BIOTOP Upgrades the Birkenstock Kyoto With a Full Leather Rework for Its First-Ever Exclusive

Name: BIOTOP x Birkenstock Kyoto
Colorway: Black
SKU: BFA36060
MSRP: ¥34,100 JPY (approx. $215 USD)
Release Date: June 27
Where to Buy: BIOTOP

BIOTOP has announced its first Birkenstock exclusive, a reworked version of the Kyoto sandal releasing June 27. Pre-orders open June 5 via BIOTOP Online ahead of the wider release across all five BIOTOP locations. The collaboration applies a suite of material upgrades to the Kyoto’s existing construction, arriving in a single all-black colorway.

The construction decisions are the point. Birkenstock’s Kyoto, introduced in 2020, is built on the Zurich silhouette with an upper designed to reference the collar fold of a kimono. BIOTOP’s exclusive retains that visual language while reworking the materials from the footbed outward. The lining has been upgraded from suede to natural leather, and the collaboration applies Birkenstock’s FULL EXQUISITE specification, covering the footbed’s cork sides entirely in natural leather rather than leaving them exposed as standard. The result is a sandal where every surface the foot contacts or the eye lands on has been considered and resolved.

Above the footbed, the material hierarchy is deliberate. The main upper panels are suede while the straps are finished in high-shine leather, a contrast that adds texture and visual depth within the black monotone palette. The combination of suede upper, high-shine leather strap, natural leather insole, and rubber outsole across a single colorway gives the shoe a layered richness that reads as restrained from a distance and rewards close inspection.

The Kyoto’s Japan-rooted design origin makes BIOTOP a natural steward for this exclusive. The kimono collar reference embedded in the upper’s construction is not decorative but structural, shaping how the shoe sits on the foot and how the silhouette reads as a whole. For a Japanese lifestyle retailer with BIOTOP’s curatorial sensibility — operating across fashion, plants, food, and interiors under a single considered point of view — commissioning a material upgrade of a silhouette with direct cultural ties to Japan is a coherent editorial decision rather than a straightforward brand collaboration.