This is a great article, Julie. Glad your note about the Pokemon tarot reader led me here. :)
Re: your article, this is the part I think everyone at a startup suffers through at some point..."Each new store opening, product launched, headline about a big partnership and eventually, an IPO, all had me wondering what life would be like if I had stuck around." But there really was something special about Allbirds. They changed the retail theater-ness of it all.
Cool that you had a chance to be a part of it to get them going. They obviously lost their way when you left! :)
I was part of one of the original investment firms into Allbirds (Seed and A), and it's been tough to have watched it go through the hype cycle from its original ethos that Tim and Joey focused on. I hope the new owner of the shoe brand and assets (American Exchange Group) considers returning it to its roots and maybe bringing them back as advisors, similar to what's happened to Bonobos. This was a great story to read!
The true glory days!! Fully agreed — it’s hard to articulate how passionate they were and it would be great if we can see some of that brought back. It made it a really special place to be.
Thanks for reading about this moment frozen in time!
Absolutely! It was a blast of a read and can't wait to read more of your work.
And I haven't seen a (re)birth of consumer now to the days of actually building a real business versus hype since, well, the early 2010s! I feel very hopeful.
I'm obsessed with this and with you. I love the greyness of this piece that it's... the story of your time with an iconic company that's making a weird pivot. It's giving romance novel about the time someone dated a singer-now-megastar-who-just-had-a-breakdown (is that too intimate/presumptuous of a thing to comment?). So dang glad you wrote it.
I had one pair of allbirds (from.. you??). Those OG versions were not cute but I thought the more recent ones were actually pretty nice! Baby needs some room for insoles though
1. I had those exact quintessential gray wool runners, because of course I did. and I wore them down TO THE GROUND
2. omg THE SKIRT
3. I am usually in the top 3 Slack messagers at any company I work at... I Slack like I text and I text like I speak and I speak like I think, which is in incomplete thoughts and phrases
4. This was such a fun story to read! Isn't it wild that the blips in our lives are sometimes do the mostest?
This is a great article, Julie. Glad your note about the Pokemon tarot reader led me here. :)
Re: your article, this is the part I think everyone at a startup suffers through at some point..."Each new store opening, product launched, headline about a big partnership and eventually, an IPO, all had me wondering what life would be like if I had stuck around." But there really was something special about Allbirds. They changed the retail theater-ness of it all.
Cool that you had a chance to be a part of it to get them going. They obviously lost their way when you left! :)
I was part of one of the original investment firms into Allbirds (Seed and A), and it's been tough to have watched it go through the hype cycle from its original ethos that Tim and Joey focused on. I hope the new owner of the shoe brand and assets (American Exchange Group) considers returning it to its roots and maybe bringing them back as advisors, similar to what's happened to Bonobos. This was a great story to read!
The true glory days!! Fully agreed — it’s hard to articulate how passionate they were and it would be great if we can see some of that brought back. It made it a really special place to be.
Thanks for reading about this moment frozen in time!
Absolutely! It was a blast of a read and can't wait to read more of your work.
And I haven't seen a (re)birth of consumer now to the days of actually building a real business versus hype since, well, the early 2010s! I feel very hopeful.
I'm obsessed with this and with you. I love the greyness of this piece that it's... the story of your time with an iconic company that's making a weird pivot. It's giving romance novel about the time someone dated a singer-now-megastar-who-just-had-a-breakdown (is that too intimate/presumptuous of a thing to comment?). So dang glad you wrote it.
omg - I so accept this parallel!!!
I had one pair of allbirds (from.. you??). Those OG versions were not cute but I thought the more recent ones were actually pretty nice! Baby needs some room for insoles though
WHAT
A few things:
1. I had those exact quintessential gray wool runners, because of course I did. and I wore them down TO THE GROUND
2. omg THE SKIRT
3. I am usually in the top 3 Slack messagers at any company I work at... I Slack like I text and I text like I speak and I speak like I think, which is in incomplete thoughts and phrases
4. This was such a fun story to read! Isn't it wild that the blips in our lives are sometimes do the mostest?
Having the CEO walk around barefoot would have been an incredible way to announce. Literal, referential, self-mocking: so many opportunities there
Love that you brought Allbirds into my life. I currently wear the grey wool with white sole in your pic! Ha. I actually paid for these!
But seriously, I remember how much I loved your descriptions of the culture. Such a cool experience! What a place to work.