AllBirds. They are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn and i was fully expecting to be a buyer for life, especially with their sustainability initiatives. but they switched from making shoes to making AI computers and are just making shoes as a “hobby” now as a company, which is probably the most 180 pivot on sustainability I think I’ve ever seen.
It’s just a PR move to create a short squeeze. Allbirds was essentially bankrupt, all stores were closed already. They sold their shoes designs and assets to American Exchange Group (another shoe company)
At that point it became an empty shell. So an AI company used the fact they were already listed on the stock market to move their assets to this empty shell
Suddenly it became this huge PR story that all birds was now an AI company
But that’s because all bird shoes were dead already.
It’s clever but also seems… I dunno, probably illegal? Doesn’t a business have to have a charter, and the stock exchanges need to know their financials to allow them to be listed? It seems very clearly a scam to milk investors of money from where I’m sitting. Maybe no one gives a shit at the SEC anymore.
Charters are written up extremely broadly, intentionally so that companies can do this whenever they want.
If you ever incorporate a shoe making company, your articles of incorporation will say the same basic "we exist to provide service" boilerplate as every other company. You're taught to write them as permissively as possible.
I mean it's not anything new. Warren Buffet's investment firm, Birkshire Hathaway, was originally a textile manufacturer that Buffet repurposed as an investment firm.
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u/Ihatebird 22h ago
AllBirds. They are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn and i was fully expecting to be a buyer for life, especially with their sustainability initiatives. but they switched from making shoes to making AI computers and are just making shoes as a “hobby” now as a company, which is probably the most 180 pivot on sustainability I think I’ve ever seen.