Birkenstocks. The staple of any Subang college kid, senior citizens, and our Editor. Very much commonplace in these age groups, you have never seen a Birkenstock ad ever, but you’ll still know of its existence through word of mouth, so imagine our surprise when we saw Birkenstock headlining media sites, more so with a hypebeast baiting one after the footwear company turned down collaborations with not only Vetements, but Supreme as well.
Speaking in an interview with The Cut, advisor Oliver Reichert stated his reason for the turn down was that the factory did not need any extra demand in the factory, having a still incomplete order of 2 million pairs waiting to be finished and serves no purpose to position themselves as another classic brand ‘roided into the hype trend. Reichert knows where his company is situated, and Birkenstock’s customers already know and wear Birkenstocks on the daily anyway, so it nullifies any reason to perform a collaboration.
Demna Gvasalia, Vetements Creative Director
“There’s no benefit for us except prostitution,” says Reichert. “Because this is just prostitution.” Apparently both Supreme and Vetements wanted to slap their logos onto the shoe, prompting the very no-filter Reichert to speak his mind. Demna Gvasalia, a bit appalled, spoke to The Cut that he wanted to work with Birkenstock because their shoes were very comfortable. After much consideration (and subsequent arguments with the marketing department), restarted discussions on how to move forward on these premises.
But wait, what about the Rick Owens’ collab I hear you say?
Rick Owens’s Collaborative Effort With Birkenstock
Reichert says that his partnership with the esteemed designer was more than just slapping a logo on their product, but a challenge. Seeing as Owens reworked the Arizona sandal to include fuzzy grey calf hair, complete with fringed straps, presented something different for the factory. “The form and the content matches. With most of the big designers, there’s a form but little content,” says Reichert.
While Reichert has moved forward and restarted discussions, admitting that maybe there is a light that he has yet to see with future collaborations, one can only wonder what could have been had the man moved forward with said partnerships. Would you cop the ones below?
