Germany’s largest footwear manufacturer is committed to promoting sport for young people at its local production facilities // BIRKENSTOCK employees support enthusiastic runners at their own stand along the route by distributing refreshments. 

A new record was set at the 15th Europamarathon Görlitz-Zgorzelec held on June 3, 2018, with a total of 2,450 registered entrants. And with this sporting event gaining in popularity each year, the record finishing time achieved last year was comfortably beaten once again. The run comprising nine disciplines for all age groups and crossing the German-Polish border and the 15th meridian has become the largest recreational sports event in the region of Upper Lusatia. The run is now a firm fixture in the sports calendars of many runners, walkers, skaters, and hand cyclists. At the same time, the field of participants is becoming ever more international: This year, participants from 26 different countries lined up to compete in the event.

The 130 sporty BIRKENSTOCK employees from the sites in Görlitz, Markersdorf, Bernstadt as well as Vettelschoß and Rahms were comfortably the largest group of runners among the regional companies participating. And one of them even managed to leave everyone trailing behind on the 10 km run – Malgorzata Krasicka was the winner of this discipline with a finishing time of 41:49 minutes.

It was not only as one of the three main sponsors that Malgorzata’s employer supported the Europamarathon to promote the region in which it has its production facilities – a number of the employees also manned their own refreshments stand along the route and handed out water and fruit to all the participants. The involvement of Germany’s largest footwear manufacturer in the Europamarathon Görlitz-Zgorzelec is part of a nationwide sponsorship initiative which is promoting sport for young people in the vicinity of the company’s sites.

BIRKENSTOCK made it possible for anyone within the workforce who was interested to take part in the largest German-Polish running event by covering the entry fees and providing them with suitable sportswear. To specifically promote young people’s sport, BIRKENSTOCK was additionally the sponsor of the kids’ run. The two-kilometer route for young runners aged between seven and 13 bore the name of the family-owned enterprise. Managing Director Hilmar Knoll, who is responsible for the largest BIRKENSTOCK site in Upper Lusatia, gave the starting signal for this discipline.

Some impressive finishing times were achieved by BIRKENSTOCK employees in almost every discipline: the fastest female employee in the half marathon (21.1 km) was Agnieszka Walczak, who finished in 2:07:20, and the fastest male member of staff was Hardy Schröter with a time of 1:35:30. Telmo Cunha finished the 10 km run ahead of his male coworkers in 39:04 minutes. And in the event with the largest number of starters, the 5 km run, Przemyslaw Rzenik came out on top with a time of 19:38 minutes, while Agata Jadach finished in an impressive 24:53 minutes.

BIRKENSTOCK additionally presented an array of its popular sandals to the spectators and participants at an info stand at the start/finish area and showcased itself as one of the biggest private employers in the region. The long-standing company’s quality products, which are in high demand around the world, are made for the global market in Upper Lusatia, with their production involving a great deal of handcraftsmanship. Roughly half of its personell is working at the locations in Saxony.