Havaianas turned Brazil's 'poor man's flip-flop' into a global style icon

In 1962 São Paulo Alpargatas made a simple rubber sandal inspired by Japan's zori — a comfortable, near-indestructible flip-flop sold door-to-door from trucks at the bottom of the price market. For decades it was exactly what it was: Brazil's poor man's shoe, blue and white only, so cheap that the government once put it on the basic-goods list for inflation control when production passed 80 million pairs a year in 1980.

The turn came in the 1990s: a 1991 premium line (Havaianas Sky) tested the celebrity route, and the full rebrand arrived in 1994 — the 'Todo mundo usa' ('everyone wears them') campaign with Brazil's stars, colourways exploding from two to dozens, limited editions and brand partnerships. The same rubber product began selling for up to ten times the old price: the poor bought the basic versions, the new rich bought the fashion ones.

The reinvention travelled globally: Madonna, Beckham and Kardashian wore them; an 18-karat-gold H.Stern edition cost $18,000; the sandals reached 100+ countries and around 200 million pairs a year by 2017, with over 80% of the Brazilian market still to itself. In 2017 the brand changed hands for about $1 billion as part of the Alpargatas sale — the poor man's sandal had become a national asset.