Incredible Flip Flops

(and other brandname flip flops)

I was scammed last month buying a pair of Havaiana flip flops! Me! And I’m the expert.

The tiny boutique and exclusive Havaiana store was next to a favorite street restaurant, next to a bar, and across the road to the beach. A street band was drumming. I saw on the wall of the shop a beautiful and vibrant flip flop, among many. I bought the pair. The retail clerk was attentive and kind, and she gave me a trinket of a wrist bracelet after the purchase. It was a wonderful store experience.

I was scammed. A few weeks later the colorful imprint on the sole disintegrated and wore off. This does NOT happen to original Havaianas.

What to do?

1. Return to the store and complain to the clerk.
2. Report and file a complaint with the company of Havaianas. Get a refund!
3. Watch out, BEFORE a purchase: Watch out for a blurry print, a cheap feel to strap, uneven edges to sole, etc.
4. AND, I see the issue with my pair now, which should have alerted me to the fakery. The letters of the word “Havaianas” is a stamp rather cheaply attached to the strap. The stamp is not part of the structure and plastic mold of the strap but is separate and gives the impression of being attached as an afterthought. That’s it. Today, the stamp is fine. The issue is that the colorful print on the sole, the reason I was entranced by them, has worn off.

What to do? What did I do? I didn’t do anything. I didn’t return to the store or request a refund. I did nothing. I will do nothing. I AM warning you about the detail of the stamp I discuss above. That’s something, isn’t it?

You may act differently in my situation, and I would respect you probably more than I respect myself, for sensible and any reasonable actions you might take, but I can tell you, I do not have the heart or head energy to return to the little store and discuss the issue with the retail person. She likely didn’t know they were fake. I don’t want her to get into trouble. Whatever, it was 70 brl (Brazilian Reales). I don’t have the time. I did enjoy the sale experience at the point of purchase. The flip flops, by the way, are comfortable and entirely useable. Nobody sees the color print on the sole anyway when I wear them. Only at the door step, or the beach, when I take them off. Scam!!!!

A Happy Lifestyle Choice

Flip flops are an essential part of our wardrobes and often the best choice for footwear. Most of the time, if we step out of our homes, we need footwear. To go barefoot is ideal but, practically, we often need some protection from surfaces and temperature and social constrictions. There are many good reasons (we will remind ourselves here of the many reasons), adopting flip flops is the best choice for our feet, Oh for so, so, so many occasions.

Flip Flops Can Be a Happy Choice

There are always choices of footwear: tennis shoes, boots, snazzy heels, and full-strapped sandals, but flip flops are often just happier. Flip flops are barefoot with a nod to the need for something down there. Little extra is strapped onto flip flops not. Little support is offered to your feet. Nothing is extra cushioning or protection. The flip flop leaves you nearly whole between you and your day. They are that near edge to being barefoot. It’s not unimportant to feel slightly exposed, to feel the breeze between your toes, even to know the vulnerability and proximity of the foot to the floor, pavement, rock, sand, or grass. You might stub your toe wearing your flip flops (it’s possible), you might feel slightly underdressed walking into some store or restaurant, you might get a little chilly as night falls, but I believe your chances of being happier and closer to the ground do in fact increase.

Adoption of Flip Flops

Flip flops and the entire approach to wearing them may be new to you. Try it. First, you try it obviously to walk to the beach. Most everyone wears them to and from the beach. Now, consider adopting and expanding the beach flip flop experience to the boardwalk, to the nearby cafe, and to the indoor eatery. Then, perhaps the car trip, the stop at the grocery store, the dog park play, and the walk with a slightly unknown destination. The deliberate act of adopting the flip flop as a regular choice in footwear, or at least a distinct possibility of doing so, can be your goal in being simply a bit more present. One outing by outing, excursion by excursion, it becomes a healthy choice, or even a non choice, a sliding into your flip flops before you consider if you may even need more shoe or boot.

