News Detail Press

Neustadt (Wied)/Los Angeles ,
14.02.2018

peta2 Libby Award 2017: BIRKENSTOCK honored

Young People from around the World Vote BIRKENSTOCK as Most Animal-Friendly Shoe Company. PETA USA youth organization honors Germany’s largest shoe manufacturer for its commitment to producing fashion without animal components.

BIRKENSTOCK has received the peta2 Libby Award “Most Vegan-Friendly Shoe Company 2017.” With this award, which is highly regarded throughout the global vegan community, the youth organization of PETA USA is honoring Germany’s largest shoe manufacturer for its commitment to producing fashion without animal products. For the 12th time, companies and celebrities were awarded in the categories of Heroes, Food, and Lifestyle. peta2 had invited young people from around the world to vote online. Never before in the history of the award has participation been higher – the number of voters more than doubled compared with last year. For BIRKENSTOCK, this is already the second award from the world’s largest animal rights organization. In September 2016, PETA Deutschland presented BIRKENSTOCK with the “Vegan Fashion Award” for a vegan model of the iconic sandal style “Madrid.”

“We are delighted to receive this award because it comes from the people we make our products for – our customers,” said BIRKENSTOCK CEO Oliver Reichert. “Especially among younger customers, there is a growing percentage who choose the vegan way of life. We offer many vegan products for these customers. The peta2 Libby Award motivates us to continue on this path.” Vegan fashion still faces the prejudice of being unfashionable. Reichert continues: “We prove exactly the opposite with our vegan collection and show that vegan fashion can be animal friendly and also stylish and trendy. If the demand for vegan shoes continues to grow, so will our range of vegan products.”

“We are thrilled to award BIRKENSTOCK with the peta2 Libby Award for Most Vegan-Friendly Shoe Company,” says Anne Brainard, Director of Corporate Affairs at PETA. “As everyday consumers learn more about the importance of wearing vegan, BIRKENSTOCK continues to add more animal-friendly options to its collection, making it easy to have fun with our wardrobes while taking steps toward a kinder world for all beings.”

The Libby Award was created by peta2 to honor companies and people for their exemplary behavior. peta2 is the youth organization of PETA USA, the world’s largest animal rights organization with more than 6.5 million supporters worldwide. It is intended for young people aged 13 to 21. “Libby” is short for “liberation” – which reminds us of the movement’s key objective. The idea behind the Libby Awards is to motivate manufacturers of food and clothing to take a stand for the vegan lifestyle and thus also strengthen animal rights. Eating solely plant-based foods is becoming increasingly widespread these days, especially among young people. With it, the demand for fashion without any animal components is also growing.

BIRKENSTOCK is actively pursuing this development: one-fifth of BIRKENSTOCK sandals are made without animal components. Remarkably, the percentage of cork sandals within the vegan collection has more than doubled three years in a row. BIRKENSTOCK sells roughly 25 million pairs of shoes globally each year.

However, not only does the BIRKENSTOCK footwear collection offer vegan product alternatives, but new product categories do as well. For example, the legwear collection contains a wide range of cotton-based products. Moreover, all products from the recently launched BIRKENSTOCK NATURAL CARE line are vegan and therefore free of any animal-based ingredients.

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