Hello, Reader.
From running… to running AI infrastructure. Allbirds Inc. (BIRD) is leaving footwear and becoming an AI company.
When the company got going in 2015, the idea was straightforward:
- Make comfortable, minimalist shoes using sustainable materials.
- Sell mostly direct-to-consumer online.
The brand blew up in the late 2010s, especially in Silicon Valley, where it became known as the “tech uniform” shoe. Even high-profile figures like Barack Obama were spotted sporting the sneaker.
The company scaled rapidly and later expanded into physical retail and apparel. The company reached a $4 billion valuation and went public in 2021, positioning itself as a leader in sustainable fashion.
But Allbirds, like all good things, has come to an end.
After going public, sales slowed, competition increased, and complaints about durability and pricing grew. The stock declined sharply and hit an all-time low just two years later.
In the last few years, Allbirds has been regarded as struggling “post-hype” brand.
That brings us to today, where the company is attempting to tap into the biggest existing “hype” movement: artificial intelligence.
The stock soared 600% following Wednesday’s news that the struggling sneaker company will become AI infrastructure provider, offering GPU-based cloud services under the new name NewBird AI.
It’s a pivot that “feels very 2026,” wrote CNN Business.
Allbirds sold its core footwear business and raised roughly $50 million to enter the AI infrastructure market. The funds will allow it to purchase graphics processing units (GPUs) that power and develop AI models, which it will then loan out to customers.
BIRD has fluctuated since midweek over questions about whether the company has the capital or expertise to compete in AI infrastructure…
And whether this reinvention rhymes with the hype-driven pivots during the dot-com era.
In today’s Smart Money, let’s look at why “if you can’t beat them, join them” isn’t a safe strategy for surviving a dominant market trend.
Then, I’ll share a different footwear company I’m looking at instead.
History Rhymes
When the internet started gaining mainstream attention, investors became obsessed with all things “dot-com”. Companies soon realized they could boost their stock price simply by associating themselves with the burgeoning technology.
Many did just that, by adding “.com” to their name and announcing vague internet strategies. Stocks exploded on the expectation that anything tied to the web would be valuable.
But what happened is that investors poured money into companies with no profits, sometimes no real revenue, and occasionally no finished product.
Pets.com is the most infamous example.
The company was an online pet supply retailer in the lates 1990s. It became wildly popular during the dot-com boom – and aired its famous “Sock Puppet” ad during Super Bowl XXXIV on January 30, 2000.
Ten months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Because Pets.com sold low-cost, heavy items – like dog food, which is expensive to ship – its business model never worked economically. And it often spent more to acquire customers and ship these heavy items than it earned in revenue. Epitomizing the go-go spirit of the era, Pets.com spent $17 million on marketing during its brief corporate lifetime… but produced only $8.8 million in revenue.
When the dot-com bubble burst, many of these hype-chasing stocks collapsed. And investors shifted back to profits, cash flow, and real business models.
The AI boom is already starting to create its own version of notorious failures like Pets.com.
AI Rebrands and Reality Checks
Algorhythm Holdings Inc. (RIME) – formerly The Singing Machine Co. – executed an AI-pivot to grab market attention, similarly to Allbirds.
Algorhythm was originally an obscure consumer electronics company that sold karaoke machines. But the company was in a competitive, low-profit business with minimal growth and near zero investor excitement.
Cue the pivot.
In September 2024, Algorhythm announced it would pivot into an AI-driven logistics and compute platform. The extreme shift stunned the markets. The stock surged, driven more by AI enthusiasm than fundamentals.
The company went on to log yearly losses in both 2024 and 2025, and its stock is flat so far this year.
Like the hype chasers in the dot-com era, Algorhythm came from a non-tech sector and experienced a valuation spike after announcing a pivot into AI. That spike proved to be short lived.
Allbirds will likely find itself on a similar path.
So, instead of waiting for the shoe to drop, I’m looking at a different footwear maker…
A Tale of Two Shoe Brands
Even though both Birkenstock Holding plc (BIRK) and Allbirds sell simple, comfortable shoes, their economics, strategy, and durability as businesses are completely different.
Birkenstock’s competitive moat is grounded in brand identity and reputational quality, rather than advertising spend. It has avoided chasing trends.
Its fiscal 2025 results not only set a record but did so by a wide margin. Volume growth, rather than price increases, powered most of these strong results.
The core, long-term engine of the business is still roaring ahead: strong top-line growth, a brand with real moat, and a long runway of organic growth in both product and distribution.
To plainly state the differences: Birkenstock is a profitable, growing, brand-driven business. On the other hand, Allbirds is a shrinking, unprofitable, trend-driven business.
Birkenstock also falls into both my “AI Survivor” and “AI Applier” investing categories.
These, respectively, are companies that AI can never replace… and those that use AI to their advantage. No extreme pivot necessary.
First, the more digital our world becomes, the more we humans will crave nondigital products and experiences. Birkenstock answers that craving.
Second, Birkenstock uses AI to calibrate demand, optimize inventory, and manage its direct-to-consumer pipeline. It doesn’t chase volume. It uses AI to decide where each pair of sandals should go and who is most likely to buy them. That precision preserves margins and strengthens brand equity.
This is AI applied to craftsmanship and supply discipline – a 250-year-old company quietly using modern tools to sharpen execution.
In addition to Birkenstock, I recommend many AI Survivor and AI Applier companies in my portfolio, including:
- A brand of outdoor recreation products
- A cultlike drive-through coffee shop
- A king among princes in the drug sector
Regards,
91抖阴
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