You shouldn't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

...so that was exactly what I did. I tested out my Allbirds Piper shoes by walking in them for a day because I wanted to know: what gave this brand, which started out first with shoes in San Francisco made with New Zealand wool, its cult following? I mean, yes, it's comfortable, and yes, it's in simple trendy colours that go with everything, and yes, it's also really good for the environment.

The San Francisco-based shoe and apparel brand with a cult following has just opened its first Canadian store in the charming Kitsilano community in Vancouver. When asked why they selected Vancouver as the home of their first Canadian store, Co-Founder and CEO Joey Zwillinger shares, "the Allbirds brand and products meld so well with the Vancouver lifestyle: casual, outdoor-oriented, and an epicentre for health and wellness. The Kitsilano neighbourhood is the pinnacle example of this in the region, and we're delighted that this is our first brick-and-mortar presence in the market."

*Allbirds store on West 4th in Kitsilano, Vancouver.*

Being a Vancouverite, I was skeptical at first because our city is quite eco-conscious with more than a few social enterprises aimed at reducing waste, upcycling, and lessening our carbon footprint -- could this be a case of greenwashing?

I didn't want to make that judgement before I've 1. done my homework and 2. tried out those shoes(!) So I went combed through the website, and read the company's Flight Plan, a 3-year plan the brand has devised to not just deliver on zero emissions. The still relatively young brand of 6 years has done well with their sustainability goals already, reaching carbon neutral status with their products. They eventually aim to be climate positive, which would be a pioneering story in the fashion industry.

As I read these goals I questioned: how are they going to do this? I'm sure they've come across consumers like me because the brand has laid out concrete steps on the website. I was intrigued as I read about their 3-pronged plan to engage in regenerative agriculture, cultivate and use renewable materials in their products, and identify the manufacturing and logistical partners to ensure responsible energy use.

You may be thinking, fluffy terms! What do they actually mean?

Regenerative Agriculture: shifting farming practices to create healthy soil to remove CO2e (carbon emissions) from the atmosphere

Renewable Materials: Replacing petroleum-based materials (that burn and add CO2e into the atmosphere) with natural ones, and inventing alternatives that don't yet exist.

Responsible Energy: Using cleaner fuel and electricity, and using less of them to begin with.

You can learn more about Allbird's sustainable practices here.

If you walk into the Allbirds store on West 4th you'll see graphics on the wall that aim to tell the story. Which renewable material goes into this shoe? How are the materials regenerative? How much carbon emissions are generated by each shoe?

Being a shoe and apparel brand truly committed to sustainability by walking the talk is just one of the many reasons why Allbirds has garnered a cult following. Speaking with the team during our store visit, we learned that the brand has identified 3 key customer groups, the largest being the Comfort Chaser who is drawn to the brand by its ultra-comfortable shoes, then there is the Culture Creator who loves both the style and sustainable the brand offers, and finally, the Impact Innovators who are strong advocates of the brand and its mission, singing their praises everywhere they go.

I was intrigued, impressed, hooked, because so few brands dig so deep into brand and culture. For the staff from the headquarters to the store level to have such a deep commitment to the brand's mission and values, this is a winning strategy. I wanted to learn more about what brought the brand to where it is today, and where the team anticipates the brand will be headed, so I asked Co-Founder Joey Zwillinger to share more about the company that bridges San Francisco and New Zealand.

P: How does the Allbirds Flight Plan cut your carbon footprint by half in less than 3 years?

Like most consumer products, a vast majority of the carbon footprint of a shoe originates from materials and manufacturing, so naturally, we focus here on our most significant innovation efforts. This includes introducing new to the world materials and methods of manufacturing like we have with our Sweetfoam™ soles on the Dasher, as well as our newest sole material Swiftfoam™ which blends premium, plant oil-derived foam with a novel manufacturing technique that utilizes much less energy than the typical injection molding process that our competitors use. While this is at the core of our research and development, we also focus on aspects such as durability of the product, transportation, and end-of-life.