Flip Flops Are Not Sandals

For our way of thinking, flip flops are barely footwear–they are nearly barefoot. Sandals, on the other hand, are shoes and boots with some pieces of fabric missing for increased ventilation. Sandals are deconstructed shoes or boots. They are for nerds (said with love–I’m a nerd!). With socks, sandals are wonderful on a cold day. Sandals, particularly quality leather ones, are cool and chic for dressier occasions and some moods. They can be, in fact, athletic wear with support and protection, and are perfect for specific outdoor activities of long hikes, tidal pool exploration, and real climbs. The flip flop, however, is a different category and for another world. Flip flops lower expectations and slow the pace. What’s the hurry? Where are you going?

Flip Flops – If You Can’t Take the Heat

The world has some heat these days. Given season and location, you will experience extreme heat on the feet. You may live closer to the equator and feel the heat year around. You may be traveling, hopefully for pleasure, to a hot place. To state the obvious, you may be skipping off to the beach. Flip flops are the ground troops, the “go-to,” the default vocabulary for the beach and for other hot surfaces, too. You need to walk across that parking lot, you wish to cross the roof of the at garden party at the top of the club, you want to slide by the gang at the pool party, and finally, you must navigate the sandy beach at mid day. Sometimes the sand is too hot for bare feet. You and friends see the perfect spot at the beach to pitch your umbrella, to set up camp for the day, at the edge of the water, but it is hot hot hot and you need your flip flops. This is where the                                                                essence of this adopted footwear becomes simple and required.

One day at the famous Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, we stood on the sidewalk and gazed at the expanse of the beach. Not the long length (and it is long) but the vast GIRTH of the beach. It is wide and deep. Standing on the boardwalk, oh, friends and I saw our spot on the be

ach waiting for us. Not too crowded. Not too isolated. Near the water but far enough away to stay put when the tide came in. We could see our home for the day. But it was December and summer and hot. The sand was sizzling and we couldn’t stand on the sidewalk, let alone stride towards the water, without our flip flops. Interestingly, beautifully and casually and delightfully, the city did provide some long drawn-out hoses every half kilometer or so, which trailed from boardwalk and the water spigots all the way out to nearly the surf. The hoses were perforated and provided a miracle wet path of cool, skinny, sand, and beach goers could tightrope it down the hose-watered trail to the expanse of the beach. Fun. Indeed. Still, we all had our flip flops for later, for a diversion off of that watery trail, for a return to the hot sidewalk. Flip flops for all. Flip flops at the beach. To the essence of the flip flop.

Who Would Have Thought?

Some readers of this may be chuckling (I hope, with patience) for me stating the obvious: Flip flops are not sandals or shoes. Flip flops take us to the beach. They take us to a barefoot approach to life. Flip flops really highlight simple utility and a barefoot freedom. Still, I myself had to learn of the flip flop and when and how to wear them. Now, I can and do enjoy them. There is                               always something of the beach with us in flip flops.

I hope this website will quickly introduce you to both the practicality and the beach mindset of choosing flip flops. More often than not your choice of footwear can be flip flops. The small seemingly inconsequential choice can be the foundation for a happier, slightly more exposed, lifestyle. Barefoot is best, sure.  And then, there are flip flops, if need be. You don’t have to put on shoes yet.

Hi, I am John Mark, and I have developed this website with big ideas about why and how to include flip flops, or to include more flip flops, in your life. I lay out for you the enticing thinking behind the wearing of flip flops, and the best flip flops there are, and, for the interested, a bit of an exploration into the history, the purpose, and style, and the environmental impact, too, of the flip flop choice.

MY STORY

I’m from the rural midwest of the United States. I grew up in cold and heat extremes and in-between weathers, when most of us wore tennis shoes or boots. That was it in those days. We had our tennis shoes to play sports, to attend school, and to run around. We had our work or cowboy boots for our different outdoor jobs. And a pair of dress shoes for church service only. Only before bed, did we take off our shoes.

