The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Subscribe to the BoF Podcast here.
When Tim Brown stepped away from his role as co-chief executive at Allbirds in May, the footwear retailer that he co-founded seven years ago was losing its sheen. In its first full-year results since its Nasdaq flotation in November 2021, the sustainability-focused, direct-to-consumer darling that once enraptured investors revealed a series of setbacks, leading to net losses of $101 million.
Indeed, the Allbirds’ team has been tested relentlessly since the IPO, yet according to Brown, it’s been an opportunity for him to draw on inner strengths to excel as a leader, a lesson he learned from his time as a professional footballer.
“Rising and falling is just a part of the journey,” he wrote in a recent post on LinkedIn in which he also shared an article by a team of business reporters that laid bare Allbirds’ challenges. Rather than criticising the article, he said he saw it as a reminder that “you are never as good or as bad as they say you are and that all of my best work has come when I’ve been written off.”
This week on The BoF Podcast, Brown speaks with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed on how his journey from the football pitch to the corporate boardroom prepared him to lead with resilience.
“It’s a funny thing with success — you have a little bit of it and then things get harder, and that’s good,” he says.
Stòffa’s made-to-measure menswear has cultivated a devoted, influential following. Now, the brand is betting that its forthcoming flagship retail store is its next step on the long path to building a legacy luxury label.
In a conservative investment environment, the few start-ups that can access traditional venture capital are opting to take out loans, and battle higher interest rates, to fund business essentials like marketing and inventory.
All that cash might be tempting, but the motivations of founders and venture investors are rarely aligned, writes Imran Amed.
The underwear start-up was once pegged as Gen-Z’s answer to Victoria’s Secret. But investors, executives and founder Cami Téllez couldn’t agree on whether to prioritise growth or profitability. They ended up with the worst of both worlds.