The root of this is branding. All clothing/shoe/etc companies are simply marketing machines. All of their products can be knocked off. Some companies do a better job at marketing than others and thus extend their brand life. Allbirds simply ran through their life cycle more quickly than some others. They will be bought and absorbed by someone bigger... perhaps to reemerge down the road.
A shoe brand just decides to become an "ai company" and all of a sudden they are cash-flow positive and have increased in value 4X.
What a f-ing idiotic world we live in.
It's like the guy who purchased the Fyre Festival IP and then decided to make it a music streaming service and (at least he claimed) he was able to raise tens of millions. What? Where is that service one year later? Why invest in that IP?
A shoe brand just decides to become an "ai company" and all of a sudden they are cash-flow positive and have increased in value 4X.
What a f-ing idiotic world we live in.
So they never cared about sustainability after all - as AI data centers are anything but sustainable or low environmental impact.
Allbirds, like every other brand 4-5 years ago cared about "sustainability" when they thought it was a value proposition that would make them money.
Because that's what every lazy "consumer insights" consulting group they paid 300k for a 120 PPT presentation told them (along with everyone else at the time) - "the kids care about the planet and hate big corpo".
Except the reality was and is (and will be forever), sustainability "lip service" is far bigger than reality and when it comes to actually opening a wallet and paying for something, kids, adults, being "sustainable" is about 4th or 5th on the list of importance (behind look, price, wearability, durability...)
Problem was for Allbirds they turned their entire product value proposition into sustainability hoping to capitalize and it compromised all the things that people really care about but just don't admit because caring about the planet sounds and makes people feel better about themselves.
So no, they never cared about sustainability just like no footwear or apparel brand does so this isn't surprising.
A shoe brand just decides to become an "ai company" and all of a sudden they are cash-flow positive and have increased in value 4X.
What a f-ing idiotic world we live in.
I didn't read any stories but saw 6X mentioned in some headlines. It doesn't make sense that they would have any expertise in AI except that they now have the money to hire AI-knowledgeable people. Is there that much room for winners in AI that any company with money can make money in AI beyond an initial/temporary juicing of the stock prices for existing investors? I don't think so.
They just closed down 36% down at $10.91 - $6.08 cents down from yesterday. At a guess they will be back down around the $2.50 mark where they were on Tuesday before too long.
So someone needs to explain to me how simply deciding you're not a footwear brand anymore but now an "ai company" can somehow momentarily inflate your value by hundreds of millions of dollars on a one day basis that then evaporates the next?
The "market" is a r-tarded ponzi scheme.
I wish Nike could become an "ai company" tomorrow and inflate their share price 600+% - Elliot, you out there bud?
This post was edited 18 seconds after it was posted.
