The Untold Beef Between Birkenstock & Supreme

Did you know that Supreme and Birkenstock secretly hate each other? This is the untold beef between Birkenstock and Supreme. In 2018, we almost got one of the most interesting collabs of all time. Supreme approached Birkenstock to collaborate on a line of footwear and Birkenstock got pissed. In an interview with The Cut, one of the brand's CEOs, Oliver Reichert, took a lot of shots at Supreme. He basically said that the only reason the brand exists is to sell their logo. And when asked why they turned down the partnership, said, "There's no benefit for us except prostitution. Because this is just prostitution." It's refreshing, really, to know the brand won't sell out just to be part of a bigger fashion moment. Its leaders don't want to compromise the functionality, the quality, and the trustworthiness of the shoe. And we love it-we really do. But we can't help you with what a Suprem-ed out Birk would look like. Maybe. At the end of the day, we're talking about two fundamentally different brands. Supreme is all consumerism and hypebeast culture, expensive products with arguably zero product utility. Whereas Birkenstock has literally designed their brand off functionality for the past 250 years. Most brands would kill for a Supreme collab, but Birkenstocks saw it differently. The brand equity wouldn't come from doing a partnership. It was actually from saying no to one. They weren't just rejecting Supreme, they were rejecting everything that Supreme stands for. And that's exactly how you build a great brand. You don't let customers decide it for you. You make it crystal clear which side you're on.