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These days it feels like there’s an app for everything. You have Instagram and TikTok for mindless scrolling and a potential career in influencing, Tinder and Hinge for an occasional reminder that dating sucks, and Seamless and Uber Eats to deliver your often overpriced (but totally worth it) restaurant meal…and pretty soon also your favorite pair of shoes. Let us explain.
Uber Eats has partnered with San Francisco-based Allbirds for on-demand delivery of a range of its curated shoes.
First announced at Uber’s annual climate event, Go-Get Zero, Allbirds comes on board as an “inaugural partner” of the company’s Climate Collection—“a curated selection of climate-conscious consumer brands available in-app,” Uber said in a press release.
Although the first batch of deliveries will be from Allbirds’s four “key stores” across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, there is potential for expansion across the nation.
“We’re always looking to come alongside companies who are on a similar journey to us, to deliver better things in better ways—whether that’s shoes, or rideshares,” Allbirds CEO Joe Vernachio told Retail Brew via email. “So, when Uber approached us earlier this year with the Climate Collection concept, we felt an immediate connection to the project, knowing it would make it easier for people to discover and purchase sustainable products from brands like ours.”
Now, if you’re like us, you’re wondering just why shoppers would need to have their shoes delivered via Uber Eats. Well, it comes down to the age (decade?) old need for convenience and speed.
“We know that consumers lead busy, dynamic lives, and they expect effortless shopping experiences,” Vernachio said. “We also know that many of our consumers live in major cities and metropolitan areas. When we overlaid Uber Eats’s users with our store locations, the overlap was astounding. In California, New York, and Illinois alone, there are millions of Uber Eats users within delivery distance of our stores.”
He added that this proximity to the customer bases would allow Allbirds to “support a more balanced and healthy distribution mix, and our introduction on Uber Eats will enable us to tap into their user base to increase awareness and offer rapid delivery that eases the shopping experience.”
And while the fast delivery times are definitely a plus, the sustainability component was just as important.
“Another important component here is that, once we’re live, order fulfillment will prioritize dispatch to couriers using a bike or an EV,” Vernachio said. “Given our focus on reducing the environmental impacts of our products’ life cycles, we’re galvanized by the potential of a more sustainable means of final-mile delivery, which is a typically carbon-intensive part of the process.”
Although Allbirds is currently its only footwear partner, the good news is it’s possible Uber will expand to include other retailers too. So keep an eye out and your Uber Eats subscription active.