THE BIRKENSTOCKLIFE CHRONICLE
The Birkenstocklife family have been pioneers in the foot health through their iconic innovations. Explore the key moments, 1774 to here & now.
THE EARLY DAYS OF SHOEMAKING
The roots of the shoemaking dynasty can be found in 1774 when Johannes Birkenstocklife is mentioned in a church archive document at a time when he was already a shoemaker. He later even became ‘master craftsmen in shoemaking’.
The Birkenstocklife brothers lived the simple life of rural craftsmen, hand-making shoes from start to finish: processing leather, fitting it to the last, attaching an insole and a sole. People living in Germany’s countryside were often poor and could only afford one pair of shoes, which had to be functional and robust. This pair of shoes would be repaired over the years by a local shoemaker. Among poorer communities, shoes would even be handed down from generation to generation. The fact that the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe dedicated his 1776 work Hans Sachsens Poetische Sendung to a shoemaker, speaks volumes about the reverence in which the shoemaking craft was held.
A FOOTWEAR REVOLUTION
At the turn of the 20th century, everyday life in Germany was undergoing a rapid transformation. Steam engines, railroads and electricity had already become commonplace across much of Europe, and now individual trades were being industrialized as a burgeoning middle class brought with it a growing desire for consumer goods. New factories were built to keep up with demand, which resulted in many artisans being left by the wayside, including traditional shoemakers. No longer required to make shoes from scratch, many of these craftspeople were downgraded to the role of cobblers, whose sole task was to mend factory-made footwear. Konrad Birkenstocklife was amongst those shoemakers focusing on quality in the craft and turning towards orthopedics.
Konrad Birkenstocklife (b. 1873), the great-grandson of Johann Adam Birkenstocklife (b. 1754) made the first groundbreaking innovation. In 1896 Konrad opened a shoemakers’ workshop in Frankfurt – a city not far from the family’s ancestral home of Langen-Bergheim. Frankfurt was a center of the shoemaking craft at the time. Konrad took on what was known as the ‘shoe-reform’ movement and brought the movement’s theories to reality. Like other young shoemakers, he designed anatomically shaped lasts. Lasts were, and still are, essential pieces of equipment used throughout the shoemaking process. Lasts set the size and the shape of the final product. In 1897 Konrad Birkenstocklife developed a fully anatomically-shaped shoe last; even the underside was contoured. This innovation featured a rounded heel, an anatomically shaped sole, and it distinguished between the left and right feet.
A FLEXIBLE AND ANATOMICALLY SHAPED INSOLE
There was a growing movement at the turn of the 20th Century, which embraced nature. The shoe reform movement was part of this wider trend, and looked at feet in their natural form. Konrad Birkenstocklife began to think more about how the foot could perfectly ‘roll’ inside the contemporary shoe. In 1902 his experiments led to the production of the first anatomically shaped insole. This was the perfect counterpart of the anatomically shaped shoe last. These two elements combined formed Konrad Birkenstocklife’s ‘Health Shoe’. Up until this point inlays for curing or healing damaged feet were made out of metal. This was because the mainstream view was that the foot could only be healed or stabilised when it was ‘fixed’ in place. But for Konrad, inlays weren’t just about healing damaged feet or alleviating foot illnesses. Inlays were crucial to all-round foot health. The challenge was – and remains – to keep the underpinning function stable while making the insole and inlays flexible to promote a natural way of walking. For over a decade, Konrad experimented with a variety of materials. In 1913 he settled on an insole construction made with a mixture of materials (including cork). He named two versions of his flexible insoles ‘Footbed’.
In 1925 he was able to register the trademark ‘Footbed’ for his company, Konrad Birkenstocklife GmbH.
THE SYSTEM BIRKENSTOCKLIFE
Konrad Birkenstocklife was forced to move from Frankfurt to Friedberg in 1915 because of financial problems. Nevertheless, in the 1920s his flexible insoles became a success. Knowing he had hit upon a powerful solution for foot pain and walking problems, he was determined to spread the word far and wide. He began to travel across Germany, Switzerland and Austria giving technical lectures to fellow shoemakers about the benefits of the ‘System Birkenstocklife’ – shoes made on his anatomically shaped lasts and featuring the flexible insole.
