Zappos is celebrating a milestone birthday, and the retailer is going to party hard for it. In honor of its 20 anniversary, Zappos in collaborating with Birkenstock to release very limited edition sandals. They are so limited edition that there will only be 225 sandals available for purchase.
The Arizona Hex sandals are emerald green, which is a nod to the 20 anniversary gemstone, the emerald. While the soles of the sandals will be made from Birkenstock's traditional cork, the insoles will be a crisp white. The bottom trim of the shoes will also be white, adding some contrast to the celebratory shoe. The sandals will be available exclusively on Zappos.com beginning July 19.
The actual box itself will be the same emerald as the sandals and gold. Rather than opening like a regular shoe box, it will open like a fancy champagne box. The top of the box has the number 20 on it, marking the brand's 20 years in existence.
"It's a very nontraditional shoe box because you pull it from the top. We wanted to go all out since it is the first collaboration for the anniversary. We wanted to make sure when the customer gets it they say 'wow.'" Joe Grusman, Zappos' General Manager of EComm Marketing, tells Bustle.
Seeing how Zappos is celebrating 20 years in business, the retailer wants to celebrate hard with its loyal customers. The Zappos x Birkenstock collaboration is the first of many brand collabs that Zappos has in store for 2019.
There will be six months of "surprise and delight" moments, with new brand collaborations launching each month throughout the rest of the year. While Birkenstock is the first collaboration, there will be seven brand partners all together.
On July 22, a capsule with Japanese athletic brand ASICS will be dropping. The runner will be a rosé color with gold accents, so wine lovers mark your calendars.
In August, there will be a collab with Toms, and in Sept. there will be a product launch with Sam Edelman. Oct. will bring you new anniversary kicks from New Balance, and Nov. will have a collaboration with Brooks.
The Sam Edelman collaboration will go back to the emerald color theme, and will feature a flat, a heel, and a sneaker. For New Balance and Toms, there will be a neon Las Vegas theme, since Zappos' offices are stationed in Vegas. Brooks' design will have a birthday cake theme, and the glue used to put the shoe together will have a vanilla base to it, so the shoes will smell like vanilla birthday cake.
Then in Dec., the month that is known for its snow days and holiday season, Zappos will team up with Ugg to bring you an anniversary-worthy product. The boots and slippers will take on the design of a special Fair Isle-like holiday sweater.
The website will also be overhauled to look like its original '90s-era homepage, so get ready to hear a dial-up tone upon entering. The roll-back is meant to honor Zappos' part in early-internet retail, and the entire site will revert back to the original homepage from 1999 for one day only. "We wanted to go back to where we came from," Grusman said.
The anniversary celebration will be packed with customer surprises, giveaways, events, and sales, so definitely follow the retailer closely. For example, celebratory shipping boxes will begin landing on customers’ doorsteps starting July. Rather than being the usual white cardboard box with the Zappos logo, the cardboard boxes will be a lot more festive with confetti and candle designs. And there will also be trivia stamped across them to help customers learn more about the retailer.
"There will be random factoids on the boxes, like our longest phone call, which was 10 hours," Grusman said, proving how Zappos takes its customer service to the next level.
For those who love a good sale, a 20 Anniversary sale will begin on July 22, offering customers an additional 20% off and having them "shop like it's 1999."
People who are passionate about charity (and jogging) can participate in Zappos' Rosé 5K at Maurice Car’rie Winery in Temecula, Calif. The idea is to "run now and rosé later." The event is in honor of the ASICS limited edition rosé sneaker, and there are four rosé tastings throughout the course, so it's not all bad. Hosted on Aug. 3, interested runners can sign-up at lovehaterunning.com. For those who don't own running shoes but love to shop for shoes, starting Aug, 12, Zappos will offer a 110% price match guarantee on all products on the site.
As you can see, this will be a busy end of 2019 for Zappos and shoe-lovers alike. When it comes to turning 20, Zappos is throwing a party that will have everyone buzzing.
