Shoes

[pommom]

Birkenstocks bruise my feet. Have had to return the two pairs I bought online.

[feline groovy]

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@Budbudsmom wrote:

This weekend I was at a locally-owned shoe store that specializes in a lot of "global" footwear, as they call it, Birkenstock, Ugg, Born, Vionic, etc. I mainly stopped by to see if they are carrying the new metallic violet Birks, sadly no.

The manager told me that Birkenstock is trending back to making mainly the "basics", the browns, blacks, navies. They are getting away from the prints and different patterns and fun colors. The few fun styles they do make are made in very limited quantities now which makes it hard for small local shops to get any of them, such as the new metallic colors. The manager also told me they have discontinued some styles, one which happens to be my favorite (Tabora).  She suggested I stop over at Tradehome Shoes as they are a chain shoe store and have bigger buying power. So I did. They didn't have the purple Birks either. That salesman told me that customers don't want the bright, fun colors, they all want the blacks, browns, plain boring sandals. I told him he was wrong, not everyone wants boring.

So now I'll have to keep checking back online to see if birkenstock.com will get my size back in stock. They probably won't as the manager told me once a size is gone, it's gone, they don't replenish their stock.

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@Budbudsmom

That style is available at Amazon and Ebay if you're interested.

[Beth from NE Ohio]

HSN  sells Birkenstock.  I have been buying them there since QVC stopped selling them.

[Junker2327]

Birkenstock themselves told me that all the metallic snake prints are coming back this year. I recently bought a creme pair and an orange pair and they are gorgeous. Im waiting on the blue and the pink ones to come back in.

Beckyblu

[toria]

I have noticed all the fun colors, prints, and jeweled birks are mostly gone from the market.  Those were the ones I liked.  I hate the basic boring Arizona style I won't wear it.  I recently got a couple of pair of metallic with a backstrap on ebay that were new and I had to buy them from a vendor in Italy.  They don't carry them in stores in the U.S.

[lolakimono]

@toria

Have you seen this style?

[toria]

Thanks but way too high for me.  Plus I don't like the style.

[toria]

I bought a style called Kumba in magic galaxy silver.  Also Bali gold.  They come from a vendor in Italy. I usually only buy soft footbed.  They have some of the cuter Birkenstock on ebay.  They are new not used.  They have the turquoise and black snake and they are really cute.  They are backless though so I won't buy them.  I only wear shoes with back straps now.

[BirkiLady]

Love Birkenstock's new wedge sandals! Bought a pair without the backstrap. They are gorgeous and amazingly comfortable to wear. I'm noticing Birkenstock is showing more colorful styles in the soft footbeds, which I don't wear. I'm "old school"! Wonder how we could encourage them to continue distribution of colorful sandals and clogs in great colors on the original footbed?

[sueeich]

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@2blonde wrote:

@Budbudsmom  You can order lots of the fun Birkenstock colors through Amazon.  I just ordered and received a pair of the Gizeh thongs (my favorite style) in that holographic metallic that you mentioned.  They are really cool.  They were $94 with free shipping.

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You have to be very careful ordering Birkenstocks thru Amazon.  Probably a year or so ago, the Birkenstock company announced that they would no longer be selling their products on Amazon because they were having a problem with counterfeits.  The company said to purchase thru Amazon at your own risk.  So, at times, you may be getting the real thing, but you could be getting a fake, too.