Running well: Trippen turns 30
We congratulate Trippen on its 30th birthday. The shoe label with its flagship store in Hackesche Höfe has become internationally recognized with its unmistakable models. With the t-project, Trippen is exploring completely new paths toward the ‘circular shoe.’
World-famous insider tip
Today, Trippen employs over 100 people and sells 40,000 pairs of shoes a year. Trippen shoes are sold in 34 countries and the online store ships to 84 countries. In addition to its own stores in Berlin, Cologne and Paris, there are partner shops in eight Asian metropolises. Over 2,000 different models have been created to date.
Punk meets forest gnome
It all started with a flirt. This led to over 30 years of creative collaboration and an internationally successful company. Angela Spieth and Michael Oehler met in a Berlin design gallery in the early 1990s. ‘Punk meets forest gnome,’ they later wrote with dry self-mockery. Two contrasting personalities discovered a shared passion that would determine the rest of their lives: shoes. She had previously worked as a shoe designer for various companies, while he had established himself as a manufacturer of bespoke shoes for theater and film productions after completing an apprenticeship as a shoemaker.
Berlin was buzzing after the fall of the Wall, but it looked pretty drab down below: The scene wore combat boots, Birkenstock sandals or trainers. Spieth and Oehler wanted to change that.
First steps on nationally owned wooden soles
Many state-owned companies collapsed with the GDR. In 1991, Spieth and Oehler came across a large pile of unused wooden soles in one of these companies – a factory for shoe lasts in the Harz Mountains. Their first joint project was born from this find. They locked themselves up in Oehler's Kreuzberg workshop for four weeks. They emerged with two dozen innovative shoe models and presented them in a gallery.
Not all of their ‘sculptures for the foot’ were wearable for long. This did not detract from their success: Fashion designers such as Claudia Skoda and Wolfgang Joop placed orders. Production was carried out by a hastily assembled team of students, career changers and war refugees from the Balkans.
Company foundation
In 1994, Spieth and Oehler present their collection for the first time with a small improvised stand at a shoe fair – and cause a stir. Large companies outbid each other and want to buy up the entire collection. And the two talents along with it. But then the two realize that they are on the right track. They decide: We'll do it ourselves. At the end of 1994, they found the company Trippen. The name comes from the wooden soles that marked the beginning of their collaboration: In the Middle Ages, ‘Trippen’ was the term used for the wooden under-shoes that protected the actual shoes from street dirt – a bitter necessity in the absence of sewage systems. The first German Trippen shop is opened in 1995 – in Hackesche Höfe – and it remains the company's flagship store to this day.
Exciting years follow. The company grows rapidly. Trippen trends in Japan and in 1997 the first Trippen shop opens in Tokyo. To this day, the Asian market accounts for the majority of sales.
However, production is to take place in Europe. Manufacturers are sought who fulfill Trippen's high quality standards. The maxim: no gluing. Shoe production has almost completely migrated to Asia. But Trippen takes a different approach and sets off on a search in Europe, working with companies in Pirmasens, Austria’s Waldviertel and Italy. In 1998, Trippen finally sets up its own factory in Zehdenick in Brandenburg – with machines and employees from a former GDR shoe combine. Since 2014, all Trippen shoes have been made in Brandenburg.
The Trippen philosophy
Much is clear at Trippen right from the start: The two founders do not want to produce for the mass market, but rather create fashion for the foot. As in haute couture, the close integration of design and production is part of the concept. This is only possible in a manufactory production with a lot of handiwork.
At the same time, the shoes should be functional – like any good industrial design. In this case, that means comfortable. ‘Cobbler stick to your last’ – the adventurous label follows this advice only in the literal sense: The lasts, the basis of shoe production, were developed once according to anatomy and have been retained ever since – and not subjected to fashion or design ideas. Sole shapes and heel heights also remain the same. This results in less waste.
Long before sustainability became a fashionable term, Spieth and Oehler agreed on the responsible use of resources. Their shoes are made to have a long life – thanks to high-quality workmanship and a timeless design.
t-project: the shoe that runs in circles
Sustainability has been part of Trippen's DNA from the very beginning. Now the company is going one step further: with t-project, it is looking for new, uncompromising solutions on the way toward the circular shoe: shoes that are made from recycled materials and are themselves recyclable. For the soles, they developed a rubber compound that consists of 50 percent shredded expired and scrap soles that have been collected over the years. The other half of the sole consists of equal parts natural and synthetic rubber.
Trippen has set up a knitting workshop to develop upper materials from recycled yarns. The yarn for the Revive model is made from recycled plastic bottles and plastic waste from the sea.
The Proto model is based on earlier experiments. The first prototypes from production were collected, deconstructed and reused. Seams, lacing holes and inscriptions from the design process remain visible. Each shoe is unique.
For the Aware/Beware model, postal sacks and then used jeans from the old clothes collection were used for the upper material. Together with a cork footbed and natural rubber, the result is a vegan shoe. Here too, slight differences in the denim material are part of the special charm. Trippen won the Green Product Award 2024 in the ‘Fashion’ category for their t-project. Congratulations on this too!
