A brief guide to avoiding counterfeit websitesUpdated 20 days ago

Seen a Birkenstock deal online that’s too good to be true? A brief guide to avoiding counterfeit websites 

As the saying goes, if you see something too good to be true, it probably is. In the interest of protecting our customers, we have put together this short guide to help you identify and avoid counterfeit sites. 

Birkenstock Australia is aware of the number of counterfeit scammers around and regularly reports them. These sites generally only operate for a short period of time before shutting down and reopening under a new name. 

If you suspect that you may have purchased through a counterfeit website our suggestion would be to contact your bank ASAP and see if they can be of help to cancel the payment for you.  

How to spot a counterfeit Birkenstock seller 

If you are searching online for Birkenstocks, keep a look out for the following red flags: 

• Although Birkenstock is a global brand, Birkenstock distributors only ship footwear to their own respective countries. Finding a website that offers to ship your order to both Australia and other countries, or offers multiple countries’ currencies, should raise a red flag.  
• Be sure to visit the informational pages of the website. Often these other pages (such as their returns information, company information, about us, shipping information) is vague, contains spelling errors, and written in poorly worded English or another language entirely. 
• Always look to see that the company provide an actual physical address for the business. Check for a telephone number or contact address or ABN on the ‘contact us’ page. Counterfeit websites often use enquiry forms as their sole means of communication.  
• Check at the bottom of the page for the Copyright and who they are powered by. Often you may find links with the text something like ‘cheap online women’s and men’s shoes’ or ‘online sandals’ and the link takes you back to the same website instead of a genuine web design company.  
• Be wary of websites that offer our products at high discounts, often more than 50% below the RRP. Birkenstock classes itself as a boutique style sandal and you generally won’t find any websites offering cheap shoes or large discounts like 73% off. If the sale seems too good to be true it generally is. 
• Many of the styles on counterfeit websites are actually attempted imitations of discontinued styles that are no longer being manufactured by Birkenstock Germany. If you haven’t seen the style or colour-way on any official channels, it’s probably a counterfeit. You can check the current range on the official German website.  
• Sometimes counterfeit sites use genuine Birkenstock lifestyle or product images. When you inspect the images information you can often see they have taken the images from other websites. 

Our website, https://www.birkenstock.com.au, is the official and only web store attached to Birkenstock Australia. There are other independent retailers in Australia who have online stores and sell Birkenstocks online. Many of these also have physical stores and will have a store address or a telephone number. Our stockists normally carry many brands and do not exclusively sell Birkenstock. To view a full list of our official Australian Birkenstock retailers, visit Stockist Locator

The only way to be absolutely sure that the item you are buying is a genuine Birkenstock is to buy from an authorised Birkenstock dealer, either online or at one of our retail partners' store locations.