Case study: How Allbirds used creators to elevate the everyday shoe

The Ask

How do you position comfort as cool? How do you convince someone scrolling through Instagram that they need another pair of trainers?

For the Tree Glider, the brief was to demonstrate its versatility in everyday life. It's an active-inspired style designed to transition seamlessly through a daily routine, from a morning coffee run to a Pilates class, without compromising on comfort.

For the Waterproof collection, the brief was to showcase the shoe as an essential for rainy days. Talents were asked to highlight it as the perfect choice for commuting or the school run, proving that you can stay dry without sacrificing your look.

The commercial goals were clear:

• Drive awareness and sales for both collections
• Shift perception: lifestyle-first, not sport-first
• Capture first-party customer data along the way

The Solution

We built the campaign around a simple idea: show the shoes being worn in real life, by real people, doing real things; spanning macro, mid, and micro tiers across wellness, parenting, casual lifestyle, and urban style communities.
Creators weren't asked to perform. They were asked to integrate Allbirds into the moments that already made up their days.

Instagram Reels captured weekend park walks, café shifts, and grocery errands. The Waterproof Collection was shown stepping through autumn puddles and wet leaves - functional, but never frumpy. Carousels focused on styling: the trainers paired with jeans, oversized jumpers, tailored coats. The kind of outfits people actually wear, not activewear aspirations.

Stories added a participatory layer, inviting followers to enter a giveaway - a free pair of Allbirds plus a night at The Pig Hotel - through each creator's KOMI page. It turned passive scrolling into active engagement while building Allbirds' email list.

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The Results

The campaign generated over 740,000 impressions and nearly 15,000 engagements across 50 pieces of content. But the most telling metric wasn't reach - it was reception. The campaign earned a 96% positive sentiment score.

That sentiment matters more than the numbers suggest. In a market where consumers are skeptical of ads and fatigued by obvious sponsorships, overwhelmingly positive responses signal something deeper: the content didn't feel like marketing. It felt helpful.

The campaign also delivered tangible commercial outcomes, product clicks and capturing email addresses - proof that awareness was translating into consideration.

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In the Brand’s Words...

“KOMI delivered two successful influencer campaigns to support our new shoe launch and to amplify an existing silhouette. They executed the campaign quickly, found the right partners for the brief, and helped us achieve the core campaign objectives. The campaigns generated strong engagement and positive audience sentiment at a scale and pace our small in-house team couldn’t have achieved alone.”‍
— Bianca Kapsalis, Brand Marketing Manager, Allbirds

Why It Worked

The success of this campaign wasn't about influencer star power or viral moments. It was about making the everyday shoe feel like an obvious choice.

By embedding Allbirds into the unremarkable rhythms of daily life - the school drop-off, the rainy commute, the weekend wander - KOMI made the product feel less like an aspiration and more like a solution. Viewers didn't see influencers selling shoes. They saw people like them solving the same problem: what to wear when you want to look good, feel comfortable, and get on with your day.

The 96% positive sentiment reflects that shift. When marketing stops feeling like an interruption and starts feeling like a recommendation, audiences respond differently. They trust it. They engage with it. And critically, they remember it.

For a brand trying to own the "everyday lifestyle shoe" category, that's not just a campaign win. It's a positioning victory. Allbirds didn't shout louder than the competition. They simply made themselves feel inevitable.