Inside Allbirds' New Marketing Platform

Welcome back to FN Daily, where we break down the biggest stories happening in footwear and retail.

Allbirds unveiled a new marketing platform and On reported earnings. Plus, we have the scoop on Commbi, a new shoe brand that is rethinking the footbed.

Here are the details:

On Holding’s 2024 Outlook Is On Track After Record Q2 Sales

On Holding had another stellar quarter as the Swiss brand continued to defend its prime spot in the ultra-competitive running market.

In the second quarter, the running shoe company reported record net sales of 567.7 million Swiss francs, up 27.8 percent from the same period a year ago. (Sales increased 29.4 percent on a constant currency basis.)

“We clearly see that the brand is extremely hot all around the world,” Martin Hoffmann, co-chief executive officer and chief financial officer, told FN in an interview. “And in the end, that high demand is converting into all our channels: wholesale, e-commerce and retail.”

What's landing with consumers? On the product side, Hoffmann called out recent key launches that contributed to high demand, such as the Cloudrunner 2 and the On x?Loewe Cloudtilt 2.0 sneakers, which was singled out as the hottest footwear product on Lyst’s quarterly ranking. He also called out store openings in key cities; a new multi-year partnership with Zendaya; a strong performance at the Olympic Games with 66 athletes; and the recent debut of LightSpray, On’s latest upper technology created through a fully automated production process.

Allbirds Just Unveiled a New Marketing Platform. Its CMO Explains How It Got There

Allbirds is kicking of its new era with a new marketing platform that gets to core of its DNA.

The eco-friendly footwear company this week debuted “Allbirds by Nature,” a new campaign that plays on the dual meanings of the word nature in the physical world and the human spirit.

“We landed at this campaign because it really does surround why we exist,” Kelly Olmstead, Allbirds’ chief marketing officer, told FN in an interview. “We exist in service of nature. That’s what makes us special and different. It’s something that no other brand can really do. And on the other side of that, we want to celebrate people’s journey to be their best selves and this other duality around human nature.”

The first iteration of this new platform, “Effortless?by Nature,” kicked off this week to celebrate the launch of Allbirds’ new Tree Glider shoe. In this articulation, the “by Nature” campaign touts the on-the-go, lightweight elements of the brand’s newest silhouette. Allbirds also partnered with fitness and lifestyle influencer Melissa Wood-Tepperberg, founder of Melissa Wood Health, to tell the story of the new style for this launch.

A broader push for storytelling: In an earnings call with analysts last week, chief executive officer Joe Vernachio said the company will now move on to the next stage of its transition and will focus on bolstering three key areas: product, storytelling and shopping experience. He also said Allbirds would increase its marketing spend through the second half of 2024 to drive more brand awareness ahead of new product launches in 2025.

EXCLUSIVE: How Two Footwear Industry Outsiders Started a Shoe Brand With a New Twist on the Footbed

Two years ago, Sarah and Chris Rhoads were outsiders in the footwear industry. But that didn’t stop the husband and wife duo from creating Commbi, their shoe brand that officially launched this week.

Derived from the word “combination,” Commbi debuted online on Tuesday with four styles — three slides and one mule — in various colorways and textures for both men and women. The shoes’ defining features are their removable and interchangeable footbeds, a patent pending technology that addresses footwear waste by letting consumers replace one element of a used shoe instead of the entire product.

“This really came out of a place of need,” said Sarah, one half of the Los-Angeles-based couple. “I had tried every supposed orthotic or comfortable slide or shoe, and it just wasn’t quite living up to its promise.”

Both new to the industry, the couple sought insights from experts and partnered with a podiatrist to prioritize body alignment in their footbed. They bootstrapped the brand and raised some money via a small friends and family investing round. Two years later, Commbi was born.

Read more about Commbi's origin story, here.

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