SHOE SQUAD: Birkenstock looked further afield for its next designer tie-up.
The German footwear brand has tapped 16-year-old Australian brand Song for the Mute for a four-strong capsule that will make its debut Thursday.
The collaboration is the culmination of a long-held affinity for Birkenstock, “a brand that has so much history, has come from so far and has so much backbone,” said the fashion label’s creative director Lyna Ty, who cofounded Song for the Mute with brand director Melvin Tanyana.
The Gardener
Courtesy of Birkenstock
As early as their 2011 runway presentation, where they won Australia’s National Designer of the Year gong, Birkstenstock footwear has appeared on their runways and look books, occasionally zhuzhed up with their fabrics, with prints of even hand-painted sketches by the brand’s design director Karim Gaaloul.
While these experiments were not for commercial purposes, it garnered attention from clients, retailers — and Birkenstock.
Fast-forward more than a decade, the two brands are now formally coming together for a four-strong cast of character archetypes that sees Song for the Mute imagine full looks — Birkenstocks included.
Cue The Artist, which pairs distressed denim overalls with a paint-splattered London shoe; The Gardener in a washed drill crochet flower jumpsuit worn with SuperBirki2.0 reimagined in tan-colored rubber with grass-printed insoles; The Rebel, wearing a rugged short-sleeve jumpsuit with Birkenstock’s Paris in black pony hair, and The Collector, whose tailored felt overalls called for Amsterdam shoes in black polished leather with a yet-unseen welt stitch detail.
Ty told WWD she felt that “as a human being, you probably will gravitate toward one of these four characters” and chose jumpsuits as garments as this matched the function-first vision she and Tanyana have of Birkenstock.
All shoes feature a metal rivet bearing both brand names, a detail changed for the first time in Birkenstock’s 250-year history, according to the footwear company.
This marks the first time Birkenstock has collaborated with a brand from Australia. Its previous fashion hookups have spanned the likes of Dior, Valentino, Rick Owens and, most recently, Etro.
Tola Adefioye, founder of London-based vintage furniture specialist Old Old Woods, wearing the Collector design.
Courtesy of Birkenstock
Priced between 190 euros and 320 euros, the footwear will launch at selected retailers worldwide as well as on the websites of Song for the Mute and 1774, Birkenstock’s Paris-based creative studio for design, innovation and partnerships. The T-shirts featured with each look will also be available on both sites.
Meanwhile, the clothing will launch Thursday on the Australian brand’s website.
This collaboration comes as the German footwear specialist acquired in October its longstanding distributor Birkenstock Australia Pty, through its 100-percent-owned Asia-based subsidiary.
The Australian company, which has around 60 employees, recorded an annual revenue of 88.6 million Australian dollars for the 12 months to June 30, 2025. It counts more than 300 business-to-business partners and operates two owned stores in Melbourne, a monobrand partner door in Sydney and an online store.
