WHY did Birkenstock change their footprint color from yellow to black? I was so shocked. It used to be either yellow (solid cork footbed) or blue (soft footbed) but now they are making the imprints in black! What happened? I loved the old school "yellow lettering" on the footbeds and the classic white shoe box with the feather on it. But now, it appears the German purveyor of fashionable orthopedic footwear is phasing out the classic yellow imprint as well as the original white shoe box. Guess I should stock up on old Birks!
As of early summer 2016, I am seeing the new production sandals (Mayari, Arizona, Gizeh, etc) with the new black prints on the footsole (please see pictures below). This is leading to utter confusion amount Birk fanatics; leading some of them to incorrectly assume that the new Birks with black printing are "fake"; which they are not.
And, while the white Birkenstock shoe box is still being used for the time being; the company is slowly upgrading to their new BLUE shoe box design. If you still receive a white shoe box; consider yourself lucky because you are holding something that soon will be a RARITY among sandal fanatics like myself.
See this post on Amazon titled "Fakes!" which was probably well intended but totally misguided partially because neither Birkenstock USA, Zappos or Amazon has updated their images yet. This has resulted in some kind of chain reaction making other customers believe their shoes were fake too! I thought Germans operated like ultra-precision high-speed nano-second-splitting robots...obviously they are not.
So, are my Birkenstocks with black lettering in the blue box real? The short answer is Yes. In fact, Birkenstock Europe is finally updating their website(s) showing the new design (see 2 examples below).
When in doubt, make sure they have the text "Made in Germany" on the footsole with an encircled letter 'R' (registered trademark) next to the Birkenstock name) exactly as shown on the example below.
New Birks will now ship in BLUE boxes and have the BLACK printing on the footbeds as shown below!
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| NEW re-design by Birkenstock! New Birkenstock sandals now come with BLACK printing on the footbed! |
whew! for a minute there i thought i bought 4 pairs of counterfeits.
ReplyDeletethanks!
I am wondering how to tell if they are narrow or wide. Doesn't the print color determine that too?
ReplyDeleteIt's the foot picture that indicates the width of the shoe, not the color of the print. The Mayari pictured above is regular width, as the foot is just an outline. A narrow shoe will have a solid foot. Go to Birkenstock.com and check out their Fitting Guide for a better visual.
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