When I was a teen, my mom was a school teacher. She stood for hours on those hard linoleum and concrete floors and found Birkenstock sandals to be the only thing to provide her comfort. And while in the 90s we didn’t have the internet, my mom was somehow able to amass a collection of Birks that offered more style than the “Jesus sandals” the Deadheads rocked with white-person dreads and drug rugs. Patent leather, snakeskin, and cool colors were in her comfy-foot arsenal.
And I totally thought it was so dorky.
Me, in my beat-up Docs, my hole-filled Chucks, I was rolling my eyes at black patent-leather Birkenstock Arizona sandals with black sandalfoot pantyhose.
I am now 51, and I have a Birkenstock collection that would make my mother swoon. In fact, when she passed I grabbed myself a pair of Barbie pink EVA Arizonas from her closet that had yet to mold to her foot (which was a very different shape, but same size as my foot). Patent leather, metallic, raffia, suede, glazed leather, EVA, pony hair, platform sole, big buckle and small, classic and collab. After Lockdown my feet no longer wanted skinny shoes and heels so I leaned in, just like my mom.
When I saw Repetto was having a collab with Birkenstock, I was psyched. Maybe I already have two pairs of red Birkenstock sandals, but I wanted this version, too. Or maybe the ballet slipper pink pair? Maybe the clog with the little bow?
When the collection launched, I was late to the game and all that was left were the Arizona sandals in red and pink. That’s fine, that’s my favorite style of Birk and I ordered one of each. Yes, I already have tomato red with a red sole and metallic red with a white sole, but these have a gingham sole and are a completely different shade of red! And the pink? I have absolutely nothing in my collection that is similar. I was excited.
That was, until the delivery arrived this week and I realized that Repetto x Birkenstock did us dirty with this collab. Super cute… and corners were totally cut to make them. I blame the same thing that has destroyed everything from department stores to bowling alleys: private equity.
I have wide and high volume feet, but the medium/narrow fit of Birkenstock Arizona sandals still work for me if I put the straps on the widest setting. So I grabbed one of the ballet pink Repetto sandals, adjusted the straps, went to slide them on… and my foot didn’t fit. I grabbed the other one, wondering if there was a design flaw in the one shoe and nope, the other one didn’t fit either.
Were my feet swollen? I had just gotten home from running errands where I was wearing a pair of Birks, but they were a pair I got on eBay and I wasn’t sure of the width and year. So I grabbed my STAUD x Birkenstock raffia Arizonas, a pair I just got at the start of summer. They too are the medium/narrow width. Putting the two next to one another really showed how disappointing and cheap these Repetto x Birkenstock sandals really are.
The Repetto x Birkenstock Arizonas retail for $495. The straps are leather trimmed in grosgrain fabric and the cork sole is covered in Vichy-printed leather. The buckles are round and appear to be matching bonded leather over a sturdier material (online it says metal, hard to tell, the buckle pin is silver/chrome metal). But that is where the luxury ends.
The sole is more narrow than my STAUD x Birkenstock Arizonas. And the straps are a whole 1 1/2” shorter. That is a substantial difference, which not only cuts costs but has the holes in a completely different place, causing these shoes to fit differently for all, not just those of us with higher volume feet.
The rubber sole is thinner, with a smaller print on the outsole. I don’t know if this is on purpose, to create more of a delicate Repetto-eque feel, but considering every single other pair of Birks I have are the same soles, this ends up feeling as though it was a way to cut costs.
And most surprising, I found the construction to not be as precise. The grosgrain border wasn’t always straight and a bit of it stuck out from where the strap is placed between the cork and the rubber of the soles.
As someone who has lived her entire adult life in a size 12 or larger, I am used to high-end and trendy brands not fitting me. I am used to seeing a size chart go up to XXL, but then find the XXL is actually equivalent to a 10. I am used to not being able to buy 99% of the shoes that appeal to my tastes because they are too narrow. But collaborations like this are how fashion is often democratized. I can wear Manolo Blahnik, and Rick Owens, and Jil Sander in my “regular” size because the brand catered to Birkenstock, not the other way around.
And with all these weird issues atypical to Birkenstock, I can’t help but think it’s due to private equity. LVMH-owned private equity firm L Catterton bought Birkenstock in 2021, and the company went public in 2023.
Take a look at Reddit and online reviews, and you will see that starting in 2022, Birkenstock loyalists began complaining about quality inconsistency. Many mention visible glue, misaligned soles, crooked buckles or buckle holes, and receiving visibly worn shoes even when ordering directly from Birkenstock. I personally haven’t experienced any of these issues until now; doing this research makes me think I have just been lucky.
Many feel the EVA Birkenstock sandals don’t hold up as well as they used to, and I am one who agrees. I have my mom’s pink pair which were from 2020, a white pair from 2022, and an orange pair from 2024. The ones from 2024 are the flattest, the straps stretched out the most, and they were worn only a fraction of the amount of the white ones.
Birkenstock has gone in and out of fashion over the past several decades with more staying power post-COVID as folks like me gave up their heels and fashion adjusted to more comfortable footwear. It would be a shame to see Birkenstock go the way of Everlane, another company partially owned by L Catterhorn (source), or Eddie Bauer, another company that had a stellar reputation and history destroyed by PE (source).
Have you noticed a change with Birkenstock? Did you get any of the styles from the Repetto collab?
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.