OPINION
Tyson Beckett recounts seven days, two countries and 250 years of history in one pair of sandals.
It’s 1.30am on Saturday morning and I’m in an underground nightclub. The DJ has been playing a song with no lyrics for six minutes so my mind and eyes are wandering –
I spot them in front of me as I precis the costumes in the room: among the elf ears and skin pressing through mesh ensembles are two sock-clad feet in a pair of Arizona suede sandals bopping enthusiastically to the house music. The incongruous sight sends me into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. A sure sign it’s time to turn in.
Two blocks from home I pass a 14-metre-long digital billboard brightly advertising Birkenstock – the makers of those napped leather slides. In 1963, after 67 years fabricating cork and latex-cored podiatric insoles, the German company entered the footwear market with the launch of the Madrid sandal, though they claim the traditions of the brand trace back a further 189 years to Johann Adam Birkenstock, a cobbler born in 1774. By their count, and the billboard’s proclamation, that makes 2024 the brand’s 250th year in existence. How many people have worn the comfortable footwear clubbing in those two and a half centuries, I wonder, as I climb into bed?
Twelve hours later I’m loitering in Commercial Bay, impatient for a sandwich to be toasted, when a trio of toned women wearing athleisurewear huddle next to me. In my sorry state their contrasting perkiness grates. Slung over the shoulder of one is a yellow drawstring bag signalling to passersby that the next day she’ll partake in the Auckland Half Marathon. It was already apparent she was holier than I – she’s wearing a pair of shearling-lined Boston clogs, a Birkenstock style that retails for $450 and is sold-out citywide.
The frequency illusion doesn’t stop there. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon follows me for the next few days as I prepare to fly to Sydney with the brand. I spot the shoes once favoured solely for orthopaedic friendliness everywhere: two-strapped salmon versions on models at the AUT Rookie graduate fashion show; a pair of felted wrap-around Kyotos kicked off in the changing room of a hot yoga studio, a scuffed paint-splattered pair strolls past in the garden section of Bunnings.
Trapped in a violently shuddering massage chair at the pedicurists on Tuesday night, I start brainstorming how I’ll incorporate the leather pair I was sent into my own wardrobe. I do an internet search for “Birkenstock outfits” and am served screeds of paparazzi pictures of celebrities wearing the nonchalant brand for their day-to-day: a Lycra-clad Kendall Jenner leaving an exercise class, Gwyneth Paltrow departing a TV studio, Julianne Moore waiting at a crosswalk, Gigi Hadid off-duty in New York City, Justine Bieber walking across the tarmac to a waiting helicopter – all wear some version of the cork-cored footbed.
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Advertise with NZME.It’s not all a cognitive bias, though. The “centuries old” German shoemaker really is enjoying a prolonged moment in the consumer zeitgeist. In the three months to June 30, 2024, the brand reported the highest quarterly sales in its history, rising 19% to €565 million ($1009m). The company attributes the healthy growth to both the expansion of itsproduct range and the fashionability of its closed-toe silhouettes – sales of such clog-like styles rose by more than twice the average for its products.
On Thursday night, on the fifth floor of a sandstone building in Sydney’s CBD I scan the gallery space where Birkenstock is holding “a visual celebration of two and a half centuries of tradition in shoemaking” – a glance downwards confirms it does indeed know its audience. Like attendees of the soiree, three-quarters of Birkenstock customers are female and I’m one of a handful of guests wearing an open-toed style. Even the waiters, who carry trays of cocktails through plinths displaying past collaborations with Manolo Blahnik, Valentino, Jill Sanders and Dior, have paired their starched white shirts and crisp black trousers with suede khaki slip-ons.
“The only problem with the Bostons,” a chatty retailer based in Noosa, Queensland tells me as we stand in line for complimentary foot rubs using a new in-house range of footcare products, “is getting enough stock to sell”.
“I like her ones,” I say, as a woman in black slingback sandals finished with square silver buckles and black soles walks past on her way to the table where an embosser is customising pairs of the brand’s most iconic sandals. “Those are the 1774 Milano,” my new friend rattles off without missing a beat. “Those retail for about A$900.″
Later that night, I ascend the escalator at Newtown Railway Station behind two friends who have each adopted their own version of the ugly shoe trend. One bounds through the turnstile in a highly cushioned pair of Hoka Clifton 9 sneakers and the other follows in an elaborately adorned pair of Crocs. We disperse into the night, greeted by a wall of light rain and I feel smug to have had the foresight to seal the cork-edging of my sandals with the bottle of Cork Sealer & Protector I was sent. “My big buckle Arizonas and I will see you at 8.30,″ I’d messaged my date earlier that day to confirm our plans.
Twenty-eight hours later I’m back in Aotearoa. A flight delay means I head straight from the airport to a friend’s birthday, diverting briefly to a baggage hall bathroom to swap my plane jeans for a party-appropriate miniskirt. As the last song of the night is announced just after midnight, I pull a friend to the dancefloor. We twirl around the sticky pub floors and someone steps on my toe. The week comes to an end and I’m the one in Birkenstocks on the dancefloor. This time at least, I know the lyrics to the song playing.
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