In our countryside community, there was one exception. My mom. She frequently and loudly pronounced her hatred for shoes. Any chance she got around the home and out-and-about–while hanging out the clothes, cooking in the kitchen, driving the pickup, playing a summer pickup game of basketball in the driveway, or walking down the street to visit a friend–her shoes were off. She loved to go barefoot. When we were kids, she hid our shoes, and told us to toughen up our soles and run down the gravel road.

There weren’t much for flip flops in US rural midwest those years ago.

Times change.

Times do change. Footwear options, too, and there are now in fact, even in the midwest, incredible choices for tennis shoes and boots, and barefoot shoes, slides, flip flops!

It’s still better to be barefoot.

HOW I MAY HELP

I have since moved years ago to many different communities in the U.S. and in other countries. Whether I live on or near the beach, in a city, or in the countryside, friends and I wear flip flops much of the time. I’ve learned. I have learned that flip flops are much a worldwide phenomenon, a mainstay for daily life, as well as for special excursions. I would like you to consider the flip flops as essential, if you haven’t yet. I would like to help you find the best flip flops in the world, and I hope you will find incredible flip flop options for your real life style and functional needs.

The flip flop, this choice of footwear, can make you and your feet happier and can lay a good foundation for your head when wearing them. It is a lifestyle, in a way. It is a lifestyle choice. If you wear flip flops to the grocery store, to a friend’s house, to the sidewalk for a walk with the dog, or to the parking lot on the way to the beach–it sets the tone for the outing, for you, and for those around you.

MY GOAL WITH THIS WEBSITE

Flip flops are a very happy meeting spot between being barefoot and needing some foot protection. Flip flops are a sweet middle ground, where you can free your feet from shoes and still have some foot protection as you need it. This is the world of flip flops, sure. Welcome. I hope this website is helpful for you to feel the good energy of flip flops.

If you ever need a hand or have any questions, and if you have interesting insights into flip flop experiences, please share them below, and I will like to respond.

All the best,

John Mark

Founder of Incredible Flip Flops

You Say Tomato – The “Flip Flop” Name

“You say tomato, I say tomato,” is the famous phrase from the great jazz song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” Luis Armstrong sang about how we say things differently.

“Flip flops” is one way to refer to the heel-less sandal, the slipper, usually with the y-shaped straps that are bound in front near center hole for the big toe and next toe. But there are many other names. Know them, just to know them. It is a joy to be with others from around the world and to comment on and laugh about the many names, depending on country’s use.

We have stories to tell.

Let’s review THE NAMES:

• Flip flop — is the term used by Americans and Brits. It likely is named onamatopoiea-esquely for the sound you hear when you step across the floor, the flat of the heel-less sandal flapping against your heel—flip flop, flip flop!
• Jandal — is the word used by New Zealanders. They often think they invented the footwear. I respect them for that. Post WWII, they applied “Japan” and “sandal” for “Jandal,” giving credit where much was due.
• Thong — well, this is just funny to everyone except Australians who see the Y shape of the bindings. Others enjoy it for ….whatever, the slight underwear covering this or that. But a thong is a thong, whatever you want to call it. That’s all good.
• Zori, in Japan; or the wooden clog, the Geta.
• Plakkie, in South Africa.

The footwear is rich in history and linguistic variation.

• Tsinelas, in the Philippines, with Spanish and Portuguese colonization remnants. Is there something of Tagalog here?
• Chinelas in Portuguese, and
• Chanclas in Spanish.

Oh, so rich. There must be so much more to these terms and of the uses, accommodations, and customs of the flip flop.

Rich, Rich, Rich.

Tell Your Story

In summary, the language of the flip flop carries traditions and sounds and practices and rituals of life over the generations. The flip flop has its place in many of our hearts. I have more stories to tell on them. Please pass on your histories or linguistic insights, as well as personal reminisces of the flip flop in your family and community.

The Flip Flop Dynasties–A Living History

Flips flops are the most popular form of footwear today. Historically, they have helped carry people and their feet forward in real and gritty lives for a long time. Something that has been around for centuries naturally surfaces in our stories, art, politics, sports, and culture. It’s good to know where we came from and where we are going. Want to talk history!

