Each year on the third Friday in June, it is National Flip Flop Day! Find your flip flops and wear them.
In 2007, Tropical Smoothie Cafe created National Flip Flop Day to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Every year on this date, customers who come into participating Cafes across the nation wearing flip-flops receive a free Jetty Punch Smoothie. Tropical Smoothie then gives proceeds of a $1 paper flip flop from customers to send ill children and their families to Camp Sunshine.
Camp Sunshine is based in Casco, Maine, and their mission is focused solely on addressing the effects of a life-threatening illness on every member of the immediate family — the child, the parents and the siblings. This year-round program is free of charge to families.
In 2015, $1 million was raised by Tropical Smoothie Cafe for Camp Sunshine. The total amount raised since the beginning in 2007 is over $3.7 million making National Flip Flop Day a successful fundraiser for Camp Sunshine.
- They are the oldest form of footwear. There are images from rock paintings of prehistoric man wearing a type of toe thong!
- There is evidence of these form of sandals as an item of footwear in most civilizations. The funny thing though is that different civilizations often used different toes for the thong…The Greeks, for example, made use of the big toe; the Romans, the second toe; and the Mesopotamians, the third toe!
- They were known as Flip Flaps until the 1960’s.
- In America, they first started to appear after World War II as soldiers brought Japanese ‘zori’ (their word for flip-flops) back from the war, as souvenirs.
- They became popular in the US after the Korean War of the 1950’s and were made out of cheap rubber that caused terrible blisters!
- As popular culture took hold, they were made out of better rubber materials and became available in bright colors. They were seen as ‘the’ footwear for a relaxed lifestyle near the beach. Later they were adopted by hippies.
- As a cheap item of footwear, kids soon started to wear them to the pool and on holiday in bright colors with flowers and motifs adorning them.
- In the 1990’s with a more relaxed atmosphere in the workplace, flip-flops and their variations became acceptable. Now there can be variations in soling and upper material, with platform soles and soles that claim to tone your leg and bum muscles. These are all cashing in on the oldest form of footwear.
- Sales figures are hard to come by, but it is estimated that global flip-flop sales top $20 billion, that’s more than the trainer / sneaker market!
- The prolonged use of cheaper versions has been linked to all sorts of foot health problems. Wearing soft rubber versions that offer some inner arch support and have shock absorbing qualities are far better for the foot.
