Birkenstock | Authorized Retailer Sign

The Brief

World renowned shoe & sandal company Birkenstock had a problem. Their products were being imitated and sold as authentic. When customers were bringing their purchases in for warranty they had to choice but to turn them away. To combat this, corporate had the idea of creating a sign to provide their authorized retailer to eliminate any doubt that the products at that location were authentic Birkenstock.

The Inspiration

Birkenstock came to us in need of this sign to gift to their Authorized Retail partners but didn’t have a solid design in mind so they asked us to help in the process. We drew our inspiration from an existing sign prototype (left) and a new display (right) they had in stores to keep the project on brand.

The Concept

With this inspiration, we put together a concept that best suited the product while also staying on brand with the stores new image. The result was a combination of raw steel, white oak, and laser-etched graphics; all topped off with a base using the actual Birkenstock out-sole material!

With the concept nailed down we put together some renderings (photos below) to present to the client.

The Creation

The client was ecstatic when shown the renderings and wanted to move forward with a prototype immediately. We reached out to one of our partners and they turned out the prototype pictured below in about 2 weeks.

The Shortcomings

The client really liked the prototype but when it was sent to the New York headquarters it broke apart in shipping. We learned that the glue used to hold the metal uprights to the wood was not strong enough to endure the rigors of the shipping stream. Since these were going to be shipped nationwide this issue needed to be fixed. We bounced a few ideas around keeping price, design and function in mind and landed on using a small grub screw to make a mechanical connection between the metal and wood.

©The Graphic Source & Birkenstock