Saks Fifth Avenue - Failure Museum

Saks Fifth Avenue

In 2026, Saks was the biggest name in high-end retail to file for bankruptcy since the pandemic. For more than a century, Saks served as a gateway for U.S. shoppers to discover coveted European brands. However, consumers can now turn to the intern ...

iRobot - Failure Museum

iRobot

iRobot depended too heavily on robot vacuums, which became commoditized, and had limited success expanding into adjacent home robotics. Post-Covid demand collapsed, retail inventory piled up, and promotions destroyed margins.

Moxion Power - Failure Museum

Moxion Power

Moxion Power raised $126M to replace diesel generators - used in construction sites, live events, film sets - with clean mobile battery-powered energy storage units. However, they aggressively ramped up production and headcount, as well as committe ...

Kittyhawk - Failure Museum

Kittyhawk

Kittyhawk, the electric aviation startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, shut down in 2022 after a decade of work. Kittyhawk aimed to be an air taxi, but scaling to a safe, quiet, and affordable mass-production aircraft proved extremely dif ...

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - Failure Museum

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League lasted from 1943 to 1954. The league was founded during World War II when many male baseball players were serving oversees. Once the war ended and MLB returned in full force in 1946, fan attentio ...

Spirit Airlines - Failure Museum

Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines filed for a second bankruptcy in 2025 because of a failure to turn a profit since the pandemic, increased competition from larger airlines, high labor costs, and the failure of a proposed merger with JetBlue, which would have provide ...

Underoos - Failure Museum

Underoos

Launched in 1977, Underoos were character-themed t-shirt and underwear sets. By the late 1980's kids outgrew the concept of having superheroes on their underwear, licensing deals became more expensive, and the underwear market became more competiti ...

Lytro - Failure Museum

Lytro

Launched in 2011 and discontinued in 2018, Lytro pioneered light field camera technology. Lytro's primary innovation was the ability to refocus images after they were taken, but this feature didn't resonate with a broad audience. Lytro targeted the ...

Pono - Failure Museum

Pono

Launched in 2015 and developed by musician Neil Young, Pono was a portable digital media player and music download service for high-resolution audio. It was discontinued in 2017 due to the shift to streaming with services like Spotify and Apple Mus ...

Career Builder - Failure Museum

CareerBuilder

In 2025, CareerBuilder + Monster filed for bankruptcy after they merged in 2024. CareerBuilder was carrying a significant debt load and Monster was experiencing unsustainable cash burn. The combined entity faced an urgent need for liquidity shortly ...