The first thing you learn when you want to get to know Allbirds (and, of course, when you go to a search engine for help) is that Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio invested his “blood money” in it. The headlines on almost all websites reported it proudly and without long introductions (although without naming the exact amount). Secondly, get information about the products, and they are shoes made of environmentally friendly materials. But this is not the end of interesting facts about the company Allbirds. So what is the main feature of the successful eco-initiative?

Proven: there are blue islands even among the red oceans.
Since 2005, when the book “Blue Ocean Strategy” (by Kim Chan and Renee Mauborgne) was published, the concept of blue (free) and red (oversaturated) business niches is known to many. And every start-up, company or startup is initially recommended to pay attention to this aspect: how much competition there is in the segment, for which the production is planned.

For Allbirds the forecasts were extremely disappointing, because they were going to produce comfortable shoes, and their main competitors were Nike, Puma, Reebok and other giant companies. But neither the high competition, nor the difficulties they had to face as the idea developed, could become a “verdict”. Today Allbirds is a company with a multi-million turnover, more than 400 employees, and unique products that have found their consumer.

And it all started with soccer and biotechnology.
Indeed, the company was founded by Tim Brown (a New Zealand soccer player) and Joey Zwillinger (a Silicon Valley biotech engineer). The idea of creating comfortable shoes made of natural materials came to Tim Brown’s mind long before his soccer career ended in 2012. In addition to his love for sports, he had another hobby – design. His first experience was creating leather shoes, but not very comfortable. Friends, to whom Tim presented his shoes, complained that they were uncomfortable. Then he thought about developing a model that would look just as good, but would be more comfortable. The decision came to the entrepreneur – the best material would be sheep’s wool, of which there is no shortage in New Zealand. In addition to the material, which eliminated the need to wear socks under the shoes, special attention was paid to design: laconic, calm, without the screaming logos.

In action: in 2014, Tim Brown launched a fundraising campaign to launch his production on the popular Kickstarter platform. In less than a week, $120,000 was raised. But the joy was replaced by fear of failure, and the campaign was scrapped. According to the creator, at that time he could not believe that it would actually happen.

Joey Zwillinger was also promoting his project at the time, but in his case it was different: he had confidence in success, but not enough support from investors. His startup was developing algae oil that could replace gasoline. The idea was considered good, but too expensive.

Tim and Joey were introduced by their wives, who had gone to Dartmund College together. And during one of their meetings, the families decided to join forces and create a joint project to produce eco-shoes – Allbirds. The startup got its name from the words of the pioneers of New Zealand: “It’s all birds”.

Models, variants, materials.
The first models of eco-shoes (and in 2016 there were only two: for leisure and sports) were made of high-quality ultra-thin (17.5 microns) sheep’s wool. At first sales were not very active, but after publications on the expanses of social networks, the situation changed: if previously the products were of interest mainly to the female audience, the interest of men in wool shoes grew with each new day. Today the main assistant in the promotion of these products is still Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to wool, Zwillinger and Brown also use in their production their own patented development – “sugar foam”. It is an environmentally friendly material that is obtained by mixing black cane molasses, yeast and a special reagent. The exact recipe is kept in secret, but the result is shoes made of “sweet foam” which, unlike competitors, is completely harmless to the environment.

They also use special wood fiber, which uses 95% less water than cotton, recycled plastic bottles, and castor oil. Even the packaging in which a purchased pair of shoes is packaged is made from recycled cardboard.
Reincarnation is beautiful, at least that’s what Allbirds claims.

Today the main arenas of sales are the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the company does not stop there, continuing to work on creating new models using safe materials.