You will rarely come across another shoe brand with a history so old, that was popular with various age groups throughout the years, and that has recently experienced a huge revival on the New York Fashion Week over 200 years after it was founded. Especially as a brand, that had started out creating clunky Orthopedic shoes. Once described by a Vogue contributor with the following unambiguous words: "That silhouette was universally considered ugly."
Birkenstock goes back all the way to 1774 to a small town in Germany called Langen-Bergheim. Here Johann Adam Birkenstock was registered as a "subject and cobbler". In the following generations his offspring was engaged in the production and optimisation of healthy footbed insoles, until in 1902 Konrad Birkenstock became known as the first person to create contoured arch support.
With the Madrid model of leather sandals Birkenstock kicked off in 1964 and quickly became a household name, known worldwide for its extremely comfortable leather shoes with cork soles. Still used for orthopedic purposes but slowly becoming popular with a wider range of people.
In 1966 Birkenstock took the leap into the US market. From here onwards the Orthopedic "nan shoes" slowly made their way into the fashion world.
Leather Sandals for Young and Old
Today the comfy leather sandal owns signature status, is available in 90 countries and young and old sandal lovers from all over the world are proud to wear the real deal.
Celebrities are proud to show their granny leather sandals around Hollywood and the current trend for wellness and wellbeing just adds on to its demand.
Various international brands have since then jumped on the Birkenstock train and produce similar looking leather sandals, with nothing to be desired in terms of foot comfort. Plus today, the sandals come in many styles and colors:
Classic and Vintage style leather, metallic, one or 2 straps across the foot, or flip-flop style with a string in between the toes. The soles are traditionally made of cork or rubber.
Also in Vietnam, in our Hoi An leather shops, we offer a big variety of these stylish leather sandals that come as close as it gets to the real deal in comfort, longevity and style. For a fracture of the price.
If you would like to know more about the history of that historic sandal, read on here.