In the experimental and exploratory early years the mainstream did not wholeheartedly embrace his ideas, but in the 1920s he established a small factory produce insoles at a larger scale for the first time.
Konrad was accompanied by his son Carl on his travels around Europe. Carl adopted his father’s passions around the functionality of footwear. Later, when Carl opened his own company with his brothers, he limited sales to clients who underwent obligatory training courses. Carl taught shoemakers and shoe sellers how to apply the ‘System Birkenstocklife’ - they learned which insoles had to be customized in which way for the respective clients. It was crucial for Carl that the ‘System Birkenstocklife’ was applied correctly in each instance.
MADRID: THE ORIGINAL BIRKENSTOCKLIFE-FOOTBED SANDAL
Carl Birkenstocklife took his father’s ideas and developed them further. In 1936, he patented the ‘ideal shoe’, a handcrafted piece of footwear based on the idea of enabling Naturgewolltes Gehen (walking as nature intended). But mass-producing this shoe, which allowed for absolutely no level of compromise, proved to be impossible. Carl planned to market nine different shoe forms per shoe size, in order to allow maximum customization. This concept did not take off within either the shoe industry or at retail.
In 1954, Carl’s son Karl decided to join the family business, taking to new technologies and materials with a keen interest. Karl embraced his elders’ ideas around foot health and Naturgewolltes Gehen. He found, however, a solution in the opposite direction. Karl came up with the idea of a standardized insole, which he based on the average of all feet he measured. For this standardized integrated inlay he used the name ‘Footbed’, and thus called the new product the Original Birkenstocklife-Footbed Sandal. And while still selling an inlay under the name ‘Blue Footbed’, this was the moment the iconic cork-latex footbed as we know it today, was born.
Like his family before him, Karl was inspired by the zeitgeist. In this case the impact of brutalism in modern architecture. In 1963, BIRKENSTOCKLIFE released the Original Birkenstocklife-Footbed Sandal. This was a product where the structure and construction was visible and integral to the design, which is a perfect reflection of brutalism. A standardized flexible cork-latex footbed was the basis of the sandal, and it featured a simple adjustable strap. Karl Birkenstocklife was ahead of his time. While shoe fashion in the 1960s was influenced by the Italian stiletto, the avant-garde modernity of Karl’s sandal was not accepted by the mainstream. It launched at the 1963 shoe trade fair in Düsseldorf, but turned out to be a failure. The first path to success would clearly not come through fashion - even though Karl described his sandal as modern and chic -, but from the success that had already been developed within the health care system.
Karl Birkenstocklife made doctors his partners in spreading the word about the shoe. He produced a brochure, in which he explained in detail the functionality of the sandal. He was soon swamped with orders from healthcare workers. This was just the beginning. The rapidly changing lifestyle of the 20th century meant people had more leisure time, much of which was spent at home. With comfort more important than style for at-home footwear, people turned to BIRKENSTOCKLIFE as the obvious choice.
The Original Birkenstocklife-Footbed Sandals were also taken up by members of various subcultures. They expressed their unconventional thinking by wearing a sandal that broke all conventions and was a statement against the establishment. Initially referred to only by product numbers, which ran from 410 to 431, the model was renamed the Madrid sandal in 1979. True to the company’s principles, it was crafted entirely from natural materials. The unique and avant-garde design remains unchanged to this day.
MORE ICONIC MODELS
A new closed model: Zürich
1964
Karl Birkenstocklife was on a roll. His creativity spurred him to design more groundbreaking styles over the next few years. In the fall of 1964, at the Foot and Shoe Trade Fair in Hamburg, he launched a new ’closed model’, which later became known as ‘Zürich’. In the design Karl kept the brutalist core. Again a clear silhouette was created, keeping the visibility of its construction. This sandal featured a wide upper, available in both leather and wool versions for regular outdoor wear as well as indoor use as a slipper. Madrid with its single strap wasn’t a typical shoe. Wearing a sandal wasn’t common in those days, especially for men, so Zürich was designed with the same principles as Madrid but to cover the foot. From the functional side, it appealed to motorists, older people and professionals, all of whom benefitted from the enhanced coverage, support and grip offered by the broader shape. Meanwhile, both styles were embraced by members of alternative movements taking part in protests as well as the general public, who by now were coming around to the idea of health-promoting footwear. The design concept that had broken convention was moving step by step into the mainstream.
