The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2016–2024
Birkenstock turns its 250-year archive into a 688-page book and digital encyclopedia
For its 250th anniversary Birkenstock published an eight-year-researched visual history: 688 printed pages plus an immersive digital encyclopedia.
Birkenstock
What it had to solve
Birkenstock reached its 250th year in 2024. Since 1774 the German shoemaker had been thinking, making, failing, tinkering, testing, creating and obsessing — all in a tenacious, sometimes radical effort to help the world walk as nature intended. The brand wanted to draw attention to that ethos and to a rich visual history that had never been fully told.
How it works
In 2024 Birkenstock reached 250 years. Since 1774 the German shoemaker had been thinking, making, failing, tinkering, testing, creating and obsessing — all in a tenacious, sometimes radical effort to help the world walk as nature intended. To draw attention to that ethos, the brand chose to publish its own history rather than just announce the milestone.
The result was a dual publication: a lush storytelling book of 688 pages that weaves together countless unseen images and drama-filled narratives from the company's archive, researched over eight years, alongside an immersive digital encyclopedia. Design agency Bureau Borsche is credited on the project.
Together the two formats trace each step in Birkenstock's journey, completing a rich visual history that had been incomplete until now. The anniversary did not expire with an ad campaign — it left a durable cultural artifact in print and digital form, and the work now sits in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- The archive is the argument: 250 years of unseen images and narratives prove the ethos more convincingly than any anniversary slogan.
- Eight years of research signal seriousness: the scale of the record tells you the brand treats its history as substance, not decoration.
- Print and digital complement each other — the 688-page book gives the story object value and permanence, the encyclopedia makes it searchable and alive.
- It outlives the moment: a history published for the 250th anniversary keeps paying out as a brand asset long after the event calendar moves on.
What it did
The anniversary produced a permanent cultural artifact instead of an expiring campaign: a rich visual history, incomplete until now, now lives in print and digital form, and the project sits in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
When a brand's real asset is its history, spend years assembling the archive instead of an anniversary ad: the depth of the record is the message.
Since then
The book and digital encyclopedia went beyond the anniversary moment, giving Birkenstock a durable record its archive had been missing: unseen images and narratives from 250 years, researched over eight years, are now assembled in one place. The project was catalogued in the D&AD awards archive, and the print volume stands as the visual history that had been incomplete until now.
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