Consumer Goods

Allbirds

Allbirds is the merino wool shoe company Tim Brown co-founded from New Zealand, built on natural materials and listed on the Nasdaq.

Allbirds
Founded:
2016
Location:
San Francisco (co-founder from NZ)
Website:
allbirds.com
Listed:
Nasdaq (2021)
Material:
New Zealand merino wool
What they make:
Footwear and apparel from natural materials
Last updated 3 June 2026

Allbirds is a footwear and apparel company co-founded by New Zealander Tim Brown and American Joey Zwillinger in 2016. Brown, a former All White (New Zealand men's football international), developed the idea of a shoe made from New Zealand merino wool: simple, comfortable and built from natural materials rather than synthetics.

Allbirds launched as a direct-to-consumer brand, listed on the Nasdaq in 2021 and has since expanded into retail stores across the United States and internationally. The company has faced the challenge every DTC brand encounters at scale: maintaining the simplicity that made it distinctive.

Why Noteworthy

Allbirds is the highest-profile consumer product to emerge from a New Zealand founder in the last decade. Brown took a NZ material (merino) and a NZ design sensibility (restraint, simplicity) and built a global brand on it.

About this profile

This profile was researched and written by Noteworthy using publicly available sources. If something here is out of date or incorrect, let us know and we’ll review it.

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