Source: Jennifer Polixenni Brankin / Getty
Not every apparel company wants to monetize Hypebeast culture. The iconic footwear company is purposely avoiding any and all associations to streetwear.
Social critic Cathy Horn visited the Birkenstock headquarters in Germany to profile the brand for The Cut. While the feature provided an in depth look at how the $800 million dollar evaluated brand came to be, the real jewels were the snarky commentary provided by their CEO during a one on one interview.
When the topic of proposed collaborations with SUPREME and Vetements came up, Oliver Reichert made it clear it’s a no go. “There’s no benefit for us except prostitution, because this is just prostitution.”
He also threw shade at national clothing chain Zara. “I don’t give a sh*t about fashion. Fashion is, pfffttt, what is fashion? Inditex [owner of Zara] is doing fashion 12 times a year. What is this nonsense? But I know people are hungry for pure things. And there’s a huge crowd of people heavily believing in and loving this brand. And it’s not because of the nice people working there, because there are no nice people. And it’s not because of the marketing, because there’s no marketing. There’s nothing. It must be the product. Because they do everything wrong — everything! — I’ve met so many people who said, ‘Yeah, I tried to call your company in 1983, 1989, and nobody was answering.’”
The outspoken executive is open to co-branding but with emerging creatives only. “I think this is the future for corporations. Do very few collaborations, but locally” he explained.
In terms of their super cozy sandals he says their attention to craftsmanship is unmatched. “Other brands have completely different benchmarks than we do. They’re not testing anything. We’re testing everything, every leather, because we don’t trust the trade-offs.”
You can read the entire Birkenstock feature here.
Via High Snobiety
Photo: WENN.com
