The Best One Yet - 🐤 “Eucalyptus pulp shoes” — Allbirds’ carbon counting. Facebook’s un-Giphy-ing. Coal’s Santa nemesis.

Episode Date: December 1, 2021

Allbirds just reported its first earnings report since the shoe company IPO’d… now the challenge is to get consumers to care about carbon like they care about calories. Facebook was just told by the UK to cancel its acquisition of Gif-platform Giphy, but it may not comply. And just in time for Santa, coal prices are spiking to 10 year highs - just as coal faces a shocking new nemesis.$BIRD $BTU $FBGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, December 1st. Happy December. Happy fourth night of Hanukkah. For the fourth night, Stocks dropped.

Yeah, that's what happened on the fourth. The Dow gave itself a present. It took the day off. Also, yesterday was giving Tuesday. It was. Today can be giving Wednesday. You don't need to limit giving to Tuesday. Whatever money you had apparently left over from Cyber Monday.

That's how you get the tax right off. Snackers, today's pod is the best one yet. It's a TBI-Y. Jack, first story. What do we got? Allbirds. release their first earnings report since the shoe company IPF. But whatever you do, Snackers, don't call it a shoe company.

Oh, shoot. I just called it a shoe company. The whole takeaway is ruined. For our second story, Facebook acquired Giffy, the leader in GIFs last year, but the UK is telling Facebook no. So like an angry parent, the UK is ordering Facebook to go to its room and return Giffy. For our third and final story, just in time for Santa. Coal prices have hit their highest level in over a decade.

And the ultimate climate change hero fighting coal is a middle-aged insurance salesman. What do I got to do to get you in this climate change insurance? You look great in that shirt. You got to get out of the coal. But Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix. Honestly, what a wild mix today, Jack. Sometimes a baby is born. Yeah, sometimes a star is born.

Yesterday, we're celebrating because a republic was born. Barbados, it is now its own independent republic. For nearly 400 years, the Queen of England has reigned over this island nation, Barbados. Queen Elizabeth II, great lady, she likes lapdogs, warm milk, and being the head of state of Barbados too. Now, Barbados has been an independent nation since 1966, but now the Caribbean country has officially cut their ties with the crown. So first came Brexit, now comes Barbagsit. But the biggest winner of Barbados breaking up with England officially, Rihanna.

The first official decision by the new Republican Barbados, make sure. Robin Rihanna Fenty, a national hero. And national heroes basically like Nighting or Sainthood, but no sort involved. Oh, exactly. Rihanna is now the Honorable Rihanna. Actually, if you see her and address her, there's like, going to be an awkwardness because you may have to bow.

You should probably salute. Honorable Umbrella Ella, Ella. So England, they're saying, Adios Barbados. While Barbados says, hey, hey, re-read. Feels like a plot twist from season 12 of the crown. Let's hit our three stories. Yeah, congratulations, the youngest republic on planet Earth. For snacks about the hair ain't food, it's air candy.

They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC.

For our first story, all birds, they just had their first earnings since their IP. Nick, next gift as the podfather for your pod son. I know what you're thinking. You know they have kids, Auburts. Smallbirds. Yeah. The podson will get this. I got to retain my podfather status. Snackers, Allbirds IPOed one month ago.

The stock doubled on the first day, but it's fallen by 30% since. If you haven't seen Auburts, you know, Alberts. They're the Patagonia fleece of your feet. If you try to fundraise money in Silicon Valley, but you're not wearing the shoes, you just get an error message. I think in business school, they told us, Jack, you got to have a pitch deck, You got to have financial projections, and you got to have the Heather Grey Albirds with the white souls. Now, a majority of Allbirds's sales are from those famous wool shoes that come straight off the back of sheep from New Zealand.

Last year, though, they expanded beyond footwear to athleisure wear and shorts and sweatpants and to like 50 other items for your body. Yeah, they got boxers. They got wool hats. But here's the thing. Albirds doesn't even break out their business into separate segments. It's just one segment. It's just the shoes. Like, the other stuff is a decimal at this point.

It's a shoe company. If you're going on a date in the marina in San Francisco, you're wearing these shoes. Now, after soaring in cultural relevance for many years, 2020 wasn't good for Albers. Yeah, revenue slowed to 13% growth in 2020. But then last quarter, things picked up for Alberts jumped 33%. That's pretty good. But Albers is still unprofitable because they're in growth mode. They're spending every dollar of revenue they get on growth.

