If you didn’t know that Birkenstock has seen a huge resurgence in the past few years, it’s probably because you never stopped wearing them
The city of Görlitz in eastern Germany is three hours from Berlin and two minutes from Poland. Miraculously, Görlitz was not bombed during the Second World War, and even more miraculously, its architectural treasures — Gothic, Baroque, rococo — were merely allowed to rot during the Communist era. Nothing was torn down. As a result, whole streets resemble a movie set, ideal for a colorful Saxon fairy tale or a bleak Cold War thriller.
What Reichert didn’t know was that his prophecy for the clunky sandal was about to get an assist from the unlikely quarter of the Paris catwalk in October 2012, when Phoebe Philo, then of Céline, took a black Arizona, lined it with mink, and put it on the runway. Delirium ensued. “There’s no benefit for us except prostitution,” says Reichert. “Because this is just prostitution.”
To an extent, this attitude was baked into the company under Karl. Despite the tremendous success of the American division, even Fraser sometimes met with resistance. Before her death in 2017, she told Rebecca Mead of The New Yorker that when she asked for color, the firm’s Swiss distributor said, “ ‘This woman is going to ruin us. We are orthopedic — we don’t need color.’ But we brought color into the United States, and it helped sales everywhere.
Karl was focused on making sandals in the most efficient way and would often call about leather or supplies. Harris said, “He could never let go. That made it tough on his kids.” The model of a strong-willed entrepreneur, Karl Birkenstock created as many as 38 independent companies, all under the Birkenstock name. There was a company, for example, that produced his special shoemaking machines and another that profited from the brand’s logistics skills.
“He invited us in for a beer,” Reichert says. “You felt he was under pressure, with a lot on his mind. He started talking immediately. Maybe he felt it before I did, but somehow he decided that I was a soul mate. For whatever reason. It’s like when you’re sitting next to a lady and she starts screaming and telling you her husband is an idiot. And you’re like, ‘Okay, but maybe it’s your problem!’ ”Reichert, summarizing Christian, says, “ ‘I have a problem with my brother [Stephan].
He chose Florence for our meeting because Birkenstock was hosting a runway show and party that evening as part of the Pitti Immagine menswear fair. Lately, Birkenstock has been raising its fashion profile. It set up a pop-up shop last year with Barneys, opposite the Whitney, and opened another at Berlin Fashion Week. This spring, it released a group of sandals and clogs designed with Rick Owens.
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