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How a $4B sneaker brand became an AI company
18 Jun 2026

Shoe manufacturer-turned-AI infrastructure firm, Allbirds, has announced a major rebranding and executive change. The company will now be known as Smartbird.

It has also appointed Nadia Carlsten as its new CEO and board member. She replaces Joe Vernachio, the current CEO.

Carlsten previously led Amazon Web Services' quantum computing center and served at the US Department of Homeland Security.

Carlsten was previously CEO of DCAI
Leadership transition

Before her new role, Carlsten was CEO of DCAI, an AI infrastructure company that recently partnered with NVIDIA.

Following the announcement of its rebranding and leadership change, Smartbird's shares skyrocketed by 39% on Wednesday.

This comes after a similar spike when Allbirds first announced its pivot to AI infrastructure earlier this year.

Allbirds's pivot to AI infrastructure
Business shift

Allbirds surprised investors in April with its plans to shift from making shoes to AI compute infrastructure and hardware.

The company's market cap had surged sevenfold after the announcement.

This came a month after Allbirds sold its footwear assets for $39 million and it shuttered its US full-priced stores in February.

Allbirds went public in 2021, and its stock surge briefly valued the sneaker company at around $4.1 billion at the time.

Manufacturing equipment for shoes sold off
Future plans

In an interview with Business Insider, Carlsten said she was "blissfully unaware of all things Allbirds," and insisted, "in a few months, people won't even remember the shoes."

She also revealed that all manufacturing equipment related to the shoe-making business has been sold.

Carlsten is now looking to hire a new team from scratch for Smartbird's future operations.