Inside the 700-Page Book Breaking Down 250 Years of Birkenstock Brilliance (EXCLUSIVE)
The Book of Birkenstock is exactly what it sounds like. It's a massive tome dedicated to basically everything Birkenstock's done in the past two and a half centuries, so it's quite a miracle that the book only 688 pages.
I mean, if you even remotely care about Birkenstock — I personally care very much — this thing is the Birkenstock bible.
You've got historic ads, design sketches, marketing materials, editorials from international magazines, campaigns for classic collaborations, pictures of IRL Birk fans wearing their favorite sandals, and somehow even previously unreleased archival treasures because there's just too much Birkenstock to go around (in a good way).
Designed by Bureau Borsche, whose resume includes branding for Balenciaga and On Running, and co-published with Steidl Publishers, the Book of Birkenstock is as quality as Birkenstock's top-tier 1774 line, famed for turning out top-tier footwear, like its recent shearling slides, and partnering with labels as stylistically disparate as Kith and Filson.
So, the Book of Birkenstock is quite reasonable at $75 on the Birkenstock website. It's also quite cool.
But arguably even cooler is Birkenstock's dedicated 250th anniversary microsite, loaded up with its own stash of archival imagery and a detailed timeline of Birkenstock happenings. It's a pretty impressive tool for even casual Birk enjoyers.
Because that's what Birkenstock is all about. It doesn't just make great shoes and sandals, though it obviously does that, too. Every move Birkenstock makes is informed by its own heritage, as even innovative new styles call back to traditional shapes, which are themselves consistently refined without sacrificing any of the core qualities.
Hence why Birkenstock still produces the lion's share of its shoes by hand in Germany, where it was founded two years before America's founders wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Craft is crucial to the Birkenstock story. It's like a luxury label in that sense — were there not a throughline of real-deal quality that runs through everything it does, from workwear clogs to lifestyle designs, Birkenstock would simply have no raison d'être.
But it does. And the Book of Birkenstock is ample proof.
