Allbirds & The World's Most Comfortable Shoes

Allbirds is a company based out of New Zealand that designs, produces, and sells footwear and apparel. Their claim to fame are their Wool Runners, known for being “the world’s most comfortable shoes.” They launched a “Meet Your Shoes” campaign that talks about their wool runners’ sustainable materials, such as their laces made from recycled plastic bottles and their insoles made of castor bean oil. This campaign invites people to meet the source of their shoes with Anomaly at MeetYourShoes.Net.

Allbirds focuses on sustainable production so they can preserve Earth’s natural resources. Their goal as a brand is to decrease the carbon footprint their brand leaves behind, so they can help to create a better and longer future.

When it comes to the products they sell, they focus primarily on footwear, and they just recently started branching out into the world of apparel. All of their products are made from recycled and reused materials. Most of their footwear products are created with merino wool and a material called SweetFoam which they source from Brazilian sugarcane. They like to use the resources that our planet has provided us anytime they can, and they put a strong urge and focus on sustainability.

What are their sustainable practices?

When it comes to sustainable practices, Allbirds hits the nail on the head every time. They only source their materials from supplies whose goals and objectives align with theirs, and they carefully curate every product they make.

Here are the six sustainable practices Allbirds takes:

‍1. Carbon footprint

Allbirds’ mission is to cut its carbon footprint in half by 2025. To hold themselves accountable for that goal, they measure their impact on the planet, and they track the emissions they produce from start to finish. This mission’s announcement was made on Earth Day as part of a collaborative campaign with the Audubon Foundation. They dropped a limited-edition shoe while also announcing their Carbon Fund. The campaign was extremely well received on social media and featured in AdWeek, Business Insider, New York Magazine, and MindBodyGreen.

2. Carbon offsets

Stemming off of how they plan to reduce their carbon footprint, Allbirds takes it a step further by taxing themselves for the carbon they do emit. They truly hold themselves accountable and responsible for the emissions they give off, and by investing in their carbon offsets, they hope to neutralize their carbon footprint.

3. Regenerative agriculture

Allbirds set a goal for themselves that by December of 2025, 100% of their wool will come from regenerative sources, and they will reduce 100% of on-farm emissions from their wool. Regenerative agriculture focuses on taking carbon out of the air and putting it into farms soil which is where it needs to be. This type of farming is the secret to becoming carbon negative, and Allbirds works directly with these kinds of farmers in NZ about where they need to be from a sustainability standpoint.  Regenerative agriculture allows us to reverse climate change while also benefiting our local communities.

Allbirds set a goal for themselves that by December of 2025, 100% of their wool will come from regenerative sources, and they will reduce 100% of on-farm emissions from their wool.

4. Renewable resources

Looking ahead to December of 2025 again, Allbirds plans to reduce their carbon footprint by half, reduce raw materials in their products by 25%, and sustainably source 74% of their natural and recycled materials. Their main goal is to double the life of their products by using materials proven to last while not making a huge footprint on our planet. They want to encourage other companies to stop using synthetic materials and naturally sourced alternatives when creating products. When they can’t find the perfect natural material, they make their own – like their SweetFoam shoe sole material.

5. Reverse climate change

Allbirds is honest when it comes to climate change, and they want you to know that what you’re wearing right now is killing our planet. But, they want you to know it’s not too late to make a change. As stated earlier, they set a goal to cut their carbon footprint in half by 2025, and they went a step further and set a goal to reduce their footprint to 0 by 2030. They plan to do this by holding themselves accountable for the emission they emit, outlining the steps they plan to take to reduce their footprint, and committing to their changes. They will continue to find natural alternatives to create their wool, tree, sugar, Trino, SweetFoam, and more.

6. Responsible energy

Being a smaller business, they don’t use as much energy as the bigger brands. They still plan to use their energy responsibly by working with renewable energy markets, manufacturing their products in cleaner grids, and working with suppliers whose sustainability priorities match theirs.

How does Allbirds market their brand and their products?

When it comes to marketing their sustainable products and their sustainable practices, they let their products do the talking. The Vice President of Marketing for Allbirds recently sat down for an interview, talking about how the company has built itself up to be a $1.4 billion company that sells footwear and apparel. Here’s what VP of Marketing at Allbirds, Julie Channing had to say about their approach: “Our approach to marketing at Allbirds has always been to let the shoes, and our fans, do the talking. The fact that we're using these incredible natural materials to create products people can feel good in and about is surprising in an industry where synthetics are the status quo, so our goal with this campaign was simply to let more people in on our secret."

When they first started the brand, they invested about $400-500k in marketing and PR campaigns to hit the ground running. Once their products were a success, they decided to let the products do the talking. People realized how comfortable and high-quality the shoes were and made with sustainable resources and practices. They loved them even more.

What can businesses learn from Allbirds?

• There are always natural alternatives to materials.
  
• If you can’t find a natural alternative, make one.
  
• Sustainable practices are the only way to create longevity for our planet.
  
• You have to commit to making a change and hold yourself accountable.
  
• What you say and what you do are two different things – if you say you’re going to practice sustainability, take actions actually to practice it and show your customers.