{"id":2154,"date":"2019-09-22T16:03:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T16:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2019-09-22T16:03:52","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T16:03:52","slug":"how-allbirds-built-a-sustainable-supply-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2019\/09\/22\/how-allbirds-built-a-sustainable-supply-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"How Allbirds built a sustainable supply chain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2155\" srcset=\"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-1068x712.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/all-birds-image-voguebus-all-birds-may-19-inline-wide.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>by Rachel Cernansky | <em>VogueBusiness | <\/em>May 15, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Allbirds offers longer-term contracts to encourage commodity suppliers to develop more sustainable practices and invent new materials.<\/li><li>When Allbirds used a slightly pricier, eco-friendly shoelace, it absorbed the costs via the lower overhead derived from its direct-to-consumer business.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When former New Zealand footballer Tim Brown and biotech engineer Joey Zwillinger\u00a0launched\u00a0the first Allbirds sneaker in 2016, it already had a sustainably sourced merino wool upper and an insole derived from castor bean oil. But to their minds, it had one flaw: the shoelaces weren\u2019t made from recycled material. So the San Francisco-based duo launched with laces made from virgin polyester and kept pressing their factory to come up with a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after, Allbirds\u2019s supplier said that it had found a way to make the desired shoelaces, although the cost would triple. The manufacturer assumed the price would automatically end the discussion. But Allbirds gave the go-ahead. \u201cLo and behold, over time, the cost came down,\u201d says Brown. Today, the recycled shoelaces cost only marginally more than the original version, and the factory proactively approaches the brand with eco-friendly innovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evolution of the shoelace is a microcosm of how Allbirds, which now has a valuation of $1.4 billion, drives sustainable practices in its supply chain. It relies on the existing chain where it can meet the company\u2019s demands for both quality and sustainability and charts new courses when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I found this business model particularly interesting because Allbirds is a brand that did not use cost as en excuse as to why it is not sustainable. Instead they tried what they could to give the user the best materials that were good for the environment. Then seeing how expensive this was they were able to help their supplying companies get the costs down on their end. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Rachel Cernansky | VogueBusiness | May 15, 2019 Key takeaways: Allbirds offers longer-term contracts to encourage commodity suppliers to develop more sustainable practices and invent new materials. When Allbirds used a slightly pricier, eco-friendly shoelace, it absorbed the costs via the lower overhead derived from its direct-to-consumer business. When former New Zealand footballer Tim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}