THE HUMBLE HAWAII: JOURNEY FROM CHAPPAL TO FLIP-FLOPS

“The guy who owns the mansion wears them, and the guy that cleans the swimming pool wears them too” - Fernando Tigre (Former President – Havaianas)

- Lavi Pal Singh, Amit Chopra

The humbleness of Hawaii chappal and the role it plays for every Indian can be ascertained from the words of Indian PM Narendra Modi, “My dream is to see ‘hawai chappal’ wearing citizens fly,” made during launch of UDAN Scheme in 2018.

This simple economical rubber open sandal with a Y-shaped toe, named Flip-flop because of the sound it makes on the ground when worn, still remains embedded and captured in Indian minds as a “chappal”. It went on to become the maximum selling design in the world and is still the maximum consumed footwear category across India for decades.

History

The shape has been in existence for over 6000 years and appears in most cultures under different names, with different toes and materials to anchor the foot to the sandal. From the Japanese Zori, a flat and thonged Japanese sandals made of fabric and rice straw that dates back to the Heian Period (794-1185), to ancient Egypt’s made from Papyrus, a flip flop isn’t a flip flop all over the world.

Wearing them weren’t always a next- to the-big-toe thing. The ancient Greeks had it right and wore the toe strap between their 1st and 2nd toes. But the Romans wore the strap between the 2nd and 3rd toes and the Mesopotamians wore it between the 3rd and 4th toes.

Terminology