P: Does your R&D and design process to produce a new product take much longer in order to ensure your entire product portfolio is carbon neutral?

Yes. Our industry relies on fossil-fuel-derived components for almost everything they do, yet, we’ve constrained our innovation process to rely on low-carbon materials from nature. This is hard, as we are paving new ground, and it takes an extra commitment from our supply chain partners to deploy these unique materials into their manufacturing lines. While challenging, it’s both the right thing to do for the earth and our consumer, and as we do this systematically, becomes our key competitive advantage in the industry.

*The lightweight everyday sneaker women’s Tree Pipers in Kaikoura White at 9.8kg CO2e. Photo: Allbirds*

P: With carbon footprint labelling, it’s a great step to let consumers know how their consumption is impacting the environment. Could you give us an idea of what the carbon footprint of a regular pair of shoes would be as a benchmark?

The industry average is estimated to be 14 kg of CO2-e, and currently, ours typically are 30-40% less, and sometimes even lower on shoes. We made an amazing running shoe that was less than 3 kg (79% less than the average!) because of our innovative, natural materials. It is from that great starting point that we have committed to halve our impact by 2025 and cut it to more than 95% by 2030. And, along the way, we make every pair carbon neutral with the use of offsets to live by our philosophy that businesses should pay for their pollution.

P: In order for a product to be labelled as using regenerative wool, it would be using merino wool and also a farmer/partner that engages in regenerative farming practices. Is this correct?

Absolutely. Sheep have been important members of our flock since day one, and thus, we’ve prioritized getting to know their farmers. With the help of partners like The New Zealand Merino Company, who established ZQRX in partnership with Allbirds, a scientific index to help growers continuously improve environmental and human outcomes, they connect us with farms like Temple Peak Station on the South Island of New Zealand, where growers are regenerating the land for generations to come. We’ve been in consistent conversation about how we can be supportive on our mutual journey to transform all of our farms into a regenerative model. We’re working with them to increase the supply of regenerative wool, while also creating innovative financing models to incentivize them to use their land to store carbon. Since we've committed to 100% of our wool coming from regenerative sources by 2025, all of our wool-based products will eventually derive from regenerative farming.

P: The brand launched the 2.94KG CO2E running shoe in collaboration with Adidas earlier this year. Are there other similar partnerships in the works with brands tapped into the mass consumer market to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry?

Our partnership with Adidas is an example of what can happen when two competing brands from the same industry see the possibilities of coming together. Another breakthrough we’ve contributed to the industry was our Sweetfoam™. This sole comes from a carbon negative material that we invented in partnership with Braskem using a waste stream from sugarcane processing in Brazil - and we outsourced this technology so that everyone in the industry can benefit from our development, and the planet can get the benefit of replacing one of the most ubiquitous and fossil-fuel-based foams in the industry. You’ll have to wait and see what we have coming down the pipeline, but right now this is a call to action for other brands, and a milestone in the sports industry achieving carbon neutrality. It’s not going to be fixed by one person, so we’re all in this race together.

P: The carbon footprint for the Adidas collaboration runners is surprisingly low at 2.94KG versus, for example, the women’s Tree Loungers that are 7.6kG and wool runners at 9.9KG. What helped to cut the footprint of this particular design to less than half of other shoes in the brand product lineup?

With this project, less was really more. Together, we collaborated across product design, material innovation, sustainability and supply chain studying every component and all aspects of the process with an analytical methodology. Everything from the materials, manufacturing techniques and even packaging was taken into account to reach the lowest possible footprint – whilst chasing the vision for a low-carbon shoe without compromising on performance. For example, the shoe’s upper is made using 70% high-performance recycled polyester, and 30% Tree material from our other lines of products of the same name - for a smooth, lightweight upper that lives up to performance expectations with a highly reduced carbon impact. We also constructed the shoe with the tangram principle that fits pieces together with waste reduction in mind. At the end of the day, we are on a mission to reverse climate change with better business and to do that, requires working together. Our Flight Plan has us working hard to get all of our products to less than 95% of what we emit today by 2030!

