New Zealand's previous prime minister sported Allbirds (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images) |
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Hey Snackers, Work from home < work from helm? Richard Branson's Virgin Voyages is marketing month-long, adult-only cruises for remote workers who want to Google Meets from the high seas. At a starting price of $10K for two people, they'd better have blazing WiFi. Stocks dipped yesterday after producer prices came in hotter than expected. Still, in the first 50 trading days of the year, the S&P 500 had 17 record closing highs — the most in that period since 1998. Traders expect the Fed will keep rates steady at its meeting next week. |
š Luck o' the quiz-ish: Shamrock-'n'-roll into our Snacks Seven Quiz (seven's a lucky number, after all). Try the first Q: |
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Fewer birds… Sustainable footwear brand and elder-millennial fave Allbirds can't seem to shake its Icarus moment. This week the quarter-zip of feet reported its second CEO switch-up in the past year, and announced it's closing up to 15 stores. Sales sagged over the past five quarters, and Allbirds stock has lost 96% of its value since its 2021 IPO. The one-time darling was worth $4B post-IPO; now it's worth less than $120M. |
- Soleless: Work-appropriate and nondescript, Allbirds rose to Silicon Valley prominence as the anti- Crocs. But some customers complained the shoes' core material (merino wool) isn't very durable, and rivals like On and Hoka have snagged market share.
- Production blisters: In trying to address customers' frustrations, Allbirds did a redesign last year, but it hit a last-minute snag when liners inside ~30K pairs of Wool Runner shoes were incorrectly sized.
- Off-path: Once public, Allbirds tried to grow its 30-to-40-year-old core demo and rival Lululemon and Nike with athleisure and apparel. The bet failed, and the company ditched its running gear in late 2022.
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D2D doldrums… Direct-to-consumer companies like Allbirds, Casper (mattresses), and Away (luggage) were boosted by social-media ads, venture-capital funding, and a pandemic ecomm boom. Now the prices of ads, raw materials, and shipping have risen while interest rates have soared, creating a growth snag. Casper went private again in 2021 after a poor year of trading, and Nike quietly backed away from its pivot to D2C, reestablishing partnerships with wholesalers. |
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 THE TAKEAWAY
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It's hard to outrun a core problem… Allbirds' differentiator — sustainability — could also be a part of its struggle. Some customers dropped the brand after they said their eco-friendly merino-wool sneakers became damaged shortly after purchase. Instead of focusing on material issues (pun intended), Allbirds expanded to new products like puffer jackets and $90 merino-wool dresses. But if the core product's reputation is struggling, stepping into new territory can be a hard sell. |
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An alternative way to age |
Cell-by date… Feeling run down? The reason why might be cell-deep. Research shows that our mitochondria (AKA cellular powerhouses) take on damage as we age, throwing off our energy balance. ~90% of our cellular energy is produced by mitochondria, so their progressive decline leads to reduced energy production and muscle function. But cellular aging is getting old. The gamechanger… Scientists have discovered a molecule called Urolithin A, a game-changer for healthy aging. Urolithin A directly targets cellular aging by renewing your body's cellular engines and giving the mitochondria new life. Mitopure® by Timeline Nutrition is the only clinically validated, highly pure Urolithin A supplement. Taken daily, Mitopure renews your mitochondria — and clinical studies have shown it to increase endurance and muscle strength without any change in exercise. Snackers get 30% off Mitopure with code SNACKS30. |
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An alternative way to age |
Cell-by date… Feeling run down? The reason why might be cell-deep. Research shows that our mitochondria (AKA cellular powerhouses) take on damage as we age, throwing off our energy balance. ~90% of our cellular energy is produced by mitochondria, so their progressive decline leads to reduced energy production and muscle function. But cellular aging is getting old. The gamechanger… Scientists have discovered a molecule called Urolithin A, a game-changer for healthy aging. Urolithin A directly targets cellular aging by renewing your body's cellular engines and giving the mitochondria new life. Mitopure® by Timeline Nutrition is the only clinically validated, highly pure Urolithin A supplement. Taken daily, Mitopure renews your mitochondria — and clinical studies have shown it to increase endurance and muscle strength without any change in exercise. Snackers get 30% off Mitopure with code SNACKS30. |
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| Saylor's stackin' sats… MicroStrategy, an enterprise-software biz that talks a lot about AI, said this week that it purchased 12K bitcoin for $820M. The announcement came the same day the crypto's price hit a new all-time high (since surpassed), and on Wednesday MicroStrategy said it planned to raise $500M to buy even more BTC. The company's exec chairman, Michael Saylor (a "bitcoin maximalist"), said it currently owns 205K BTC (that's $15B worth). This week's purchase solidified MicroStrategy's place as one of the largest publicly traded HODLers of the OG crypto. But it isn't the only company coppin' coins: |
- Muskoin: As of this month, Tesla's crypto wallets were said to hold 11K+ bitcoin. That's up 1.7K coins from the last time the company reported earnings.
