Birkenstock Orthopädie GmbH & Co. KG is a shoe manufacturer headquartered in Vettelschoß, Germany. The company sells Birkenstock, a German brand of sandals and other shoes notable for their contoured cork and rubber footbeds, which conform somewhat to the shape of their wearers' feet. Representative products include the two-strap sandal, the Arizona, and the Boston clog.

The Birkenstock Company, mainly under Karl Birkenstock, has a long history of union busting. The management split factories to discourage elections and had family members involved in counter organizing. Between the 1980s and 1996, more than 100 legal proceedings by unions and works council against the management were successful; once Karl Birkenstock had to pay DM 15,000 for calling a representative an idiot. Mitglied des Bundestags Ulrich Schmalz called Birkenstock a despot, stuck in the 19th century.