Journal on BIRKENSTOCK

BIRKENSTORY #32: APOLLONIA POILÂNE · Comfort Journal 3a7c93

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A tragedy could have destroyed the future of Poilâne. But France’s best-known bakery still exists and is even flourishing – thanks to Apollonia Poilâne, who has been running the company since 2002.

How to Break In Your Sandals · Comfort Journal 6b8980

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

New pairs feel firm at first — that is normal. Wear them indoors for short stretches, keep socks on if needed, and let the footbed gradually take your shape.

Quick tips

Start with 1–2 hours a day
Keep the footbed dry between wears
Use a soft brush for dust; avoid soaking cork

When you are ready for more styles, explore The Sandals Edit and Women or Men.

Footbed · Comfort Journal d3e701

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Original BIRKENSTOCK Footbed is an ergonomic masterpiece, designed to replicate the mindful experience of walking barefoot. Shaped to follow the natural contours of the foot. For stability, arch support, and effortless motion with every step.

Inspired by brutalist architecture, BIRKENSTOCK has established its own recognizable and aesthetic, which is framed by the function of the footbed. Every curve serves a purpose: reducing strain and enabling walking the way nature intended.

Crafted with precision.

Timeless, essential – built for the way humans were meant to move.

Walking · Comfort Journal 661872

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For thousands of years, we moved barefoot on uneven, yielding ground. Through forests, across sand, and over earth shaped by nature itself.

With 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and 114 ligaments, the human foot is a marvel of design. For millennia, its natural strength was shaped by the experience of walking barefoot upon the earth. Every step allowing the body to move freely and in balance.

From the touchdown of the heel, weight rolls along the outer edge of the foot before transferring to the ball of the foot. The movement ends with the lifting of the heel and a pushing off motion over the big toe.

Children`s feet · Comfort Journal 8ce3ac

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Babies have the prettiest feet. And the healthiest. 98% of all children are born with perfect feet. And yet, only 30% of adults manage to keep them that way. What can parents do to ensure their children’s feet develop in the right way?

Children’s feet are not miniature versions of adult feet. Babies have thick fat pads under their soles, and in the first three years of life their feet are almost flat. When learning to walk, all children initially move with a bow-legged ‘wobble’. Their new upright gait and its resulting weight bearing on the feet, produces changes to their cartilage and joints, which slowly form longitudinal and transverse arches. The complex adult foot is only fully developed when we reach puberty.

From cork to sandal · Comfort Journal b84190

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BIRKENSTOCK products have been influenced over generations by a tireless creative quest for Naturgewolltes Gehen (walking as nature intended). We stand for extraordinary quality and next level functionality. This is a result of the high-quality materials we use and the fact that we manufacture in Germany, in production facilities owned exclusively by our company. An unusually high level of human skill and handcraft is utilised in our modern production processes. This is what makes BIRKENSTOCK products so special.

The anatomically contoured footbed, which has been developed by BIRKENSTOCK over more than a century, is the heart and soul of every sandal, clog and shoe the company produces. Only the best natural materials are used in footbed production. Within the footbed, layers of jute (a super strong and durable plant-based material), are combined with two different grades of granulated cork, which are bound together with a natural latex milk. These natural products are then topped with a leather lining created from European hides. It is a unique natural recipe that defines the BIRKENSTOCK footbed.

50 Hands · Comfort Journal a0b4f8

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Over the years, we’ve finessed the method, the materials and the models – not to mention expanded the team – but one key detail remains the same: Birkenstocks are still made with a combination of handcraft and bespoke machinery, much of which was developed by members of Birkenstock family. This is the magic at the heart of an iconic, beautiful design.

Every pair of Birkenstocks passes through around fifty human hands as the individual components are stretched, snipped, sculpted, smoothed, set, glued and, eventually, transformed into functional footwear. Making a Birkenstock is meticulous work. No matter the model, it all begins with the footbed. This is made up of layers of carefully selected natural materials – jute, cork, latex and suede – which are then molded into an anatomical form that took decades of development to perfect, following orthopedic principles. From this starting block, the upper materials are attached, fastenings are fixed and outsoles secured.

Heritage · Comfort Journal 8cff4f

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The roots of the shoemaking dynasty can be found in 1774 when Johannes Birkenstock 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 Birkenstock 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.

Lael Wilcox · Comfort Journal 521187

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lael Wilcox is one of the world’s great endurance bike racers. Since the age of 20, the North American has cycled all over the world. She has broken down barriers along the way and raised the level of what’s possible for a human on a bicycle to achieve. On Lael’s bicycle, Birkenstocks are a permanent fixture.

“Riding endurance produces such a broad range of highs and lows…there’s joy and beauty, but pain too.”

Alaskan endurance athlete Lael Wilcox wasn’t particularly into bikes when she was a kid. She was far more interested in running, basketball and football. In fact, she only discovered cycling after injuring her achilles heel while working as a waitress in her home town of Anchorage. Unable to partake in the sports she loved and without a driving licence, she’d borrow her mother’s road bike in order to get around. It was a groundbreaking experience for the youngster.

BIRKENSTORY #31: MINDY GABRIEL · Comfort Journal d1fd29

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Melinda “Mindy” Gabriel has been the fire department chief of Westerville near Columbus, Ohio since 2019. Before that, she was on the front lines as a firefighter herself for 20 years.

