Expansion and present-day
In 2005, Fraser's trading company Birkenstock Footprint Sandals, Inc. was renamed Birkenstock Distribution USA, Inc. (BDUSA). The company remained the exclusive importer and distributor of Birkenstock name-brand products in the United States until 2007. In 2007, the owners of Birkenstock Orthopädie GmbH & Co. KG purchased their long-standing distribution partner BDUSA.[37]
In 1986 Nordstrom became the first department store to sell Birkenstock sandals.
The success of Birkenstock sandals in Europe and the USA since the 1970s has led to strong growth for the company. After the German reunification in 1990, Karl Birkenstock seized the opportunity and expanded production into the new federal states.[38] However, growth came at a price: conflicts arose with various trade unions within the company. After Karl Birkenstock retired from the company in the early 2000s, his three sons, Christian, Stephan, and Alexander Birkenstock, took over management and ownership. The handover took the form of a multi-brand strategy, with Alexander, Christian and Stephan Birkenstock each being responsible for their own brands and companies.[38] Each of them had different ideas for the company's future and ended up creating multiple competing product lines and subsidiaries.
Since the 1980s, the fashion world, celebrities and designers have discovered Birkenstock for themselves and outfitted their models with the iconic sandals. The first appearance with André Walker in New York can be traced back to 1983.[39] Pictures of models also adorned covers and articles in well-known fashion magazines.[29] As a result, the sandals also became increasingly popular and mainstream, until the multi-brand strategy gradually eroded customer interest. Serious disputes developed, particularly with the US market and Margot Fraser, over the new competing brands within the Birkenstock Group.In the early 1990s, "Birks" enjoyed another spike in sales among high-school and college-aged Gen X'ers, in part due to the introduction of Birkenstocks into High Fashion, most notably by Kate Moss. Birkenstocks continued to spread to Britain in the early 2000s due to headlines about Gwyneth Paltrow, who was spotted wearing them.[40] Birkenstocks saw another comeback among teens and young adults in the early 2010s, as well as in the late 2010s due in part to the VSCO girl trend.[41] The company was given PETA's Libby Award for being the "Most Animal-Friendly Shoe Company" in 2018.[42]
In 2013, the company, which had previously consisted of 38 individual companies since the 1990s, was fundamentally restructured to form a single group of companies, the Birkenstock Group. In 2013, Stephan sold his stake to the two brothers; they recruited Oliver Reichert, an outsider, to consolidate various subsidiaries into Birkenstock Group and lead the company.[24][43][44]
In February 2021, the American-French investment company L Catterton and the family holding Financière Agache, the private equity firm backed by Bernard Arnault's LVMH, acquired a majority stake in the German sandal manufacturer Birkenstock. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or other details of the transaction. According to media reports, they had agreed to buy Birkenstock in a deal that valued the company at about €4 billion.[45] Christian and Alex Birkenstock retained minority ownership and remained responsible for production in Germany.[46]
In September 2023, Birkenstock filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States stating that the company would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker "BIRK".[47][48] The company completed the IPO and went public on October 11th 2023, raising $1.48 billion at a valuation of $8.64 billion. Following the IPO, L Catterton continued to be a controlling shareholder with an 83% ownership stake.[49] Alex Birkenstock exited his stake following the IPO.[50]
As of 2023, 72% of Birkenstock customers were female.[51]
