May 4, 2011

Flip Flops – Safe White or Eye Catching Colour?

White flip flops are by far the biggest selling colour of flip flops this season. The classic white goes with pretty much any colour of shorts, chinos or jeans and are generally available in leather and rubber versions. With every single top designer brand releasing a white flip flop, sandal or thong this season you can pretty much have your choice from the giants Havaianas right through to Lacoste, Armani, Henri Lloyd and Adidas Originals. A white rubber flip flop might end up being your best friend this summer as due to their versatility, and depending on the weather, you should hopefully spend a lot of time together this year. Mens designer flip flops are massive business within the designer menswear community with mens sandals and even ‘flop flips’ being looked for, but the beauty more than anything is that they’re a basic mens flip flop, there aren’t any calf toning extras or bum firming technology. They’re good and simple designs with top names enhancing the brands with their own distinct markings or signatures. Other names such as surf brand reef isn’t classed as a designer brand as such, but still draws in massive amounts of fans and sales each summer as what community of men need a good pair of flip flops more than a group of surfers. With Havaianas being Brazilian the next biggest selling colour in the UK is fairly obvious, its the boxed yellow flip flops. So now the question is, do you stay safe in white or do you venture into the yellow, green, blue, red, black or orange flip flops? The colours are endless with the bigger names offering the more eye catching colours to tempt your feet. A good pair of blue or red flip flops are easy to find, but only fit with selected colours, so be confident in your creations and try not to mix bold colours, or turn up on holiday head to toe in green to match your latest Nike flip flop purchase. You’re best to shop around as well, as the brands now have a cheaper option of sandal or flip flop, something cheap to throw on down the beach. Adidas Originals, Puma and Nike all make their basic flip flops available for under £20 meaning a few colours can be modelled over the summer as the price is slightly cheaper than their rivals.

All in all the flip flop is a mega add on this summer, so make sure that you do your homework on the colours and if all else fails stay safe with the white mens flip flop and enjoy the summer sun!

March 24, 2011

The Sun Is Out… Get Your Flip Flops On!

Around the UK the sun is slowly starting to come out, the first day of spring has been and gone and as of this weekend the clocks change and my sleep patterns will go to pot for a few weeks! But all of this means one thing to readers of Designer Shoes and Trainers… flip flops. The second the sun is out that is it, the shorts and flip flops are out and on, and they’re only removed if we get a wet spring day, or i’m going somewhere a little more up market then the deck shoes or espadrilles are out with the chinos or shorts.

Flip flops are possibly the best invention ever. Originating and worn in its earliest form from a design in Japan and worn in New Zealand and America by returning service men the flip flops had woven soles and were worn as beachwear. This was in the 1930s, it took until the 50s before anyone had the idea of changing them to plastic soles. There is a bit of controversy over who invented them first, so i’ll give that a bit of a wide bearth, but by the end of the 50s Flip Flops were more commonly known as ‘jandals’ a shortened version of Japanese Sandals. New Zealand still to this day refer to them as jandals, while Australia prefers thongs and both the UK and US use the more common flip flops.

One of the top flip flop brands around the world is Havaianas. It is widely accepted that the Brazilian rubber flip flop giant is by far the biggest in every country, and achieves this by focusing only on flip flops, sandals and thongs. Established in 1962 their global fame came in 1998 when they released a colourful range of flip flops that included the Brazilian flag on the strap. This design soon became wanted by every man, woman and child and led to Havaianas going global. Many other designer brands have a seasonal release of flip flops, but few are as low priced or carry the same quality as Havaianas. To combat this brands such as Lacoste, Armani, Hugo Boss, G Star, Diesel and surfing brands such as Reef and Quicksilver upgrade their designs by using leathers or soft cottons to enhance their flip flops, allowing them to charge slightly more. I’ve personally got a couple of pairs of Lacoste leather flip flops and they have lasted for ages! As with everything this summer there is plenty of colour to be had with the flip flops. Not so much the more expensive pairs, but the Havaianas and the £10-£25 pairs have plenty of colours available with green, yellow, blue, red, orange and pink among many more bright and eye catching colours.