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And so this Sisyphean effort that I was undergoing where it felt like I was almost just pushing string all the time trying to convince these people to do what they actually were saying to consumers that they were doing felt like there was an opportunity to instead of make the component, go downstream and curate these components.
我正在经历这种西西弗斯式的徒劳努力，感觉我一直在推销一系列的东西，试图说服这些人按照他们对消费者的承诺去做。这些人感觉有机会去下游管理这些组件，而不是制造组件。
And fortunately, at that moment, Tim's wife and my wife, who happened to be best friends from college, said, hey, this project that Tim's working on is going well, but he's kind of struggling on some of the business side, some of the materials side.
幸运的是，在那时候，蒂姆的妻子和我的妻子恰好是大学里最好的朋友，了解到蒂姆正在着手的项目进展顺利，但是他在一些商业方面、一些材料方面遇到了困难。
I was looking for a brand opportunity, having not been a sneakerhead at all in my life.
我当时也正在寻找一个品牌机会，我这辈子根本就不会是一个球鞋迷。
And some of my friends previously would laugh at the idea that I'm in the fashion industry now.
我的一些老朋友嘲笑我现在在时尚界工作。
But that was the meeting of two separate paths that came together for material innovation and consumer insights and design to bring something and make something special.
不过，那是两条不同道路的交汇，将材料创新与消费者洞察设计相融合，为大家带来一些特别的产品。
Yeah, and we often see that happen. So things happen at the juncture of these things.
是的，我们经常会看到这样的情况，不同的道路相互交汇融合。
So it's a great example of just two seemingly disciplines coming together in a way that creates something new and some true innovation.
这是一个很好的例子，两个不同的领域相结合，创造一些全新的产品，实现一些真正的创新。
I'm wondering about your initial pitches.
我想知道你最初的推销情况。
When you went out to get some support for this in the investment community, how did you pitch it? And what was the reaction?
当你去寻求投资界的支持时，你是怎么推销的? 他们的反应是什么?
I would say early on, the idea of unlocking naturally derived materials to create amazing products, that was in there, but we had to also add a compelling go-to market strategy and really focus on that.
在初期，我们有利用自然衍生材料创造一鸣惊人产品的想法，但我们必须增加一个令人信服的进入市场的策略，并真正专注于此。
And if you think back to 2015, there was no direct-to-consumer or vertical retail business in the footwear industry at any kind of scale.
如果你回顾一下2015年，会发现鞋履业还没有任何规模的直接面向消费者的垂直零售业务。
And so focusing on an initial product concept like the Wool Runner and unlocking value through a go-to market strategy was something that was compelling to our seed investors.
专注于像Wool Runner(跑鞋)这样的初始产品概念，并通过进入市场的策略释放价值，这对我们的种子投资人来说具有说服力。
There was a handful of folks in there, our lead investors at the time and a couple of others who really saw the very long-term potential of being able to say, OK, that might be an interesting $100, $200, $300 million business over time, but could it be something bigger?
当时有少数几个人支持我们，他们是主要投资人和其他几个人，他们看到了它的长期潜力后说，随着时间的推移，这可能是一个价值1亿、2亿、3亿美元的优秀业务，不过，它能发展壮大吗？
And to be something much bigger, it had to be a platform that could extend well beyond a single product or a single material innovation.
要发展壮大，它必须是一个超出单一产品或单一材料创新的平台。
Some people believed in us to be able to do that.
有些人相信我们能实现这一目标。
When we coupled that together, we compelled some smart people to get on board.
当我们把这些结合在一起时，我们必须让一些聪明人加入进来。
And that was a very helpful moment to get our first $2 million and be able to really inject into the business and invest into the business what we needed to to get a great start.
这是一个非常有帮助的时刻，我们得到了第一笔200万美元，能够真正投入到业务中，投资到我们需要的业务中，以获得一个良好的开端。
Mike, let me ask you this. As we think about how Allbirds is differentiating themselves in the marketplace, we're hearing about the innovations that they're using in terms of materials.
迈克，我来问你。当我们思考Allbirds如何在市场中脱颖而出时，我们听到了他们在材料方面所做的创新。
So this is a brand that's largely built around and premised on sustainability.
这是一个主要建立在可持续发展基础上的品牌。
