Birkenstock Billionaire Brothers Bank $3.5 Billion on Buyout Bet
- Shoemaker began trading Wednesday after $1.5 billion IPO
- Family tradition dates back to 1774 in a small German village
A display of sandals inside a Birkenstock store in Berlin on Sept. 22.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Birkenstock’s seemingly ubiquitous $130 leather sandals have helped the German family behind the brand build one of the biggest footwear fortunes on the planet.
With Birkenstock Holding Plc’s trading debut Wednesday in New York, brothers Alex and Christian Birkenstock are now worth $3.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, even after the shares slumped 13% in the worst opening for a New York listing of $1 billion or more in over two years.