The company behind the 'world's most comfortable shoe' is planning on opening stores across America. Here's what it's like to shop at one.
The new Allbirds flagship store is on Spring Street in SoHo, around the corner from its temporary store on Prince Street. In addition to the new flagship store, Allbirds plans on opening eight stores in the US in the next year, and potentially two more globally.
I got to the store right when it opened on Tuesday, and there were already a few people shopping there.
The store design is very minimalist. Everything seemed very light, making the space feel bigger than it was. According to Allbirds, the new store is more than 4,800 square feet of space.
The store design isn't like a typical shoe warehouse with boxes of shoes in every size stacked up. There are only a handful of shoes on display in the whole store, and they're organized by style and material.
Near each display, there are details of what the shoes are made of and how they're made.
Allbirds shoes are typically made from trees ...
... wool ...
... or sugarcane. The shoes made from trees and wool material typically cost $95, and the flip-flops made from sugarcane cost $35.
Allbirds is very transparent about all of the materials used in its shoes, providing descriptions of them throughout the store.
It also sells extras like shoe laces in three different colors ...
... and insoles designed specifically for Allbirds shoes.
In the center of the store are a few seating areas to try on shoes, with a lot of space to walk around and make sure they fit. If you want to try on shoes, you have to ask for help, because there are no actual pairs readily available. That could be helpful if you don't know what you need, but it could also cause a bottleneck if the store gets busy.
All in all, the new Allbirds shop is not your typical shoe store.
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