This year we are celebrating the 55th anniversary of the most world famous flip-flops brand: Havaianas. It all started in 1962 back in Brazil. Every year, the company produces 200 million Havainanas and since the foundation of the company it is more than 1.2 billion Havaianas that were sold around the world. Happy birthday Havaianas!
The name Havaianas is Portuguese for Hawaiians. The first pair of Havaianas was born in 1962, based on the traditional Japanese sandal known as the Zori, whose soles are made of rice straw. The texture of Havaianas’ rubber soles are like rice grains, one of the many details that make Havaianas unmistakable.
By 1964, almost every Brazilian worker had a pair of Havaianas. Salesmen from the company would drive around the country in small trucks in order to sell the flip-flops in simple plastic bags. It was the beginning of a true revolution.
The brand became a strong player in the current shoes market and today it owns 80% of market share. From the 200 million pairs sold every year, only 10% is sent outside the country. Due to the quick and strong start, Alpargatas, the company owner of Havaianas decide to patent the design in 1966 in order to protect this amazing richness and incredible invention. The shoes were light, strong, resistant, no smells and very comfortable to wear on a daily base. With the strong success across the years, it would have been a big mistake to not patent the design and technology.
All the Havaianas were traditionally only available in blue and white. Colors were not an option. One day there was a mistake in the production and all the Havaianas that day came up green. The company did not want to through them away and decided to sell them anyway. It was a huge success. All sold out in a week. The reaction was so positive that Havaianas seized the opportunity and started producing brown, yellow and black pairs. From this moment, it was a true color explosion and thousands of possible combinations and designs. Havaianas also differentiate themselves thanks to daring and clever ads that would modernize the advertising landscape for shoes.
Decades later, Havaianas continue their path of innovation in design and launch an amazing collection of new designs and patterns in the 90’s as well as the kids collections. It is a perpetual innovation process and the brand become a true ambassador of Brazil and Brazilian people all around the world. The 90’s were a turning point for the brand. The trend of turning the Havaianas white side downwards, leaving the colored part up, created sandals that seemed to have just one color. This was the inspiration for the launch of the Havaianas “Top” style. Initially there were only 8 different shades, now the Havaianas “Top” style is available in over 15 different colors. The Brazilian flip-flops became a fashion icon since the 70’s and later in the years 2000, several collaborations took place with well know fashion brands like Missoni.
This shows how Havaianas became an universal cultural reference like the Coca-Cola red can or the Swiss Army pocket knife. We understand that the creative universe is endless and we will have still centuries of more Havaianas. This anniversary give the opportunity to celebrate in a particular way; a special collection composed with flip flops and espadrilles that will be honored insisting on the famous motto “back to basics” ! The special collection called Tribute are simple yet quite versatile with the thin slim styled strap which provides a lot of elegance for the women’s model. The color is totally based in the original color launched with the first Havaianas back in 1962. Men and Women will be able to choose between two colors: Black and Turquoise.
To discover more about this incredible creative universe, please connect to the brand official website.
http://www.havaianas.com
You will be able to discover the incoming 2017 collections and also to browse the very complete online catalog. There is a Havaianas for every single one of you! Feliz Aniversario e muitos anos de vida.
José Amorim
Info sourced at the Havaianas official website, communication release and wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