BIRKENSTORY #30: JENS UND UWE KRÜGER · Comfort Journal f20845

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Jens and Uwe are the “Kruger Brothers” – the bluegrass and new American folk music icons are known all around the world. The brothers have lived a life that’s far from ordinary.

BIRKENSTORY #24: CHARLIE STRONG · Comfort Journal 4c6981

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Charlie Strong is a professional American football coach. His goal? To give young men a place in life. His formula? Honesty, respect, and team spirit. He told us what the title “first African American head coach in Texas” means to him.

BIRKENSTORY #23: ROBERT RUTFORD · Comfort Journal eaaca0

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Robert Rutford, one of the best-known Antarctic researchers and the man who Mount Rutford is named for, took his Birkenstocks to the South Pole. He told us why in a striking interview just a few months before his passing.

BIRKENSTORY #22: THIERRY JOURNO · Comfort Journal ca8db4

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“I don’t like Birkenstocks. I hate them,” says the all-round designer Thierry Journo. When he stopped over in Paris, we learned in a highly amusing manner what exactly it is about Birkenstocks that he dislikes.

BIRKENSTORY #21: RAMDANE TOUHAMI · Comfort Journal 74f5f9

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

He was banned from school, was kicked out by his parents, and became homeless. Today, he is the owner of the global beauty empire Officine Universelle Buly. We met this all-rounder in Paris.

BIRKENSTORY #20: SHALENE MCCOLLUM · Comfort Journal fc8a75

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Like all the women in her family, Shalene McCollum has fishing in her blood – her grandma was a commercial fisherwoman, too. We visited the keen wearer of Birkenstocks in her home town of Petersburg, Alaska.

BIRKENSTORY #29: BETTINE VRIESEKOOP · Comfort Journal ed884a

Fri, 02 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bettine Vriesekoop is a two-time European table tennis champion. These days, the Dutch Sports Personality of the Year (1981, 1985) and Dutch Table Tennis Player of the Century (2000) works in Amsterdam as a coach and author.

BIRKENSTORY #28: HERMANN GERLAND · Comfort Journal 087544

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

He was an assistant coach to Jupp Heynckes, Louis van Gaal, Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, and Hansi Flick, and became a legendary trainer at FC Bayern Munich – the dyed-in-the-wool Bochumer Hermann Gerland.

BIRKENSTORY #27: NICHOLAS VREELAND · Comfort Journal cf2c02

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The story of Nicholas Vreeland, Buddhist monk and only Western head of a Buddhist monastery, starts in the early 1980s, when the diplomat’s son left New York and chose to live a simple life in simple sandals.

BIRKENSTORY #26: ATHÉNAÏS DE BÉRU · Comfort Journal 91dfd1

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Athénaïs de Béru was once a banker, but in 2006 she took on her family’s 500-year-old wine-growing estate in the village of Béru in Burgundy. “I did precisely the opposite of everything they told me,” Athénaïs told us.

BIRKENSTORY #25: MAYA WASOWICZ · Comfort Journal 52525e

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the opinion of her coach, Maya Wasowicz is one of the ten best karate fighters in the world. When the Polish-born moved to New York at the age of eleven, she did not speak a single word of English. Her passion for sports introduced her to karate. Here, she could express herself perfectly.

BIRKENSTORY #19: THOMAS SÜDHOF · Comfort Journal a774ea

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“I don’t think Nobel Prizes are always awarded fairly. I’m delighted to have it, but it doesn’t set me apart from everybody else – I was lucky, others weren’t. So let’s simply get back down to work!”

BIRKENSTORY #18: YAZEMEENAH ROSSI · Comfort Journal 88c352

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I discovered my first gray hair when I was about 12 – my granddaughter’s age,” relates Yazemeenah Rossi. Her hair was already almost entirely gray by her late 20s, when she embarked relatively late on an exemplary career as a photo model.

BIRKENSTORY #17: GEOFF HIGGO · Comfort Journal fd3155

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After a few crazy business ventures, father of four Geoff Higgo now runs an unusual car hire company in Cape Town with his partner Monika. He has worn nothing but Birkenstocks on his feet since 1986. “But always the Milano!”.

BIRKENSTORY #16: MARIAH NIELSON · Comfort Journal df5350

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Mariah Nielson’s father was the sculptor J. B. Blunk, a “master of the chainsaw.” She tells us about her father’s legacy – and how Birkenstocks became an integral part of the family.

BIRKENSTORY #15: MATTO BARFUSS · Comfort Journal 143cd6

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Matto Barfuss, successful wildlife filmmaker, achieved fame in the 1990’s after spending months living among cheetahs. We caught up with Matto in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where he is shooting his latest film, about meerkats; and despite sometimes challenging environmental conditions, is always wearing his Birkenstocks.

BIRKENSTORY #14: ROMANY PAJDAK · Comfort Journal 767193

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Romany Pajdak decided she wanted to be a professional dancer at the age of ten. She is now one of the best ballerinas in the world. We met her and her 15-year-old Birkenstocks in London.

BIRKENSTORY #13: BERND BRINKMANN · Comfort Journal dc4e27

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

„I’ve been wearing Birkenstocks for 45 years,” wrote Bernd Brinkmann. We met the man who has been a Birkenstock fan from the get-go – and a person who has demonstrated the ability to make a comeback in life.