Leaders with Lacqua Goes Green: Allbirds CEO Joey Zwillinger

Joey Zwillinger used his knowledge of sustainable product design to help build Allbirds into a multi-million-dollar company, as co-founder and CEO. He joined Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua for a wide-ranging conversation around reforming the footwear industry and the challenges of a leading company through the pandemic and where the next innovations in green apparel will come.

Allbirds has a unique design of running shoes made from New Zealand's merino wool, and it's won the company some notable fans. From a small, sustainable fashion startup, the company has grown rapidly, and went in public in NASDAQ in 2021, just five years after launching.

The CEO and co-founder discussed his multi-year effort to educate consumers on exactly what Allbirds is doing from a sustainability perspective and how they can help. He discussed the changing attitudes of shoppers towards renewable products and the challenges of green washing in the clothing industry.

Designing green materials for sustainable fashion

Allbirds took on a much bigger challenge than making a comfortable shoe or doing something in the fashion industry as a narrow opportunity and saw it as a big leadership opportunity, by offering something to consumers that was differentiated in the way it feels, more comfortable, higher performance, and using sustainable materials.

Zwillinger discussed how each little component of a shoe takes work, and often takes years of innovation. And in doing so, Allbirds won fans around the world with their reinvention of footwear to fit in with a more sustainable ethos.

Today, innovation is advancing at greater speed than ever. From transport to agriculture, from medicine to fashion, not one area of our lives is untouched by technological advancement. It’s an extraordinary time for innovation and it seems to be at the heart of virtually everything we do, including at Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich). In order to keep thinking like a 150-year-old start-up, Zurich encourages individuals and corporations to embrace fresh ideas and fresh input. Both from within an organization, but also through partnership and collaboration.

In the third episode of Leaders with Lacqua Goes Green, sponsored by Zurich, Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua sits down with Joey Zwillinger, Cofounder and CEO of Allbirds joins Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua for a wide-ranging conversation around reforming the footwear industry, greenwashing, and leading a business in the burgeoning green economy (Source: Bloomberg). Watch the full video for more insights, which was first aired on June 28, 2022, on Bloomberg.com.