Here’s how the shoe went from “ugly” hippie sandal to coveted fashion statement.

Birkenstock’s history goes as far back as 1774. Church records from the time identify a German cobbler named Johann Adam Birkenstock. Johann Adam handed the trade down, and in 1896, great-great-grandson Konrad Birkenstock began manufacturing contoured insoles. Before that, insoles were usually flat. In 1902, Konrad Birkenstock developed a flexible arch support that fit inside shoes.

In 1925, the company became known for its blue insoles, which were called Fussbett, the German word for “footbed”. As an orthopaedic business, Birkenstock featured designs that were rooted in function over form. In 1932, Konrad’s son Carl created a training programme for podiatry and speciality footwear, which was touted by physicians as the “Carl Birkenstock system”.

In 1963, Carl’s son Karl Birkenstock introduced the company’s first shoe, the Madrid, which was designed to be a fitness sandal with a deep, flexible footbed made from cork. Birkenstock began selling its shoes in the US in 1966, after a German-American woman named Margot Fraser discovered them. She took them back to California and sold the shoes in health-food stores, where they appealed to counterculture youths.

In the 70s, Birkenstock released its iconic shoes, the Arizona sandal and the Boston clog. They are still the brand’s most popular styles today. Though it had its moments, Birkenstock remained not more than a hippie staple for decades. It had a brief moment as a subversive fashion statement in the 90s alongside grunge fashion.

In 2002, Karl Birkenstock left the company and handed the business down to his three sons: Christian, Stephan and Alex. Christian’s ex-wife, Susanne, was credited with transforming the brand’s image, then the company sued her for starting her own shoe brand under the Birkenstock family name.

In 2012, the Birkenstock family gave up control and became a corporation, naming Markus Bensberg and Oliver Reichert as co-CEOs. That year, fashion designer Phoebe Philo covered a pair of sandals that looked like Birkenstocks with a mink lining, provoking new-found attention to the classic shoe as more brands copied the style.

In 2015, Birkenstock came out with its Eva sandals, a new take on its classic cork and leather styles, sold for about half the price. The shoes are made with a light, water-resistant synthetic material composed of ethylene-vinyl acetate.

In 2020, Birkenstock sales surged as more people ditched uncomfortable shoes early on in the pandemic. Lyst named the Arizona sandal the world’s hottest shoe of the second quarter.