News Detail Press

Neustadt (Wied)/London ,
16.11.2017

BIRKENSTOCK OPENS FIRST OFFICIAL BRAND STORE IN THE U.K.

OPENING IN LONDON AT 48 NEAL STREET WITH THE UK’S LARGEST SELECTION OF FOOTWEAR STYLES ON NOVEMBER 16.

#BIRKENSTOCKUK

BIRKENSTOCK opens its first company-owned UK retail store on Neal Street in London’s Covent Garden district, in the heart of the Seven Dials neighborhood. The German brand’s store opens its doors to customers on November 16. The historic storefront features a 19th century brick façade, a reconstruction of a building originally dating from the 17th century.

The BIRKENSTOCK London store encompasses 60 square meters (650 square feet) of retail space on the ground floor. The selection of over 250 footwear styles is the largest in the UK and encompasses sandals and closed shoes for women, men and kids, as well as BIRKENSTOCK bags, legwear and accessories. The BIRKENSTOCK Natural Care line debuts in the UK with a range of hand and foot care.

Leather and cork, materials synonymous with BIRKENSTOCK, appear throughout. Design elements include an oversized footbed sculpted into concrete and framed in sumptuous leather. Felt, another signature BIRKENSTOCK material, appears in multilayered stacked display units, held together with brown leather straps.

BIRKENSTOCK’s retail environment features VITRA® furniture and custom shop fittings, including the light concept and custom-made units to reflect the BIRKENSTOCK philosophy.

Oliver Reichert, CEO of BIRKENSTOCK, says, “It is an essential part of our global retail ambition to open our own stores in strategic, high traffic locations and vibrant neighborhoods. London is a key market for BIRKENSTOCK and we are thrilled to open our first store in the artistic and historic Covent Garden neighborhood. This London opening follows a few months of ephemeral stores, our BIRKENSTOCK BOX concept, which allows us to develop a global retail experiment with key partners.”

After previously working with a distributor, BIRKENSTOCK takes over distribution for the UK directly, strengthening the brand’s direct client focus. BIRKENSTOCK’s London store now offers the same holistic experience, lifestyle and design sensibility as the other 43 brand-owned stores around the world. The design and product selection reflects BIRKENSTOCK’s positioning as a heritage brand with a focus on functionality, diversity and innovation. Further, direct distribution allows the brand to respond more directly to customer feedback.

The product selection at 48 Neal Street includes the iconic sandals as well as a range of closed toe Fall/Winter shoes. The UK online store <link http: www.birkenstock.com gb external-link-new-window internal link in current>www.birkenstock.com/gb went live recently and provides an extensive overview of versatile collections giving consumers access to the entire product universe of BIRKENSTOCK.

BIRKENSTOCK LONDON

48 Neal Street, Covent Garden

London WC2H

Store opening hours:

10am - 7pm Tue-Wed

10am – 8pm Thu-Sat

11am – 7pm Sun

Press contact

Jochen Gutzy
Chief Communications Officer

Birkenstock Group B.V. & Co. KG
Burg Ockenfels
53545 Linz

Postal address:
Sedanstraße 4
D-50668 Köln

E-mail:mediabirkenstockcom

About BIRKENSTOCK

BIRKENSTOCK is a global brand which embraces all consumers regardless of geography, gender, age and income and which is committed to a clear purpose - maintaining foot health. Deeply rooted in studies of the biomechanics of the human foot and footed on a family tradition of shoemaking that can be traced back to 1774, BIRKENSTOCK is a timeless «super brand» with a brand universe that transcends product categories and ranges from entry-level to luxury price points while addressing the growing need for a conscious and active lifestyle. Function, quality and tradition are the core values of the lifestyle brand which features products in the footwear, sleep systems and natural cosmetics segments. BIRKENSTOCK is the inventor of the footbed and has shaped the principle of walking as intended by nature (“Naturgewolltes Gehen”).

With around 6,200 employees worldwide, we believe how things are made matters as much as the product itself. To ensure these quality standards, we operate a vertically integrated manufacturing base and produce all our footbeds in Germany. In addition, we assemble over 95% of our products in Germany and we source over 90% of our materials and components from Europe. We process our inputs to the highest environmental and social standards in the industry by operating state-of-the-art scientific laboratories for materials testing.

BIRKENSTOCK runs operational sites in Germany, in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Bavaria, Saxony, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Headquartered in Linz am Rhein, the BIRKENSTOCK Group also operates its own sales offices in the United States and Canada as well as in Brazil, Japan, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Dubai, Singapore and India.

Birkenstock Group B.V. & Co. KG Burg Ockenfels,
Linz am Rhein, Germany

You can find our online shop at www.birkenstock.com