…flock to AI.
On April 15, the shoe company Allbirds (BIRD) announced it is pivoting from wool-based footwear to AI compute infrastructure. It plans to rebrand itself as NewBird AI.
At one point, its share price had increased over 800% from the prior day’s close before rationality finally prevailed, with the stock closing up a mere 582%.
The dramatic shift in Allbirds’ business focus is not without precedence. In 2017, a beverage company named Long Island Iced Tea rebranded itself as Long Blockchain and declared it would explore opportunities in blockchain technology. Alas, the transition from beverages to blockchain proved a bit too ambitious, and the company’s shares were completely delisted by the SEC less than four years later.
For investors who seek a bird’s eye view of the AI landscape, questions abound. Is Allbirds’ status as the first apparel company to pivot to AI compute an example of the early bird catching the worm, or is it a late-cycle canary in the coal mine? Is the company spreading its wings in a way that will result in it being proud as a peacock, or is it embarking on a wild goose chase that will leave it dead as the dodo? What’s worth more, a pair of wool shoes in hand, or two computer servers in the bush? Will Allbirds make progress in AI like a duck to water, or will the company’s fear of being a lame duck in the shoe industry lead it to being a sitting duck for short-sellers? In time, will the company be seen as a flamingo in a flock of pigeons, or is it destined to be a plucked chicken? Will Allbirds’ transformation be a feather in the cap of the management team, or is their aim to simply feather their nest?
The FashionUnited Top 100 Index ranks the 100 largest publicly traded companies in the global fashion and apparel industry. Not one constituent of that index has rebranded itself as an AI technology company, yet how many of them dream of escaping their gilded cage and soaring like an eagle? Allbirds has shown them the way.