Allbirds Turns Sneaker Collapse Into an AI Compute Trade

What this move establishes is not that Allbirds has found a credible second act. It shows that AI infrastructure has become a financing category detached from operating history. The same company coverage describes as ditching sustainable footwear can now ask investors to price an imagined compute business, and the casual online response captured the market's own premise: the absurdity is no longer disqualifying ^[1]. That gives distressed consumer brands a new script, but it also trains investors to reward AI adjacency before capacity exists.