Shop Birkenstock Germany.
Have it delivered in Australia.

Birkenstock is the German cork-and-latex footbed original, and birkenstock.com/de is its home market: the broadest catalogue and the full material and colour range, priced in euros. Birkenstock does sell in Australia, so this is not a "they won't ship to you" route — it is a catalogue and currency route. What the German store gives you is the whole home-market assortment, including the premium BIRKENSTOCK 1774 designer line and the seasonal, region-exclusive colourways and materials that never make it into a trimmed local assortment. If you want a specific colour in Birko-Flor, a nubuck you have only seen on European feet, or a 1774 drop, .de is where it lives.

The second half of the argument is the euro price, and here are the actual figures we read on birkenstock.com/de on 11 August 2026, VAT included: Arizona in Birko-Flor EUR 90, Arizona EVA EUR 55, Arizona Soft Footbed suede EUR 135, Boston Soft Footbed suede EUR 165, Gizeh Birko-Flor EUR 90, Madrid Birko-Flor EUR 80, Zürich suede EUR 135. Convert those at the ECB reference rate and compare against your local price before you buy — we are not going to quote you an Australian retail figure we have not verified. Sandals are also close to the perfect forwarding item: light, hard to damage, and easy to consolidate two or three pairs into one parcel.

Birkenstock uses EU sizing and whole sizes only, so the first job is converting from your Australian size — and the second, which trips up more buyers than the first, is choosing the width. Every model comes in regular and narrow. Regular is the default and is genuinely roomy; narrow suits slimmer feet and is what many people should be ordering when they complain the strap gapes. On the product page the width is shown next to the size, so check it deliberately rather than accepting the default.

The footbed itself is the other thing to understand. The classic cork footbed is firm out of the box and moulds to your foot over a couple of weeks of wear; the Soft Footbed version adds a foam layer and feels comfortable immediately, which is why it costs more. If you are buying your first pair and are unsure between them, the Soft Footbed is the lower-risk choice for a forwarded order you cannot easily return. Fit should leave roughly 3-5 mm of space in front of your toes and behind your heel, with the toe bar sitting just in front of your toes, not under them. If you are between sizes, Birkenstock's own guidance is to go with the larger size rather than squeeze into the smaller one.

Birkenstock's own German shipping page, read on 11 August 2026, is explicit: orders on birkenstock.com/de and birkenstock.com/de-en can only be delivered to addresses inside Germany. That is not a restriction aimed at you — it is simply what that storefront is for — and it is exactly the gap a German receiving address closes. You claim one free when you register, order on .de as a German customer would, we receive the parcel at our German warehouse, and we forward it when you are ready. The same page lists German shipping at EUR 4.95 (Hermes) or EUR 5.95 (DHL) below EUR 120 and free at EUR 120 and above, so the German leg is usually free on a two-pair order.

Sandals are an unusually good fit for forwarding, and it is worth knowing why. They are light — a pair of Arizonas in Birko-Flor weighs well under a kilo — and they are robust enough that transit damage is rare. What costs you money is volume rather than weight: shoe boxes are bulky, and international carriers price on volumetric weight, so three boxes shipped separately cost far more than three pairs consolidated into one properly packed carton. If you are ordering more than one pair, order them all before you request forwarding and let us combine them. We also hold parcels while you wait for a restock or finish a wider European basket from other stores; the outbound leg is the same whether the box came from one shop or four. We do not promise a delivery date — the transit time depends on the carrier and service level you select in the calculator on this page.

Footwear is the category where returns actually happen, so this deserves your attention before you order. A birkenstock.com/de purchase is returned under German terms, to Germany, within the German returns window. There is no Australian drop-off for an order placed on the German site and no local exchange, so once the parcel has crossed to Australia, the return postage plus a replacement shipment can easily exceed what you saved.

The fix is upstream, not downstream. Convert your size properly, choose the width on purpose rather than accepting the default, and if you are between sizes take the larger one. If it is your first pair, the Soft Footbed version removes the break-in variable entirely. When you order two pairs and are unsure, order both sizes to our German warehouse: while the parcels are still with us it is straightforward to return the wrong one to Birkenstock under the German window and forward only the pair that fits. That is the single most useful thing this route offers on footwear — a domestic German return address that turns an impossible cross-border return into an ordinary one. Tell us before you request forwarding, and we can photograph the item and packaging so you have evidence for any claim.