In the meantime, they happen to have some, like, aggressive. loyal customers, just all-bird fanatics. Half of their sales are from repeat customers coming in for their second pair of Auburns. Full disclosure, I'm wearing the allbirds right now. And Jack, I did get my dad a pair last Christmas. It's a solid gift. You have all the birds. Yeah, I have all the birds. Although my dad is the only lawyer on the east side who is wearing allbirds with a suit to business meetings. Some say you should be disbarred for that. So Snackers, allbirds, the brand is all about shoes. The like store is all about shoes.

The sales are all about shoes. But here's what Jack and I are thinking, don't call them. shoe company. Nick and I jumped in snack style to the S-1 document, which is the IPO paperwork. The words shoe and footwear were mentioned 198 times. Allbirds mentioned the words environment or carbon 217 times. But they mentioned the word material 310 times. Allbirds isn't a shoe company. Allbirds is a material company. Now, Albert's is known for really comfortable shoes that Nick thinks are very fashionable. Full disclosure, again, I'm wearing these right now. know. But the values in the materials the shoes are made up. Yes, it's what's in the shoes, not the shoes themselves. A huge portion of the IPO paperwork showed each and every ingredient

and all about the ingredients that make up their product. Because each one of their ingredients in the shoes has been carefully chosen or created to minimize a carbon footprint. For instance, the laces. Are they made of tree bark and crab shells? Okay, that's just the laces. Jack, what about the heels? What about the heels of the shoe? They're made of castor bean oil, which is more sustainable than oil oil. Jack, what about the sole of the all-bird shoes? Eucalyptus pulp. Not just any eucalyptus pulp.

We're talking straight up full-grade South African eucalyptus pulp. And if you add it all up, the average pair of all-bird shoes has a carbon footprint of nine kilograms of CO2 per pair. That is 30% less than the average pair of footwear bought in America. So, Allbirds' competitive advantage, it isn't the shoe. It's what's in the shoe, which could be in anything you're wearing. It's a materials company.

That's why they're expanding beyond the shoe to other products with the same material. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the All-Birds Material Company? Their long-term challenge is to create a sustainability nutrition label. Snackers, look down at whatever you're eating right now. You got the nutrition facts. You got the ingredient list. And all of that is part of the informed daily food decision process we all go through. Yeah, chalked down a 600-calorie bacon, egg, and cheese this morning.

I'm going to get the lower calorie green goddess salad for lunch. But despite caring about sustainability snackers, we don't monitor ingredients of our shoes like we do food. Sustainability just isn't a key criteria in the daily purchasing decisions of most people. We're thinking maybe that's because there's not a clear number to compare like calories has with food. But Albert's is trying to change that by making carbon part of the consumer choice process. Maybe the most innovative thing Albert's has done was include a carbon footprint number on the label of all their clothes. The big question is, will people care that a pair of Allbirds is nine kilograms, whereas a pair of

Nike or Adidas is 12? Because here's the thing. A calorie count affects your chicken palm decisions. Could a carbon count affect your shoe decisions? That's what Allbirds is hoping for. And making it happen is their major long-term challenge. Doing to carbon what calories did to food. For our second story, Facebook has been ordered by the United Kingdom to sell a company

they just acquired, Giffy. The UK told Facebook to do what? This came out of nowhere. I don't even know how Her Majesty has this kind of power, but she has this kind of power. Snackers, one to half years ago, the artist then known as Facebook, technically known as meta platforms now. Yeah, meta. Announced they were acquiring Giffy.

What Wikipedia is to information, Giffy is to GIFs or GIFs. Are we going with GIFs or gifts? What do you want to do? Giffy lets anybody create a gif. You know, you take a video of a buddy spilling pasta on himself. And then you upload it to Giffy, it becomes a looped image video thing. You can share in text messages. We should just let people troll us either way.

So we're either saying GIFs or GIFs, but someone on Twitter is going to rip on us either way. I'm always going GIF. All right. I'll go with GIF too. Let's just go with GIFT. Hard no on the soft GIFI. Giffy, the company, though, is basically the key weapon in any meme creator's digital arsenal. Well, the United Kingdom's competition regulator.

Sounds intense. ruled this week that they won't allow it. No. Facebook shall not pass. Get back. What are you came from? The UK's regulator is concerned that Facebook buying Giffy will harm competition in social media. Specifically, they said in the UK, they have a concern that, quote, can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giffy in its entirety to an approved buyer.

