Allbirds Is Mostly Online Now — What Happened to the New Zealand Brand?

There are certain shoe and clothing brands that come along and gain a certain following among the young professional crowd. But for Allbirds, known mostly for its comfortable shoes but also apparel, it seemingly disappeared in the form of physical locations. This led new and old customers to wonder what happened to Allbirds and if the brick-and-mortar stores are gone for good.

Allbirds started out in 2014 with a dream and a Kickstarter campaign. More than $100,000 later, the dream became a reality, first with a pair of wool running shoes that didn't require socks and later, as an entire line of shoes and clothes. More than 10 years after its inception, though, things shifted a bit, so what happened to Allbirds?

Per the Kickstarter, it took less than a week for the creators behind Allbirds to reach their financial goal of expanding the brand and bringing the shoes and clothing to stores around the world. One of the ideas behind Allbirds was sustainability, and the apparel and shoes are made with that in mind, according to The Cut.

In January 2025, CNBC reported that Allbirds made an announcement to move the focus to online retail rather than the physical stores that were previously opened in multiple countries. The idea came about in an effort to shift costs to e-commerce rather than stores, which were in the United States.

"The company will close its remaining full-price stores in the U.S. by the end of February 2026, enabling Allbirds to dedicate resources toward its e-commerce platform, wholesale partnerships, and international distributorships, all of which offer greater reach, flexibility, and operating leverage," a press release on the Allbirds website explained.

In the same press release, CEO Joe Vernachio said that it was part of the company's "turnaround strategy" to increase profits overall. Despite the widespread closures, Allbirds did plan to keep two outlet stores open in the U.S. and two full-service locations open in London during the major transition.

There are still two outlet Allbirds locations open in the U.S. Per Retail Dive, those outlet locations are in Massachusetts and California. The store locator on the Allbirds website does show dozens of other locations where customers can buy Allbirds products, though that's because they are available at some sporting goods shops and inside other outlet malls without being in actual Allbirds stores.

The reason for the restructuring is financial, and even before Allbirds released the plans, customers suspected something was up because of low stock, according to a Reddit thread from 2024.

One user speculated, "They went from 10 stores to 60 stores in less than two years, oversaturating markets like Boston, NYC, and Los Angeles. They never figured out how to get the right amount of stock into their stores so they constantly had to shift shoes back to the warehouse, resulting in them sitting on millions of dollars of unsold inventory."