After Birkenstock's Best Clog Turned 50, It Turns Inside-Out (EXCLUSIVE)
Birkenstock could never update its sandals ever again and still claim the greatest summer shoes of all time. Er, summer? Simply greatest shoes of all time. That's Birkenstock.
But not all changes must be minor. As part of the ongoing festivities for the 50th anniversary of Birkenstock's inimitable Boston mule, perhaps the most coveted clog in the world, Birkenstock is turning it inside-out. Or maybe upside-down.
A three-piece bone pattern pack, premiered here by Highsnobiety and soon available on Birkenstock's website, turns one of Birkenstock's subtlest signifiers into its most obvious, stamping the Boston, London, and Milano sandals with the all-over geometric shapes typically confined beneath the sole.
Complemented by matching socks (sold separately, mind you) to maximize Birkenstock bone mania, the trio of sandals aren't merely printed with the pattern but actually embossed to match the texture of a Birkenstock sole, making for subtly substantive sandals as wearable as they've ever been but also extra nuanced.
True Birk believers know that this experiment was undertaken first by Japanese retailer (and Birkenstock lifer) BEAMS, which tested the waters by boning up on the Boston clog and even the underrated Zurich slide sandal, each time revealing the beauty of this rarely celebrated Birkenstock signature.
Not that there are many things in Birkenstock's world yet to be pedestaled as the all-timers that they are.
We've effectively entered a new Birkenstock golden age, where every variation of essential Birkenstock is gently retooled, utterly transformed, or reimagined as an object of luxury. Not that the originals, especially the half-century-old Boston, aren't still themselves worthy of worship. It's just that now, there are so many more ways to indulge.
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