Quirky footwear has been all the rage in recent years. On runways, we’ve seen some mindblowing abominations (in the best way) – from see-through dress shoes at Saint Laurent, to Chanel’s barefoot sandals. There’s been a downpour of Tabi offspring, plus the controversial, toe-hugging FiveFinger styles. More recently, high-heeled trainers are becoming increasingly popular (as we reported last week). But we can’t help but question the practicality of some of these styles.
While Margaret Qualley made a fashion statement wearing her Chanel heel-caps on the red carpet, the rest of her foot was left bare and exposed, as she wandered the dirty streets of London no less. Some shoes are designed to prioritise comfort, some are designed to be noticed. The third category is the rarest: shoes originally designed for foot health that accidentally became a timeless, cult footwear staple.
This is the case for Birkenstock’s Boston clog, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Launched in 1976, the German company first introduced the shoes as ‘kork-clogs’, available in three shades: light brown, dark brown and white. Groundbreakingly, they featured an adjustable strap, and were lighter and more flexible than any other clogs on the market. In the pages of magazines at the time, adverts for the Boston included a checklist of their benefits: feather-light, flexible, a natural footshape, noiseless, shock-absorbing and, most importantly, providing perfect support.
Cleverly, the shoes were sold in Californian health food shops, leading LA hippies to snatch them up. Professionals on their feet for long hours who needed supportive, reliable footwear, such as chefs, doctors and nurses quickly followed suit. By the 90s, fashion had caught on. They made their runway debut during American designer Narciso Rodriguez’s AW98 catwalk show, followed by menswear designer John Scher in the same year.
In the October 1998 issue of Vogue Italia, they appeared in not one, but two fashion editorials. Meanwhile, Perry Ellis menswear designer Jerry Kwiatkowski used them in his SS99 collection. In 2003, the collaborations began. Birkenstock teamed up with model and queen of Halloween Heidi Klum for its first ever Boston collab, followed by a string of high-fashion partnerships including Manolo Blahnik, Rick Owens, Opening Ceremony, Stüssy, Chrome Hearts and, most recently, Etro.
Following the pandemic, the Bostons returned to fashion’s frontline once again – they even landed a spot on Lyst’s hottest products list five times in a row. At a time when effortless comfort dressing was everyone’s priority, several celebrities stepped out sporting the clog: Dakota Johnson, Sienna Miller, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, Emma Chamberlain and Kristen Stewart, to name a few.
It’s a style that’s been around for five decades, but remarkably, the Boston clog’s popularity has barely dwindled. In fact, in the 2020s, there’ve been occasions when Birkenstock hasn’t been able to keep up with demand – causing customers to pay double for them on resale sites. “The Boston clog will be one of the defining shoes of the 2020s,” says fashion historian Liz Tregenza. “Whilst within recent years the Boston may have been seen as a fashion statement, the orthopaedic background means it is so much more than that, destined to be loved by consumers, young and old, for decades to come.”
