Can Allbirds get its groove back? Once the go-to shoe of tech elites, the eco-friendly brand is going back to its roots

Photographer: Victor J

Riding on the ity of its eco-friendly wool sneakers with Silicon Valley venture capitalists and other bros, it had been a sensation since its founding six years earlier

Its s nearly doubled on their debut

Allbirds’ fast growth up until then helped Wall Street brush aside concerns deep losses—at first

The company on Thursday reported that sales fell 23% in its second fiscal quarter, showing just how daunting a task Allbirds faces in making any comeback

Now, Allbirds’ co-founder Tim Brown and its CEO Joe Vernachio say the company has a strategy to regain customers’ favor: zeroing on what it did best in the first place

That means making versatile lifestyle shoes with a unique look, using innovative, sustainable materials to maintain the environmental cred so central to its identity

The company has closed stores and abandoned some of its ill-fated attempts to expand into other to spur growth: leggings made of merino wool, for example, or performance-oriented running shoes

Allbirds’ co-founder Tim Brown and its CEO Joe Vernachio.Courtesy of AllBirds Quick growth, and some missteps It was a classic tale of a hot brand growing too quickly and making hasty mistakes in its ascendance

In Allbirds’ case, those included building out too wide a duct asment and opening too many store locations

The brand also was overly optimistic its ability to sell directly to consumers

It took too long to line up wholesale partnerships with national department store chains Nordstrom, betting incorrectly that its own stores and web site were enough to attract new customers and serve its -savvy fans

Meanwhile, imitators of Allbirds’ natural-fiber shoes liferated, and the compelling brand story that was such at hit at first was in jeopardy. “The time we had to evolve and grow that story was compressed in such an intense way,” Brown tells Fortune in an exclusive interview ahead of Allbirds’ ten-year anniversary. “With the rapid success that came our way, we lost some of our DNA.” many brands in growth mode, Allbirds tried to cast a wider net for customers

The shoe did not catch on and has been discontinued

Other duct flops: those wool leggings, and an expansion into items far from its expertise, puffer jackets

And Allbirds wasn’t just opening way too many stores given its sales volume; those stores were also too large for its need, not allowing for an enticing display of its shoes

It recently announced an exp credit facility to give itself more financial breathing room

It has closed many of its stores, and the 21 stores the brand still operates are smaller— half the size of the stores opened in that blitz a few years ago. “We now have books and plants and couches to relax on and we just get people spending a lot more time in the store, giving us a better opportunity to engage with them,” says Vernachio

Allbirds has shut down more than half of its stores, and the ones it still operates are smaller and designed to be more inviting

Courtesy of Allbirds The company is also listening to concerns expressed by some analysts that the brand’s messaging has focused too much on environmental virtues, highlighting the carbon emissions foot of each item and the company’s efforts to reduce it

Some have urged Allbirds to focus more on the look and comfort of the shoes

Vernachio dismisses some of that criticism: Focusing on sustainable materials makes Allbirds more innovative in its looks and designs, he says

But he does note that Allbirds now uses the word “nature” in its marketing much more than “sustainability.” “We think the word ‘sustainability’ sounds a chore, ing your garbage,” he jokes

Taking flight again? Brown and Vernachio, who took the reins last year, replacing Brown’s co-founder Joey Zwillinger, insist that the brand’s appeal was not merely a fad

They are focused on tapping into what made Allbirds a sensation in the first place: cool, innovative shoes that are comfortable

Brown, a New Zealander, s to quote a Maori verb (“Ka Mua Ka Muri”) that speaks of walking backwards into the future. “This moment is going back to the beginning and back to those core principles that had been lost as we had so much growth and expansion,” he said

Sneakers are often “over designed,” he said, and tend to rely too much on plastic

But the fact remains that many of the biggest hits of recent years in footwear are bulbous, flashy in design, and heavy on synthetic materials

Brands Hoka and On Running have been major hits, and nical brands New Balance and Brooks Running have successfully forayed into lifestyle shoes, taking up some of the space once occupied by Allbirds

Allbirds has relaunched its original best seller, the Wool Runner NZ (a nod to Brown’s New Zealand roots), with some design tweaks and features a dual-density insole that uses cushioned memory foam

There is also a plant-based leather shoe coming out early next year called the Terraluxe, with a look Vernachio called “more elevated.” “What we’re leaning into is that people want to have sneaker-level comfort in every use occasion,” he said

Another mising duct is the Tree Cruiser

It is made with tree fibers—a nod to the early adapters who chose Allbirds for its green virtues. (A version made of recycled polyester and recycled Italian wool will be launched next month.) The Cruiser line has been marketed as “court-inspired,” meaning it was int for people playing tennis and other court-based sports

But it has found its niche as a versatile, everyday shoe with clean lines and features its low-file rubber sole that can be worn in a number of different situations. “We were long overdue in getting a shoe that in the customer’s closet,” says Vernachio

Ten years after its founding, the sneaker market and the world look very different

But getting back to Allbirds’ original values and aesthetics is the way forward, Brown said: “This is a brand worth fighting for, with principles that have never felt more full of potential and important in this moment.”Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world

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