At the same time, our fixture team was working through options for some sort of leave behind that the independently owned stores would proudly display as valued partners of the Birkenstock brand. We started on reverse printing on acrylic, but that quickly was tossed to the cutting room floor for feeling outdated, and looking too much like a kitschy “salesman of the year” type of award. We also talked about integrating the company’s signature materials into the piece: be in cork, their outsole pattern, a die struck pendant, or similar. Then we sketched out a mixed materials fixture – one containing white oak, laser debossing, cold rolled steel, and an actual foam outsole from their shoes, and we knew we were on to something. After a few rounds of prototypes to ensure the fixture would represent the same high quality characteristics as the Birkenstock brand, and surprisingly not lighting the foam outsoles on fire with the laser cutter, we had our finished product.
Back to the employee work area and kitchen, we decided to keep it simple and produced a cut vinyl of their mission statement. We surveyed the area, now closer to final completion, coordinated with the contractor on the type of paint used, and when it would be done so that the off gassing did not peel the vinyl off the wall, and installed the vinyl the weekend before the grand opening.
Birkenstock found value on our ability to support their marketing team across a variety of projects and services, and on price and on budget. In the end, we partnered with them through it all, and now operate as an extension of their team – a true symbiotic relationship.