Again, the UK told Facebook what? Yeah, this is kind of inconsistent because the UK didn't block Google's acquisition of like a very similar GIF company. But the UK doesn't care. They said by requiring Facebook, Facebook to sell Giffy, we are protecting millions of social media users. Yeah. So shut up. Wow.

There is no precedent to this blockage. Snackers, there is no precedent at all. A government regulator in the UK is ordering a big tech company to undo an acquisition. And it's extra unprecedented because this is a foreign government telling a tech giant to sell a U.S. business. Like, how does the UK have authority to do this? Right. This is like the SEC going over to the Great Britain.

baking show and saying, I'm sorry, season two, episode one, that scone should have been Roger, not Julie, who won. Exactly. Now, Nick and I did find a couple of quasi-precedents. We did. London, for example, ordered Uber to shut down a couple years ago. But Uber operated during the appeal and ultimately reached a settlement with the city of London. And then last year, Australia passed a new law that required Facebook to pay news publishers every time an Australian Facebook user clicked a link that included a news article. But just like Uber and London, that quickly got settled too. Both of these cases were a foreign government telling a U.S. tech company what to do.

But in both cases, they were settled quickly with deals being reached. In the meantime, this Facebook situation is double super secret, extra unprecedented. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over Facebook? One word scares Facebook more than any other. Snackers, this is a classic case of who is going to blink first. The UK isn't Facebook's boss. So Facebook doesn't have to comply. Facebook's probably going to appeal this ruling.

Yeah. But after that, Facebook could play hardball with the UK. They could shut down all of Facebook's apps in the United Kingdom so not comply with the ruling, basically. But here's the thing. That wouldn't be ideal for Facebook because that leaves room for Snapchat and TikTok to just take over England, the whole island. That also, though, wouldn't be good for the United Kingdom because the royal subjects could revolt without their Instagram. You get mad at the MPs who ordered this. But we think the greatest fear in Mark Zuckerberg's office right now is setting a bad precedent.

If the UK can block Facebook's corporate development plans, then France, Brazil, Japan, and, oh yeah, Barbados can too. That's why we don't think Facebook will comply with the UK's order to sell Giffy. Zuck doesn't want to set the precedent that one foreign country could halt his global plans. For our third and final story, just in time for the holiday season, coal prices hit their highest level in decades. Have you ever held a brick of coal? No, I feel like I would burn myself. Neither have I. I don't know. It feels like it would hurt. I've just seen it in the grinch. It always kind of scares me, to be honest. Well, Snackers, one major insurance company is trying to end call by refusing to insure it. But here is the funny thing about coal snackers.

Cole, it can be so tempting. Coal is right there. It's probably in your hometown. It's right under the ground. It's within the mountain. It looks delicious. It's like the indulgent milk chocolate of the energy industry. Crucially, coal is easily burnable to make electricity. It's reliable. It's cheap. It sounds perfect. Yeah, it's the biggest contributor to climate change, but all those other things are fantastic.

The thing about the cheap point I mentioned, it's actually not true right now. No, that's one huge shocking change we're seeing right now, Snackers. Coal just hit its highest price in the last 10 years. Now, Peabody Energy loves this development. They do. That private coal power company, their stock is absurd. 600% this year. Santa hates this development. If he's going to stick it in your stocking, he's going to need like a JG Wentworth payday loan to get this bought. Now, the reason coal prices are so high is because

this country is low on coal. We just don't have enough. Not enough coal. American coal plants, they're like little tiny piles of coal. That's it. That's all we got. Literally, we have the smallest stockpiles of coal in America since the Nixon president's. Okay, so Jack and I are looking at this situation. And coal prices are really high. Supply is really low. We're thinking some enterprising capitalists could just mine some new coal and make a pretty penny or two. I drink your milkshake. I drink it up. Daniel Day Lewis, not a snacker, but deserves many, many awards. Well, actually, the hero in this movie could be AXA insurance because they don't want that capitalist to mine up some new call. Snackers, we're talking Axa insurance will repeat it. A French insurance giant whose CEO wants the insurance industry to stop insuring coal.

That CEO figures if nobody will insure a coal project, no one will finance a coal project. And if no one finances that coal project, then there will be no coal produced by a project. Now, Nick and I read about this in the New York Times on Sunday. And we thought, why would a French insurance company try to save the world from coal pollution? Also, I love the humble brag there. Just had my feet up reading the Sunday Times. What is it, 1996? Things as thick as a coal mine.

