This syntax feature is not part of the original Markdown syntax. The idea and syntax comes from the PHP Markdown Extra package.
Footnotes in kramdown are similar to reference style links and link definitions. You need to place the footnote marker in the correct position in the text and the actual footnote content can be defined anywhere in the document.
More exactly, a footnote marker can be created by placing the footnote name in square brackets. The footnote name has to start with a caret (^), followed by a word character or a digit and then optionally followed by other word characters, digits or dashes. For example: