This feels like the 2026 version of companies adding "blockchain" to their name in 2017 and watching
the stock jump. The shoe business was real — they had a genuinely differentiated product with the
merino wool. Pivoting from a physical product with brand recognition to "AI" when you have no
obvious AI expertise or data moat is a tough sell beyond the initial hype pop.
phamilton 15 hours ago [-]
Isn't this just a SPAC?
The shoe business was sold, a shell of a public company was left, and it essentially acquired a brand new company focused on AI.
pseudohadamard 6 hours ago [-]
Yup, that's exactly what it is.
pseudohadamard 6 hours ago [-]
You can do something similar with any surplus kittens you need to rehome. Don't tell people they're friendly, don't scratch the furniture, are litterbox-trained, and get on well with children and other pets, just say they're quantum AI kittens and they'll practically fly out the door.
Incidentally, if anyone would like to buy a quantum AI Yugo, DM me.
flextheruler 1 days ago [-]
It honestly seems worse.
nikolay 11 hours ago [-]
Absolutely ridiculous. Their shoes business was going in the wrong direction - they started to offer plasticwear - and recently had to return a lot of merchandise as they didn't bother to put on the wool brand's website that their socks are mostly plastic. Their original hit was gone, replaced by lackluster versions. By the way, the shoes were made in South Korea.
damnesian 4 hours ago [-]
I've been expecting- maybe just haven't seen- some coincidental divestment. As in, they knew what the effect would be, just looking to make a little money on a doomed venture.
lagniappe 1 days ago [-]
Reminds me of Long Island Blockchain
junto 21 hours ago [-]
Reminds me of dotcom era pets.com
sph 15 hours ago [-]
Still waiting for pets.ai before calling the top
pipes 1 days ago [-]
Exactly what I tought
ChicagoBoy11 1 days ago [-]
Am I the only one who couldn't tell whether this was real or not for a good long while? I legitimately wondered whether the BBC site might have been hacked. I just simply cannot find a way to make sense of just about anything in the news story; I had just assumed it would go under and that's that. Why would someone who has that kind of money to invest put it into this pivot as opposed to a completely fresh, new effort? What's the efficiency I'm not seeing?
crazygringo 1 days ago [-]
Me too. It had me genuinely wondering if the Brits have their own version of April Fools in the middle of the month.
Forget the AI -- I'm just as shocked to see that shares went from $500+ in 2021 to below $3 this year. That's insane. I had to verify it's actually real.
I thought this was just a normal shoe company that had invented a cool look with some good branding.
quickthrowman 23 hours ago [-]
> I'm just as shocked to see that shares went from $500+ in 2021 to below $3 this year. That's insane. I had to verify it's actually real.
Well, sort of. They did a 20 for 1 reverse split in 2024, and possibly that wasn’t the only reverse split. That means the stock peaked at $25 (pre reverse split) and dipped below $0.25 (if the reverse split didn’t happen) so they did a reverse split to stay listed on the NYSE, as you need $1/share minimum price or something like that.
Number of shares and share price are completely arbitrary, FWIW.
extraduder_ire 22 hours ago [-]
Don't most stock charting websites backdate splits to show the price as it would be with current stock?
t0mas88 11 hours ago [-]
Yes, that's how you get a $500 historic price. It wasn't at 500 at the time, but due to the reverse split the current price is correct relative to a $500 historic price.
gehwartzen 24 hours ago [-]
The market in general has gone completely off the rails
zardo 1 days ago [-]
It's already listed, so they can get retail gamblers to buy in on day one.
vrganj 1 days ago [-]
There's no efficiency. Markets are a casino where people with no domain knowledge and automated systems make bets.
If people stop betting on your thing, it behooves you to rebrand it into whatever the magic beans of the moment are.
1 days ago [-]
heywire 22 hours ago [-]
This new season of HBO’s Silicon Valley is wild!
pedalpete 20 hours ago [-]
Not as funny as the original, but available everywhere, instead of just HBO.
ninju 1 days ago [-]
They should go ahead and drop one the L's from their name and become ALBirds and further embrace the lunacy :-)
Terr_ 1 days ago [-]
Then also make the second letter lowercase, to further bait the irrationally exuberant depending on font: "AlBird" versus "AIBird".
The shoe business was sold, a shell of a public company was left, and it essentially acquired a brand new company focused on AI.
Incidentally, if anyone would like to buy a quantum AI Yugo, DM me.
Forget the AI -- I'm just as shocked to see that shares went from $500+ in 2021 to below $3 this year. That's insane. I had to verify it's actually real.
I thought this was just a normal shoe company that had invented a cool look with some good branding.
Well, sort of. They did a 20 for 1 reverse split in 2024, and possibly that wasn’t the only reverse split. That means the stock peaked at $25 (pre reverse split) and dipped below $0.25 (if the reverse split didn’t happen) so they did a reverse split to stay listed on the NYSE, as you need $1/share minimum price or something like that.
Number of shares and share price are completely arbitrary, FWIW.
If people stop betting on your thing, it behooves you to rebrand it into whatever the magic beans of the moment are.
Discussions:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778038
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47778762