You know, I've never gotten more than like five things in the Sunday crossword. But it's not about completing the crossword, Jack. It's just about saying you did the crossword. Where are we? So it's a lovely Sunday snackers, and we're thinking what you're thinking, why does a French insurance company suddenly care about coal? In the interview with the Times, the CEO at Axe had noticed that hurricanes, wildfires, and floods are more and more frequent, more and more severe,

and are causing a huge hit to the insurance industry's profits. So every time a factory that AXA insurers gets flooded by a hurricane, then AXA's got to pay to rebuild that entire factory. Now, Munich Re, which is a huge insurance company, they reported that natural disasters in 2020 caused the insurance industry $82 billion in losses. And that's the key insight because this is what that AXA CEO is now thinking. If we insure a new coal plant today, it's going to lead to losses tomorrow across AXA's entire portfolio. So now AXA is trying to get the entire insurance industry. to team up and refuse to insurers coal. It's a bold move I was shocked by.

It's intense. Now, U.S. insurance companies have not signed on yet, but several European and Asian ones have. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in coal and insurance? Of all the venues for climate action, insurance might be the most surprising. Snackers, think about this. The hero of fighting climate change may be a middle-aged insurance salesperson. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear trousers and spectacles.

Yeah. Others wear glasses and may carry a briefcase. To reduce greenhouse gases and slow climate change, humanity's got a whole bunch of options right now. One venue is Congress. We could pass laws mandating cleaner lifestyles. One is lawsuits. You could sue polluters and claim damages. Another is consumer action. Like, we could get people to install solar panels to save the world. Yeah, or buy Auburn. Exactly. None of those have done the trick. But insurance, that's another venue for climate action.

Who would have guessed the insurance industry could be the venue to solve climate change? Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Allbirds' long-term goal is to get consumers to consider carbon. Just like you do calories. What gets measured gets done? Facebook has been ordered to sell Giffy. The UK ordered them to do that, which would set a precedent. And Facebook, they hate precedents.

For our third and final story, AXA insurance is trying to end coal. Apparently the insurance industry, it's the new venue. to fight climate change potentially. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by legendary snacker, Dan Toomey, from lovely Cohasset by the sea just outside of Boston. Have you heard of Operation Deep Freeze One? Had not heard of the second or the third, any kind of sequel.

That was the name of a Navy mission back in the 50s to bring American scientists to the South Pole for the first time. Now, here's where things get interesting. The commander of said mission wanted to promote that mission, so he hired a crew from Walt Disney Studios to film the Naval Expedition. Disney designed a shield and logo for Operation Deep Freeze that looks pretty cool. Yeah, they did. It's like they were trying to sell like war bonds or something.

Well, the reason that logo looked pretty cool is because it was drawn by the same guy who came up with Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney designed the logo. Ever heard of it. So Disney designed the logo for this mission and donated camera crews to film the whole thing. Not too shabby for a cartoonist. Not too shabby for that camera crew who was in the freezing cold south. Paul, not only trying to survive, but Phil Mull.

Like Gortex, Schmortex. Forget the North Face. Snackers. Do we have to call Facebook meta? No, we don't, Jack. No, we don't. We'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, congrats to Snackers, Chase and Kirby Matoka, who listen every day to this

pod, and Chase finally asked Kirby out on a date in Houston, and it happened. Chase and Kirby did the opposite of the United Kingdom and Barbados. There we go. They're officially dating, baby. Congrats to Ria Katoi and Aporva Adipali for launching a pod together. Yeah. About life after 21. And congrats to TJ or good luck to TJ.

He's taking an investment analyst exam today, like right now in Los Angeles. Happy birthday to Martin Russey from Puerto Rico. And Anthony Whitlow, turn in 30 up in Albany, New York. Go Riverats. Happy birthday to Peter from Great Falls. And Austin, turn in 20 down in lovely Cedar City. If you're celebrating something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins.

Robin Hood Snacks, newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets,

Inc. Robin Hood Financial LLC or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. So I, by the way, I had to add the disclosures last night. I don't know if you saw. I took like eight takes. It's so hard. I was like, this is Nick and I own chairs the square and Jack. I mean, oh, I mean, this is Nick. This is Nick and we both own Bitcoin. I mean Jack. I mean square. I screwed it up like six times, dude. I don't know how you do it.