Five hard lessons from Allbirds’ 99% stock plunge and $39 million fire sale

Once a brand that soared as the de rigueur footwear for the Silicon Valley set, Allbirds has fallen out of the sky. The shoemaker, best known for its eco-friendly wool sneakers favored by tech bros, said this week it is selling itself for a mere $39 million, or roughly 1% of its peak market capitalization of $4 billion only five years ago—the victim of major strategic missteps in trying to sustain its once meteoric growth.

Joe Vernachio, the chief executive brought in two years ago to save Allbirds, said that American Exchange Group, a brand management company, will buy all the company’s assets, pending shareholder approval later this year. The CEO said in a statement that the deal “sets up the brand to thrive in the years ahead.”

That will be a tall order for a brand that was the symbol of last decade’s venture capital boom.  Last summer, founder Tim Brown conceded as much. “The time we had to evolve and grow that story was compressed in such an intense way,” he told Fortune. “With the rapid success that came our way,........

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