating fire sale on April Fools’ Day and sold itself to a brand management company for $39 million—roughly 1% of its peak valuation. It had already closed every full-price store in the U.S.
The obituaries abounded as analysts pitied yet another darling that mistook a Silicon Valley fad for a real brand. Today, the same ticker is up more than 700% as Allbirds pivots to AI. That’s not a joke.
