It all started with shoemaker Johann Adam Birkenstock's dedication to his craft. It was 1774. The passion for mastery was passed down from generation to generation, including Johann Adam's great-great-great-grandson Conrad Birkenstock. In 1896, Conrad had a visionary idea: to produce and sell flexible foot insoles. Soon he invented the insole.
Birth of a legend
The history of the brand goes back to the 18th century. If you look through the church archives of the city of Langen-Bergheim in Hesse, you will find a record that in 1774 Johann Adam Birkenstock is listed as “shoemaker and subject.” After which his great-grandson, master shoemaker Konrad Birkenstock, opens two shoe stores in Frankfurt 120 years later. He was the first to start producing and selling flexible foot insoles on an industrial level.
Growing demand
Due to the growing success of his insoles, in 1925 Conrad Birkenstock purchased a larger production facility.The factory is located in Friedberg, Hesse, with a large area. The demand for this product was so unprecedented that insoles were produced day and night.
A few years later, Karl Birkenstock created advanced training courses, which subsequently became extremely popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Over the next decades, more than 5,000 specialists will study in his week-long courses. This material on podiatry and specialized footwear has gone down in history as a leader in demand among representatives of the shoe industry. And in our time, leading doctors approve of these seminars, although they are almost 100 years old and the “Karl Birkenstock System”.
In 1963, a revolutionary idea was born. Taking Birkenstock's flexible insole with a cork and latex core as a basis, Karl Birkenstock developed his own sandals and in 1963 released the Madrid model, the first sandal in history with a deep and flexible insole. Originally released as a “gymnastics sandal” and more or less unchanged to this day, this classic model lays the foundation for today's comfort footwear market.
Environmentally friendly adhesives
For the first time, environmentally friendly adhesives are used in production, making Birkenstock one of the first shoe manufacturers in the world to use almost entirely water-soluble and solvent-free adhesives in its production processes.
Sustainable energy policy
Birkenstock addressed the issue of energy efficiency early on, back in 1990. The company has continually reduced its energy needs through in-house development of specialized equipment and continuous improvement of production processes - a reduction of more than 90% to date.
In the following years, the Birkenstocks family grew rapidly, with various licensed brands such as Papillio and Betula being created so that the company could offer additional product groups.
In 2007, the owners of Birkenstock Orthodäpie GmbH & Co. KG acquires its long-time distribution partner Birkenstock Distribution USA, Inc. (BDUSA). The company is headquartered in the existing BDUSA building in Novato, California.
In the spring of 2009, a new, larger plant for the production of insoles goes into operation in Görlitz.
Formation of the Birkenstock group of companies
This year marks one of the most significant turning points in the company's history. Birkenstock becomes a corporation. A traditional company successfully transitions from a loose network of 38 individual companies to a group with three business units (manufacturing, distribution, services). The group is led by an executive team that is, for the first time, non-family, an unprecedented development in the company's nearly 240-year history. Markus Bensburg and Oliver Reichert are responsible for the activities of the BIRKENSTOCK group.
Birkenstock is recognized as “Brand of the Year” by renowned magazines and media around the world. The American shoe magazine “Footwear News” calls it “Brand of the Year”, and British Vogue awards it the title “Sandal of the Year”. The Lyst Index ranks the Arizona Sandal as the "Hottest Women's Shoe in the World."
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