- Unblocked: Block (fka Square) held about 8K BTC as of December and Coinbase about 9K (separate from the coins that it custodies for customers).
- BTW: A recent accounting-rule change benefits companies that hold crypto by letting them recognize unrealized price gains on their balance sheets.
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Behind the buys… There's no direct connection between crypto and MicroStrategy's day-to-day biz, but the investment strategy's been a boon for the company's share price. Crypto-curious investors saw the stock as a way to get exposure to bitcoin without having to actually hold any coins. It paid off for MicroStrategy: its shares have more than 7X'd on the year. Now that the SEC has approved spot bitcoin ETFs, there are more options for crypto exposure, but those carry management fees. |
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THE TAKEAWAY |
Alt investments come with alt risk… MicroStrategy's stock boomed with the price of bitcoin, but that comes at the cost of tying the company's future to the crypto. When bitcoin's up, that works out for shareholders. But crypto's a notoriously volatile asset, and MicroStrategy's big investment could mean exposure to risks a typical enterprise-software company may not face. Saylor, meanwhile, said his company planned to hold on to bitcoin for 100 years. |
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š¶️ Spicy… A UK judge said that Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who's long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto (the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin), is not Satoshi. The judge said the evidence was "overwhelming." šø Flashy… Altcoin advocates raised $700K+ to display the meme behind the memecoin du jour, dogwifhat, on the Las Vegas Sphere. (Picture: a Shiba Inu in a beanie.) The token, launched on solana late last year, is up ~500% over the past month. š¤ Techy… Ethereum developers pulled off an update to the blockchain that'll cut layer-2 transaction fees. It's the biggest change since the chain's move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, and analysts think it'll boost use of L2 projects. |
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- Mnuchies: A just-passed bill in the US House would ban TikTok unless ByteDance ditches the app. Enter: former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who's forming a squad of investors to buy the Tok.
- MiuMiu: Prada added nearly $3B in market value after reporting double-digit sales and profit growth. Other ultra-luxe brands like HermĆØs and Rolex have benefited as the wealthy splurge on statement pieces.
- Cul-de-sac: Lennar shares fell after the US's second-largest homebuilder missed Q1 sales estimates, but deliveries jumped 23%. Lennar cut prices to entice iffy buyers, but expects home demand to heat up this spring.
- Allazon: Amazon's planning a six-day sale, its first that's open to non-Prime members. The "Big Spring Sale" (zero creativity points) could lure customers from budget rivals Temu and Shein as shoppers seek discounts.
- Spark: EV startup Fisker is reportedly prepping for a possible bankruptcy as electric demand hits the brakes. Fisker (which prices cars from $39K) made its first deliveries last year but had $1B+ in debt.
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Girls' wrestling is the US's fastest-growing high-school sport |
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- Earnings expected from Groupon and Soho House
- St. Patrick's Day on Sunday
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Authors of this Snacks own bitcoin, ethereum, and shares of: Amazon, Block, and Tesla |
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