How a German immigrant started the US Birkenstock craze

How German immigrant who knew nothing about shoes started US Birkenstock craze after realizing they cured her chronic foot pain, with hippy health food stores the only place that would initially sell them

• A German-American dressmaker unintentionally made Birkenstock’s sandals a die-hard fashion trend
• The late Margot Fraser imported the ‘hippie’ shoes to health-food stores in California after they helped her chronic foot pain in 1966
• Almost 60 years later the ‘ugly’ shoes are a staple by the likes of Steve Jobs and Barbie 

A German-American woman unknowingly started the Birkenstock sandal mania that spread from Germany to the rest of the world, including Barbie Land.

Margot Fraser, who died in 2017 at age 88,  transformed the Birkenstock brand from a German medical solution to a global fashion trend. 

Fraser suffered from chronic foot pain and picked up a pair of Birkenstock’s Madrid sandals to help with the discomfort when she was on a trip back to her home country of Germany in 1966.

‘Her toes straightened. Her back felt better. She was so impressed that she contacted Karl Birkenstock to explore importing his family’s ‘odd-looking sandals’ into the U.S.’, Birkenstock said. 

Almost 60 years later, Birkenstock announced this week that it was floating on the New York stock exchange with an estimated value of $9.2 billion (£7.6 billion). 

Margot Fraser, who died in 2017 at age 88, transformed the Birkenstock brand from a German medical solution to a global fashion trend

A pair of Birkenstocks made not one, but two appearances in this year’s blockbuster movie, Barbie. Sales of Birkenstocks were said to have risen by 300 per cent as a result

Fraser suffered from chronic foot pain and picked up a pair of Birkenstock’s Madrid sandals to help with the discomfort when she was on a trip back to her home country of Germany in 1966

After failing to impress American shoe-shop owners with what many have called the ‘ugly’ sandals, a friend of Margot suggested she set up a stall for the sandals at a health-food convention in San Francisco. She did, and Fraser said that the store managers that rejected her idea were soon begging her for a pair.

Fraser, a dressmaker, was born in 1929 and raised in Berlin but moved to Northern California in the early 60s and married an American. 

She wrote in her 2009 book Dealing with the Tough Stuff: ‘All women’s shoes were narrow and had pointed toes. Even the so-called healthy shoes still had heels. Because millions of women in the United States had painful feet, I thought it would be easy to get them into this marvelous footwear.’   

The original Birkenstock style, the Madrid, featured a contoured cork foot bed and a crossed buckle strap over the toes. The shoe’s purpose was to force the owner to grip the toe strap to prevent the shoe from falling off so they would tone their calf muscle. Germans called this phenomenon ‘Angstreflex’ which means ‘fear reflex’.

Fraser told The New Yorker that after she started stocking Birkenstocks at the San Fran health food store (next to the granola) the storekeepers would say to her: ‘Look, there is a health-food store on my street, and people are walking out with shoeboxes. They should be walking out of my store with shoeboxes.’

She was so impressed with the results that wearing the sandals had on her foot pain that she personally contacted Karl Birkenstock to suggest he import his magic shoes

Fraser said that after she started stocking Birkenstocks at the San Fran health food store (next to the granola) the storekeepers would say to her: ‘Look, there is a health-food store on my street, and people are walking out with shoeboxes. They should be walking out of my store with shoeboxes’

In the 70s Birkenstock released another style of sandal, the Arizona, which is the brand’s most popular style today. But even the new model was still considered a just a hippie shoe for decades.

Over the years Birkenstocks popped up consistently in the fashion industry and popular culture.

The most popular style of Birkenstock has long been the double buckle Arizona, but the recent popularity of the Boston clog has given the classic sandal a run for its money. A standard pair of Arizonas are sold for $110, and a pair of Bostons will set you back $158.

Kate Moss wore a pair of Birkenstocks in one of her first photo shoots when she was 16-years-old and make the ‘ugly’ ‘hippie’ shoes cool.

In 2019, nearly 24 million pairs were sold in more than 100 countries. This week, Birkenstock — whose majority share is now owned by a U.S. finance company backed by French luxury house LVMH — announced it was floating on the New York stock exchange with an estimated value of $9.2 billion (£7.6 billion).

In 2022 Steve Jobs’s old worn-in Birkenstocks, which were a staple in his iconic ‘uniform’, were expected to auction for up to $80,000 – but ended up selling for $200,000.

A pair of Birkenstocks made not one, but two appearances in this year’s blockbuster movie, Barbie. Sales of Birkenstocks were said to have risen by 300 per cent as a result. 

After failing to impress shoe-shop owners with what many have called the ‘ugly’ sandals, a friend of Margot suggested she set up a stall for the sandals at a health-food convention in San Francisco. She did, and Fraser said that soon the store managers that rejected her idea were soon begging her for a pair

In 2022 Steve Jobs’s old worn-in Birkenstocks, which were a staple in his iconic ‘uniform’, were expected to auction for up to $80,000 – but ended up selling for $200,000

After Fraser died in 2017, Birkenstock put out a press release that credited the German-American dressmaker with their success.

‘Ms. Fraser is responsible for bringing Birkenstock products to the U.S. and for building the brand over its first 40 years in the market.’

The release said that when Fraser put the sandals on ‘she instantly experienced comfort and relief from the constrictive, poorly-made shoes that were common at that time. 

‘She was granted the distribution rights and set about building Birkenstock from her home in Northern California.

‘Ms. Fraser was a humble trailblazer. She was a female entrepreneur during a time when this was quite rare. Without any traditional retail or footwear experience, she built a multimillion dollar business that brought comfort to millions of people. 

‘She did so, always, with a warm smile, a deep belief in the product and a sincere appreciation of the people she worked with throughout the industry.’

Fraser was inducted into the Footwear News Hall of Fame in 1997 and the National Shoe Retailers Association Hall of Fame in 2014. 

Shares in Birkenstock began to slide on Wednesday afternoon just hours after they started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock opened at $41, well below the $46 price at which they were offered to investors in the days before they started trading on the exchange.

Birkenstock is now listed under the ‘BIRK’ ticker symbol. The opening price of the share gave the company a market value of around $7.7 billion, well below its $8.6 billion initial public offering valuation last week.

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