Birkenstock

A business historian’s corporate history of Birkenstock — a German shoemaking family firm whose footbed patent dates to the nineteenth century and which spent most of its life as a fragmented set of family-held entities before consolidating, professionalising under outside management, and ending up a public company. The interesting stretch is the one @mastersinvest’s list keeps returning to: how an old family manufacturer survives long enough to become a global brand.

Why it’s on the list: Bold on @mastersinvest’s 2025 list, meaning the curator rated it very good rather than merely read.

Where I saw it: @mastersinvest’s “2025 Reading … so far” list, August 20, 2025, where it appears in bold. The full 46-title list is transcribed on 2025 Reading So Far… (tweet).

Connections

• 2025 Reading So Far… (tweet) — the list this came from.
• Family Business — Birkenstock spent generations as a family-held manufacturer before outside capital arrived.
• Brand — the case of a component patent turning into a consumer brand.