Skate-Coded Birkenstock Hiking Shoes? Louis Vuitton's Footwear Designer Did That
Thibo Denis’ Birkenstock 1774 sneakers were no one-off. Turns out the Louis Vuitton footwear designer’s first solo sneaker collaboration, released at the end of last year, was just the first installment of luxurious Birkenstocks.
This isn’t normally how a sneaker collaboration works. Typically, co-branded footwear is gone as quickly as it comes, resigned to the history books as a fleeting hype-inducing moment. Want more? Tough luck, you’ll have to browse on resale sites and pay an inflated price for the honor.
But, as Birkenstock is quick to point out, this ain’t a collaboration, hence why Thibo Denis’ name doesn’t feature on the shoe. Denis is Birkenstock’s first “guest designer,” part of a larger program where creatives are brought in to reimagine the German heritage brand’s codes.
In Thibo Denis’ case, that meant producing three different types of hiking-style sneakers: one with pretty conventional proportions, one that’s a mule, and one with an oversized puffy tongue. This subsequent drop, available from Birkenstock’s website, includes the same three models but with new paint jobs.
"Birkenstock has always been famous in the U.S. as a resting pair; it was the shoe you wear after effort," Denis told Highsnobiety when announcing the partnership. “I tried to put everything that I love and have been developing as an aesthetic signature, [including] hiking and climbing elements, into the shoe."
Nowhere is his penchant for smashing disparate references into one succinct design more evident than in the 1774 Goerlitz. This shoe is a bit of everything. It has the profile of an elderly suede hiking sneaker, the huge puffy tongue of an early 2000s skate shoe, and massive rope laces plonked on top. Plus, this is a Birkenstock, so the double-strapped construction mirrors that of Birkenstock sandals.
Combining so many opposing references into a coherent sneaker is no easy feat. But trust Thibo Denis, the mastermind who made Dior’s best sneakers and is now behind LV’s luxe-ified skate shoes, to make it work.
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