Two widths - symbol for the original Birkenstock®-Footbed
Fashion shoes as often as necessary. Birkenstock as often as possible!
Fashion shoes will usually show you after a brief stint that they are not conducive to maintaining the health of your feet. Your toes are crunched together while the strain and stress is concentrated on certain points on your feet, leading to pain and deformation. At the same time, the cut of these shoes and the heels also place an additional strain on your joints, calf muscles and back. That is why Birkenstock has developed shoes which promote the natural movemenent of your feet by means of a footbed which perfectly fits your feet. Your weight is evenly distributed, helping you feel good all over! To ensure your body weight is evenly distributed across your feet, you need to make sure you have the right size and the right width of Birkenstock sandal.
The choice is yours:
You should have several millimeters space in the heel and toe area. Toes and heels should never touch the edge of the footbed.
Just as important as selecting the right width is the right length. Determining the right length and width allows you to increase the lifetime of your Birkenstock sandals. Your toes need room to be able to move about when you are walking. That is why you should make sure that there is enough space between the foot and the edge of the footbed when you try on the sandals. Try on Birkenstocks in a standing position! You will find that your feet need more room when they have to support your weight.
MATERIAL INFORMATION
Simply good all around
The Birkenstock-materials
Birkenstock leathers are especially thick - around 3 mm - yet still soft. They are unsplit so they retain all of their valuable natural properties. Birkenstock uses deeply dyed, permeated leather in place of artificial surface dyes - which keeps the leather porous and breathable.
Natural Leather can be identified by its typical varying grain and colour scheme that can be seen on the surface. These differences are not covered, which maintains the characteristic of a naturally matte surface.
Smooth Leather feels very fine and even and has a slightly shiny surface. Due to its high degree of elasticity, tensile strength and resistance to abrasion, it is resistant to external influences, thus guaranteeing a long life. It is also easy to take care of and has positive qualities.
Suede Leather uses extra-strong leather that is extremely durable for our Birkenstock® suede shoes. Suede can be identified by its slight structural differences.
Nubuck Leather, where the natural surface of the leather is buffed up, giving it a fine, velvet finish.
Embossed Leather®'s bark-like surface pattern gives this Birkenstock® leather a particularly expressive character.
Birko-Flor® is a comfort friendly tear-resistant and low maintenance material. The upper layer of the material has a leather-like structure – the soft fleece is built into the lower layer.
Birko-Flor®-Nubuck has a special finishing process that gives this material a surface that not only looks like nubuck but feels like it as well.
Birko-Felt is made of a wool pulp mixture and synthetic fibre felt. This mixture is practically untearable, is still breathable and skin-friendly.
Wool: Birkenstock's high-quality wool felt is a 100 percent natural product and is made from sheep wool. This makes it extremely robust and breathable.
RAW MATERIAL INFORMATION
Quality layer by layer
The raw materials in the Birkenstock footbed
Ensuring quality through the most stringent demands
In selecting raw material the best is just barely good enough for the Birkenstock footbed:
Latex milk taken from the bark of the rubber tree in many tedious steps under strict supervision is processed into an adhesive substance which binds together the cork granulate in the Birkenstock footbed. Due to its high degree of elasticity and tensile strength, latex keeps the footbed elastic and ensures a long lifetime of wear.
The textile plant fiber jute must first be roasted, peeled, combed, cleaned and then made supple before it can be spun into jute fabric which is used to stabilize our footbeds and absorb moisture.
Cork is more than just cork
Many sophisticated working steps are required until premium-quality natural cork can be used for Birkenstock products. First of all a layer of bark at least 5 cm thick is peeled from the cork tree - a procedure which is only repeated every 9 years under strict supervision in order to help the tree continue to grow.
To make sure the cork is hygienically clean, the bark is boiled in large vats filled with water.
It is then cut into strips which bottle corks are punched out of. The cork left over after the punching procedure is ground up and sifted into small grains. Birkenstock only uses the purest, most expensive, super light cork of the utmost quality. In manufacturing the world-famous footbed, we take advantage of all the exceptional qualities of natural cork - its high degree of elasticity, its excellent cushioning traits, its outstanding insulation against heat, cold and moisture.
Latex is the natural bonding agent of the cork footbed. Latex is milked from the rubber tree, Hevea Brasiliensis, by scratching its bark so that rubber milk can flow from it. Harvesting of latex is done in a careful and responsible way in order to preserve the ecological cycle.
Jute is used to additionally stabilize the footbeds and for enhanced moisture absorption. This raw material is cultivated to be harvested, which means that no resources are wasted but especially grown for this purpose.
THE BIRKENSTOCK® FOOTBED
One of a kind
1. Deep Heel Cup
Gives the foot a firm hold and maintains the heel profile.
2. Cross Arch Support
Helps shift pressure from the middle to the front of the foot.
3. Inner & Outer Longitudinal Arch Supports
Give the feet balance in walking.
4. Toe Gripper
Steers the toes, promoting the natural rolling movement of the foot.
5. Cork-Latex-Footbed
Extremely flexible, providing a uniquely high level of wearing comfort.
6. Suede Leather Cover
Creates a healthy climate around the foot.
7. Footbed Edging
Deliberately elevated to protect the toes.
Birkenstock invented world's first flexible deep cork footbed. Only the best raw materials are used for the Original Birkenstock Footbed: light natural cork, the finest jute yarn and premium quality natural latex.
These valuable materials contribute to the extraordinarily high comfort of Birkenstock shoes.
No part of the body is subject to more strain and stress in the course of a lifetime than the foot, or better said - the feet. They have heavy-duty tasks to carry out. They keep the body in balance, cushion shocks and carry the whole weight of the body.
This is why it is important to support the feet as much as possible - especially when walking on hard floors. The shape of the Original Birkenstock-Footbed enables the body weight to be distributed evenly over the whole foot, providing it with optimal support.