*The Tree Flyer in Buoyant Yellow comes in at just 9.92kg CO2e. Photo: Allbirds*

P: Allbirds has an extensive list of unique partnerships, from working with Portuguese Graphic Artist and illustrator Bráulio Amado, to upcycling with Chinatown Market. What are the criteria when it comes to selecting a collaboration partner?

We partner with designers, brands, and other personalities that share our values that great products can make you look good and feel good, all while doing good. That is the number one criteria. Then, we hope that partnerships like the ones we did with Braulio Amado or Rosie Assoulan can help us meet a new audience that may not be aware of Allbirds. We are young – having founded the company in 2016 – so we have a lot of “hellos” yet to say!

P: Tell us about the Carbon Footprint Tool - have you seen a pickup of this tool since Allbirds launched it in April last year?

You can’t reduce what you don’t measure, which is why we created our Carbon Calculator to encourage the fashion industry to take accountability for its impact on the planet. We are proud to be the first fashion brand to label every product we make with a carbon footprint. And, we’re also the first fully carbon neutral shoe company of any reasonable scale, which we achieve by using carbon offsets while we work to make our shoes net zero emissions from our own operations. Our hope is that one day (soon!) shoppers will compare carbon numbers at the mall like they do nutritional labels in grocery aisles. In our journey to climate positivity, we must hold ourselves accountable and we hope other businesses will feel inspired to follow in our footsteps. There's strength in numbers and we hope that other brands start labelling their products, too.

P: The company has admirable goals to reduce carbon footprint to zero by 2025 through regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy use; which of these three elements has the greatest impact?

There is no silver bullet solution to fighting climate change, so it’s important that as a company, we develop and implement a variety of different strategies to have a widespread impact. As a business, we are betting on regenerative agriculture being one of these strategies and we are excited about its potential. Not only does regenerative agriculture represent a huge opportunity to reverse climate change, but it also provides added benefits to local communities, biodiversity, ecology, the long-term viability of the land...the list goes on. Each of the 10 initiatives we have under these three important pillars of the Flight Plan allow us to commit to the world that we are striving to achieve a 50% reduction by 2025 and more than a 95% reduction by 2030. The time to act is now!

P: With renewable materials, how does Allbirds propose to double the lifetime of its products? How will this be measured?

Durability is a critical factor that we look at to extend the life of our products, which can also contribute to reducing our overall carbon footprint of each product. We rely on our natural materials innovation engine to keep producing amazing experiences for customers that feel good and last a long time. And when customers are finally done with their shoes, we offer a take-back program that allows us to give the shoes a second life.

P: Logistics and shipping are key issues the retail industry faces today with unprecedented disruptions to the supply chain. How does this impact Allbirds’ commitment to responsible energy use?

Transportation is a key factor we manage both for costs so that we can keep delivering amazing shoes at attractive prices to customers, as well as to manage our overall carbon impact. We seek to use the lowest carbon shipping options at every juncture. While the supply chain has seen unprecedented disruptions during the pandemic, we are proud that we have increased the amount of product that is on oceans instead of air freight.

After my interview with Joey, I am even more intrigued and will be keeping a close eye on the development of this thriving company defying the industry norm.

“Getting better starts with asking better questions. We can’t solve this global crisis alone, so it’s time to start asking questions and making empowered decisions – because you can’t reduce what you don’t measure.”

— Joey Zwillinger, on what fashion brands can do today for a better tomorrow

I recommend stopping by their first Canadian store location in the sunny Kitsilano neighbourhood to learn more and also to pick up a pair of the colourful sugar sliders that will be your go-to slip-on for at least the next few months.