FNW: Sales in the U.S. market are improving, what is your assessment of retail sales?

Joey Zwillinger: Our team has been focused on optimising and strengthening our business, and we’re incredibly proud of our journey in just six years. We continue to invest behind our three growth initiatives: expanding and energising our product portfolio, growing our store fleet, and scaling our international business. In the third quarter, U.S. physical retail channel sales grew 53% compared to 2021. We have opened six new stores in the U.S. and 15 since the end of 2021. By the end of 2022, we expect to have 57 global stores, 42 in the U.S. and 15 internationally. Our stores are the best expression of our brand and serve as powerful community hubs. They remain an incredible acquisition tool, allowing us to gain leverage on marketing spend to lower customer acquisition costs and increase the penetration of valuable omnichannel repeat customers. In the U.S., where net revenue increased, retail store sales were the primary driver, which is incredible to see. 

FNW: 2022 also marked your desire to strengthen your wholesale development?

JZ: We began working with a select number of third party partners such as NordstromSelfridgesREIZalando

FNW: How many countries are you present in today, and what figures can you share with us?

JZ: Allbirds can be purchased in 36 countries, and in the second quarter, we hit a major milestone of $1 billion in lifetime revenue. It’s been incredible to see the global expansion of Allbirds from our base in San Francisco. I’m also happy to report that our adjusted net revenue grew 15% [to $72.2 million] beating our guidance and consensus. 

FNW: What are your ambitions for the European market? 

JZ: Scaling our international business is one of our growth initiatives, and the European market plays a significant role. We have five stores in Europe, three in London, one in Berlin and one in Amsterdam. We are experiencing strong momentum in the U.K, despite the significant macro challenges being faced in Europe this year, and have seen record breaking brand awareness and customer acquisition figures. During the third quarter, we saw over 20% growth in local currency, driven by solid comps in our established Allbirds stores in London. We also opened a Selfridges concession, which is increasing brand awareness and driving sales. Europe is also a hub for tourists, so our presence is reaching multiple consumer categories. As we move forward, we’ll be primarily focused on the U.K. and Germany and we’re excited about building Allbirds in Europe. Overall, we’re confident in the long-term demand in our international markets. 

FNW: What progress have you made in terms of sustainability?

TB: We recently released our ‘Flight Status’ sustainability report for 2021, which shows that we were able to reduce our average product carbon footprint by 12% while growing our net revenues by 27% in 2021. We’ve done this by focusing on three key areas: Regenerative Agriculture, Renewable Materials, and Responsible Energy. In regenerative agriculture, we partnered with New Zealand Merino and other brands to pave the way for regenerative wool through the ZQRX framework. To date, nearly 500 growers have signed up, representing 15% of New Zealand’s farmland, committing to work with nature to continuously improve human, animal, and environmental outcomes. We remain on track to deliver on our goal to cut our already low per product carbon footprint in half by 2025 and achieve near zero by 2030. 

FNW: What are the first results of the launch of the resale platform, ReRun? 

JZ: We’re really proud of our ReRun platform which we launched in the U.S. in 2021. It enables a circular economy for our slightly imperfect and gently used products and gives our customers access to classic Allbirds styles with a lower price tag, and a lower impact on the planet. ReRun brought in over 26,000 unique customers, of which 12,000 were new to Allbirds. It’s been a huge success and we met the financial goals for ReRun for the year within the first five months of launching. 

FNW: Who are Allbirds’ customers today?

TB: We have a breadth of customers globally, who share common values. They are looking for products that don’t compromise on style, sustainability or performance. With our extended product range, we’re also attracting consumers in both the lifestyle and performance category. Our customers are incredibly important to us, and our direct relationship with them has also meant they play a significant role in optimising our business through a consistent feedback loop. Those customer insights enable us to predict trends and be agile as a business. 

FNW: You mention the development of more and more lifestyle shoes, is this the direction of your products for the future?

TB: The launch of the Pacer franchise, including our hero Plant Pacer, crafted with a 100% plastic-free leather alternative, was an important step to further unlock our lifestyle portfolio. We’re always looking for ways to provide better, more sustainable, more style-led products for our consumers. This continued style innovation will be paramount to our next phase of growth and so we are continuing to do the hard work, investing in natural materials innovation and product creation. We also remain focused on leading the conversation on sustainability in the footwear space with our relentless focus on Super Natural material innovation. Watch this space for exciting updates! 

FNW: You recently partnered with Lindsay Lohan, why did you choose this sometimes controversial personality?

TB: We partnered with Lindsay Lohan