The Coolest People I Know Wear These "Ugly" Shoes More Than Any Other Style

There's a reason for that.

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Person wearing white jeans and Birkenstocks.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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Birkenstocks went from being the butt of every joke to the cool essential everyone stylish is wearing. It was sudden and unexpected, a bit like the flip-flop phenomenon.

While some people still have trouble grasping why the comfortable-shoe brand is so popular, it's not hard to understand why if you really look at it. The silhouettes are simple. Each style is versatile enough to wear with multiple outfits and aesthetics. Every pair is easy to slip into and makes walking 10,000 steps a breeze.

Birkenstock-Sandal Outfits

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Person wearing Birkenstock shoes.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

But the coolest thing about Birkenstocks is that wearing them gives you that effortless nonchalance that's so hard to achieve. Wearing a pair, especially with an elaborate outfit, just feels undeniably chic. It's like you ran out of time and just slipped into something comfortable without a care in the world. Let's be real—there aren't many shoes out there that can do that time and again.

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Tara Gonzalez
Tara Gonzalez
Senior Fashion & Social Editor

Tara Gonzalez is a senior fashion and social editor at WhoWhatWear. where she is interested in exploring the intersection of fashion and culture and why we are drawn to wearing the things we wear and what that says about the world we live in. Previously she worked as a senior fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. When she isn't writing trend deep dives for WWW, she's working on her newsletter on Substack, Cult Classic, which explores the very best fashion in film and television. She has a degree in creative writing from The University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and pug Bjork, the later of which has a very extensive collection of dog-sized Sandy Liang sweaters.