Allbirds Co-Founder Tim Brown Talks Travel

In a new Wall Street Journal series, the newspaper interviews designers, artists and entertainers about where they’re travelling this summer, what they’re packing, how they stay entertained in-flight and more. First up, it’s New Zealand’s own Tim Brown, co-founder of mega-popular shoe company, Allbirds.

Brown went from wearing through plenty of shoes as a soccer player for the Wellington Phoenix to starting his very own minimalist, sustainable shoe brand with American biotech engineer and renewables expert Joey Zwillinger in 2016.

This past week, Brown returned home to New Zealand for the opening of his home country’s first Allbirds storefront in Auckland’s Britomart, giving him the bonus opportunity to catch up with family and friends and purchase his favourite New Zealand-specific treats. Here, he talks to WSJ about his go-to luggage and the one activity he likes to fit into his schedule before a long flight.

“Coming to New Zealand is always special,” Brown tells WSJ.

“I always take my laptop [when packing]. It would be remiss of me not to say Allbirds, because they are always a part of my everyday uniform, but certainly my travel uniform. Then books and reading. I have a couple of subscriptions to different magazines that never get read and then they get stacked up.”

“I think that exercise before you get on a plane is always a really good idea,” he says. “There’s something about sitting for so long that I think is not always the nicest feeling, but if you’ve exercised or done something strenuous beforehand, it somehow feels better and you feel like you’re recovering, rather than getting antsy. I always try to book in some sort of decent run or a bit of exercise before I fly and I usually enjoy the trip much more because of that.”

Original article by Natalia Barr, Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2019.