We’ve all done it. Bought a pair of shoes that feel great in the store. But then, within moments of hitting the street–after the shoes can’t be returned–we realize they feel like ground glass rubbing into our tender tootsies.
The worst is when this happens with a pair of shoes purchased for the explicit purpose of blissful comfort. I am speaking, naturally, of the lowly flip-flop.
How hard could it be to take a piece of rubber, attach it to another piece of rubber and turn the whole thing into a comfortable summer sandal?
Just make the flip-flop so that the two straps don’t rub, and keep the thong between the toes smooth to prevent blisters. That’s about it.
With two straps and one between-the-toes thong on two shoes, there are a total of six areas where a pair of flip-flops can turn your feet into a mass of red, sore, Do-You-Have-a-Band-Aid misery.
And I’ve had some that rubbed me the wrong way in all six places.
This is why I set out, as a public service, to find comfortable flip-flops that feel great from the moment you set out flapping and hold up to a day of serious walking. (Incidentally, in today’s overly casual world, with the exception of a funeral, there’s almost no place that flip-flops are unacceptable. People wear them to church and model Elle McPherson even wears them on the red carpet, concealed by her floor-length designer dresses.)
The very first thing I discovered on my hunt is that the number of different flip-flop makers is huge. Even if I wanted to (I didn’t!), I couldn’t road test all the available variations on this ancient sandal design.
At this moment, you’re saying, “How does she know that this is ‘an ancient sandal design’ and how can I learn more about the history of this fascinating footwear?”
Lucky for us all, I’ve located a man who calls himself “a serious student of flip-flopology.” He’s Edward Tenner of Plainsboro, N.J., and, quite possibly, the nation’s pre-eminent author on the subject.
Tenner (www.edwardtenner.com) has an entire chapter on flip-flops in his 2003 book, “Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity.” He told me that flip-flop design can be traced back “at least to the 13th Century,” although, obviously, they weren’t made of plastic back then.
Call them shower shoes, go-aheads, thongs, zoris (Japan), tropicals (Africa) and jandals (my brother Tom), the basic rubber flip-flop came to the U.S. from post-World War II Japan. At first, Tenner says, they were popular among Hawaiian surfers who introduced them to 1950s SoCal stylemakers. There they sold for as little as 29 cents a pair.
Today, flip-flops can cost in the hundreds–although for this survey the most expensive were the $38 pair from Banana Republic. They were obscenely painful. The black leather strap created a bloody wound on the top of my left foot–in a mere 90 minutes. (My road test rules decreed there would be no break-in Band-Aid period.)
The easy winner of this weeklong survey? I flipped for the Old Navy ($3.50) no-frills classic. Runners-up were Abercrombie & Fitch ($16.50) and Havaianas ($18 at Active Endeavors, 55 E. Grand Ave., but $12 or 2 for $20 at Urban Outfitters), which were great for immediate comfort but lost out on price.
And the biggest flops? The pricey Banana Republics; $2.99 Target cheapos and two J. Crew styles.
For more details on winners and losers and even more history of the flip-flop, see my online report at chicagotribune.com/shopellen.
Got a bad shoe story? Tell Ellen at chicagotribune.com/shopellen.
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shopellen@tribune.com
Edited by Tran Ha (tha@tribune.com) and alBerto Trevino (atrevino@tribune.com)
