Shoe Start-up Allbirds Bets That Simple Is the New Sexy
*By Michael Teich*
Gaining a step on established industry giants like Nike and Adidas can be daunting for the little guys, but the San Francisco-based shoemaker Allbirds has gained a small but promising foothold, said the Wall Street Journal fashion editor Jacob Gallagher.
The sneaker company prides itself on producing the "most comfortable shoe in the world," and claims to have sold 1 million of its unassuming kicks since 2016. Though the powerhouse global athletic brands tout collaborations with flashy designers including Kanye West and Alexander Wang, Allbirds has cozied up to shoppers with just three, simple unisex styles of casual shoes and streamlined designs.
Allbirds is "a shoe that thrives by being as nothing as possible" and is "the white T-shirt of sneakers," said Gallagher.
He tributes the early success of Allbirds to its embrace of Normcore minimalism. Consumers are gravitating toward more comfortable products and dressing more casually, which works for Allbirds, Gallagher said.
If trends move away from monochrome simplicity towards flashier, more colorful styles, the two-year-old Allbirds may have to adapt to survive.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/shoe-start-up-allbirds-bets-that-simple-is-the-new-sexy).
David Ewalt, Editor-in-Chief at Gizmodo joins Cheddar News to discuss a TikTok moderator suing the platform over mental trauma caused by graphic videos
The pandemic has supercharged the creator economy, and there are no signs of it slowing down no matter when the pandemic officially ends. Creators prove to be a key factor in driving purchasing decisions and retail sales, and an increasing amount of platforms are taking advantage of the social influence. Karissa Bell, senior editor at Engadget, joins cheddar news to discuss the creator economy boom.
The E-V maker Tesla has had a wild year. The company managed to continue to dominate the U.S. electric vehicle space despite growing competition and production delays. As the end comes to an end, Tesla finds itself growing richer and richer. Author of Risk Ritual Newsletter Richard Smith, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Venture capitalists and CEOs are clashing over the future of the internet. Web3 is the tech world's name for a decentralized, blockchain-based internet that runs on cryptocurrency. It was recently the topic of a tweet from Block CEO and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who wrote that Web3 will not actually be owned by users, and instead be controlled by rich venture capitalists. Dorsey later shared that he was blocked on Twitter by Marc Andreesen, co-founder of VC firm Andreesen Horowitz, which has invested billions of dollars into Web3 and crypto projects. Correspondent for DealBook from the New York Times, Ephrat Livni, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the future of Web3.
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