First There Were Dinosaurs

I can hear my history teachers, (feigned or real yawn?), every school year, beginning at the Beginning. Darkness, Crawling out of the Water (depending on the story and culture), and then … Light! As for creatures walking the earth, Well. First, there were dinosaurs. (Again, depending on the story.) And then there was the lovely Lucy, the 3-4 million-year old, three and a half foot tall, humanoid and her many friends and family there in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Lucy’s remains are in a secure vault in the basement of the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. A replica is on the first floor for public viewing. There are also 3.5 million year-old footprints of bipeds from near Laetoli in Tanzania. In any case, for our topic, here, it must be said, there are no signs that Lucy was wearing flip flops.

Japanese Tradition

Let’s run the clock up to our human history. We understand the Japanese have been using different forms of the backless sandals for two thousand years or more. Theirs is a rich and storied and artistic tradition including both informal and formal styles made of rice straw matting, tied with cloth or twisted straw bands. Hemp was also applied for both soles and tie on’s.Too, wood was sometimes used, such as with the geisha clog. The slip-on was of course worn for daily work and life, including the labor-intensive farming of water-laden rice paddies.

Walk Like an Egyptian

More broadly, archaeologists find the flip flop in other parts of Asia and the Mediterranean regions, including Egypt. Egypt has the oldest dig of flip flops, 3200 years old (see photo). These and other digs evidence the use often of leather for soles.

The Twentieth Century, a Flip and a Flop?

What about these days? Now. When did modernity, the modern age, or at least contemporary times, begin for the flip flop? When did more cultures, beyond Asia, the Mediterranean, and Africa, discover them and begin using them? When did they become so popular around the entire world, in most countries and cultures? The great expansion of the flip flop dynasties is a post-WW II phenomenon as soldiers of many countries returned to their homes, sometimes with their Japanese, Indian, Philippine, and North African flip flops as well the appreciation and the custom of using them. I am certain returning soldiers brought much more home; and certainly they left much behind. These were the soldiers of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many, many other countries. In any case, in regard to the flip flop, soldiers had learned of the cleanliness and sign of respect of taking off shoes on entering a home, whether the home was a swept mud floor of a hut or a marbled one of an imperial palace. Soldiers had learned to use the flip flop on military bases, in public showers and in saunas. They learned to dress down as much as possible, when possible.

Horrible wars do this: there is great movement of peoples. There is recreation, procreation, procrastination, proclamation, killing and maiming—and cultural appropriations. Perhaps and hopefully this one appropriation of the flip flop from Asian and Mediterranean cultures to other cultures was not inherently or entirely problematic, even if so much else was.

The Last 80 Years

If WW II introduced the flip flop to new people in many lands and around the world, it was the use of the material rubber in making flip flops which allowed for mass production. Soon after, other manufacturers began using synthetic materials. This change from rice straw, leather, hemp, and wood to that of rubber and then plastic made possible the mass production. New forms of transportation allowed for mass distribution. The post-WWII desire of many to use flip flops was met with a new and expanded marketplace.

Today, flip flops are the world’s most popular footwear.

To summarize,

• first there were dinosaurs,
• and then Lucy walked the earth. (She probably walked barefoot.)
• People multiplied and got busy.
• The cultures of the Mediterranean and Asia brewed the rich traditions of the slip on.
• We know Roman foot soldiers wore them.
• We wore them. We, as in we humans, we have worn them for at least three millennia. Feet don’t always take kindly to stones, hot sand, thistles and snow. We had to put something on the soles of our feet.
• And, a modern war (II) and the use of rubber and later plastics propelled the flip flop around world to be the ubiquitous and the most popular form of footwear. Here we are today.

If we are standing on the shoulders of greats, and not-so-greats, we are also now standing on the soles of our humble flip flops.

Goodness. Let us take a bow.