The shoe company that pivoted to AI is dying

Allbirds, a once-popular shoe brand, rebranded to Smartbird – an AI company – a few months ago, and the stock soared.

While shares had been slowly – and then quickly – deteriorating since the brand’s IPO, on news of this pivot, they quickly shot up to over $20 overnight, an increase of over 800%.

But in a situation that is darkly reminiscent of the infamous Long Blockchain Company, Smartbird’s share price has since collapsed to the exact same price it was before becoming an AI company, and the future looks bleak.

What was Allbirds?

Full disclosure: I own a pair of Allbirds [editor note: I also have owned several pairs and enjoyed them]. They’re great. They look snazzy, in a casual sense. They’re a lovely, warm, wet sand-yellow. I bought mine on a trip to Tokyo; I can even recall the sales pitch.

The Allbirds store was mostly empty, and I wasn’t hunting for a new pair of shoes. But the rows and rows of Allbirds called to me. The Japanese saleswoman started her initial spiel about how the shoes were sourced from high-quality, sustainable materials. Finally, perhaps in an act of desperation, she told me, “You can throw them in the washing machine and they will look just like new.”

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