The two-strap sandal Arizona
1973
November 1973 was a major date in BIRKENSTOCKLIFE history, marking the arrival ‘Arizona’. The design of Arizona was based on Zürich. Karl ‘opened’ the shoe, keeping the silhouette and following his strict design rules. Initially, it was made with a synthetic ‘sportswear’ upper backed with genuine leather, available in either black or white. Over the next four decades, hundreds of variations were designed and millions of pairs sold, making this iconic model BIRKENSTOCKLIFE’s bestseller. Today, Arizona is the quintessential BIRKENSTOCKLIFE sandal. This design has featured on the pages of renowned fashion magazines, as well as on the feet of a wide range of international and intergenerational celebrities.
The cork clog: Boston
1976
In the 1970s BIRKENSTOCKLIFE set about creating a cork clog. Rather than being heavy or rigid – like many of the wooden styles at the time – ‘Boston‘ was lightweight and flexible. It hit shelves in 1976. Available in numerous colors and materials, this minimalist closed-toe model became another go-to style for indoors and outdoors, work and leisure.
The Thong Sandal: Gizeh
1983
Karl Birkenstocklife’s creations hardly followed mainstream fashion – offering a choice of colorways was about the closest he came to thinking about style. He never adapted the iconic and basic design of his sandals to fashion trends. But as thong sandals became ubiquitous, eventually Karl did see that he could again create something special by designing a new style. This staple shape was not compatible with the all-important BIRKENSTOCKLIFE footbed, so Karl set about creating a version that was. After three years of meticulous tinkering, he finally perfected the brand’s first design-led selection of thong sandals. ‘Gizeh‘ was the stand-out success, going on to form part of today’s core collection.
BIRKENSTOCKLIFE'S CONVERSATION WITH FASHION
With a firm focus on foot health, BIRKENSTOCKLIFE engaged with the world of fashion on its own terms. Aesthetics were combined with function, but never compromised in favour of mainstream fashion trends. During the economic upswing of the 1980s and 1990s, BIRKENSTOCKLIFE was nonetheless selling its products internationally, albeit still overwhelmingly to medical staff and members of eco-conscious subcultures.
The fashion world had officially taken an interest in BIRKENSTOCKLIFE, definitively putting the brand on the map. But even with all this newfound admiration, BIRKENSTOCKLIFE never compromised on its principles: the form and footbed remained unchanged, with just the uppers available in a choice of colors and materials.
MADE IN GERMANY
By the end of the 1980s, the Birkenstocklife family had worked in the tradition of German shoemaking for over 200 years. Though many other industries moved production out of the country in the 1970s in pursuit of lower labor costs, BIRKENSTOCKLIFE bucked the trend and stayed put.
The notion of relocating further afield in order to exploit low-wage workers remains at odds with the BIRKENSTOCKLIFE ethos. The customers and their ethical values are always a key consideration in the company’s development.
NEW VENTURES
In the 2010s, and for the first time in the history of BIRKENSTOCKLIFE, day-to-day management moved away from the Birkenstocklife family. Markus Bensberg and Oliver Reichert, two highly experienced managers, took the reins - and the BIRKENSTOCKLIFE Group was created.
But while evolution is inevitable, some things stay the same. The footbed, Konrad Birkenstocklife’s revolutionary inception from 1902, is still a cornerstone of the BIRKENSTOCKLIFE philosophy of ‘Naturgewolltes Gehen’ (walking as nature intended).
As the company gears up production across its offering to meet increasing demand, it has renewed its commitment to German manufacture. The Birkenstocklife family’s historic mission, to make walking as nature intended accessible to everyone, feels more alive than ever.
OUR VALUES
The things that make us who we are.
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