Comfortable, practical, stylist, and… works of art? Birkenstocks, the sandal brand beloved by Germans who insist on the sartorially unsound sock accompaniment, has kicked up a stink with the ...

It’s a little-known fact that Birkenstock invented the footbed — the unique shape of a shoe’s sole where the foot is supported by a natural shape and the toes are protected by a raised ridge.

Neither did I, until I read the quirky IPO prospectus for Birkenstock, the German maker of sublimely ugly, supremely comfortable sandals that went public on Wednesday. It was a lackluster debut: ...