Up until now, Birkenstock’s accessories offering has consisted of three things: socks, insoles, and shoe care. That’s all the brand ever needed. Birkenstock was built on cork-soled sandals and over 250 years after its birth, everything it does still comes back to cork-soled sandals. Then came sacai.

Chitose Abe’s fashion label famously doesn’t care much for tradition, which is why it inverts UGG boots and Frankensteins freaky outerwear, and for Spring/Summer 2027 sacai’s universe of experimentation pulls in the heritage maker of summertime slip-on excellence. Naturally, this means unconventional Birkenstock sandals, wielding an unnecessary excess of straps. Surprisingly, it also includes Birkenstock handbags. 

sacai made itself a literal Birken bag, producing a sleek leather tote accented in the image of a classic Birk sandal. It’s basically the reverse of provocative art collective MSCHF’s Birkin-stock, where it created Birkenstock sandals from Hermès Birkin bags, although that wasn’t a sanctioned collaboration by either brand. 

The Birkenstock of it all is so subtle that it was easy to miss on the runway, but a closer look at the collaborative black and tan suede totes reveals straps with Birkenstock’s signature metal sandal buckle and a squared-off bottom that’s actually an oversized Birkenstock shoe sole. Plus, to match sacai’s SS27 sandals, tattoo artist Dr. Woo provided floral illustrations to customize the holdalls.

While these bags are an extreme example, it’s evidence of Birkenstock doing much more than you may expect. 

Did you know the old-school German label also makes moisturising body lotions, for example? Or that it sells a growing arsenal of boots and sneakers, like the ones designed by Louis Vuitton’s footwear designer made as part of the ENSEMBLE 1774 collaborative platform? But even if you did, you’ve never seen a leather Birkenstock handbag before. Nobody has!

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