Allbirds, a San Francisco-based shoe retailer, is growing its presence in the West Coast. During a recent second quarter earnings call, the company announced a new headquarters space in Portland.
Opening earlier this spring, the new office space will serve as a design and innovation hub for the company, employing 22 workers. According to Tim Brown, co-CEO of Allbirds, the space will advance the company’s creative endeavors, bringing new sustainable design initiatives to consumers.
“I’m excited to share that we are launching a new design and product hub in Portland, Oregon. This office will serve as the creative headquarters for the majority of our design and product development teams enabling us to centralize resources, operate with greater agility and access world-class talent in the Greater Portland area,” Brown said during the earnings call.
Allbirds has not confirmed much else about the project and did not respond to a request for comment. However, more information is likely to come in a future earnings call.
“This is just a teaser of what’s to come. We’ll have more to discuss on our Q3 earnings call, but needless to say, we’re excited to be bringing yet another groundbreaking Allbirds franchise to market,” Brown continued.
Founded in 2015 in San Francisco, the company also maintains offices in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Boulder, Cambridge, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. Overall, the company serves customers across 36 countries through its website and 49 Allbirds stores.
Despite the new addition to the Portland office market, reports indicate that the region remains in recovery with a vacancy rate of 20.2 percent. According to a second quarter office market report from CBRE, sublease availability across the overall office market increased to more than 1.5 million square feet in the second quarter of the year, an increase of 5.3 percent from the previous quarter. However, at the same time, average direct asking rates are climbing, increasing by 5.5 percent over the past year.
