My Feet Need to Breathe: Design Observation YUCK!

“Shucks, and liit ng paa mo,” my friends and relatives exclaim when they notice my very small pair of feet! It’s not even size 5, it’s almost size 5. 4 and ¾ to be exact. Some of my high school friends teased it might be our Chinese blood, a descendant probably with bound feet. My feet are small and narrow, but not flat. Looking at it sideways, it forms a curvy S, with a deep fissure smack at the center.

With my size, it hasn’t been easy looking for footwear. I remember buying school shoes with a pair of corks just to make it fit, and believe me, corks are hardly comfortable.

Shopping for sandals or open footwear is altogether a different story, especially with girly sandals. I have a hard time shopping for sandals, especially the strappy ones. Nothing ever seems to fit!

After college however, I began to gain weight (credit it to a healthy appetite and love life and a stressful working environment, hehe!). My work in Production entailed me to move around a lot. Since I didn’t work in a corporate environment, we were free to wear jeans, shirts and even slippers! Because my small feet can no longer carry my weight, it was an absolute must to look for comfortable slippers, something that was easy to slip on since I was always rushing to go work, something I can use to walk around locations and studios.

My search for the most comfortable pair of slippers thus began.

What’s the Fuzz?

Four years ago, I noticed this long line inside a mall. The store was a distributor of the Brazilian flip flops brand Havaianas. Turns out they were on sale, and girls were going crazy and buying dozens.



At work, I noticed all my office mates wearing the same brand. It wasn’t much to look at – these Havaianas. They were like ordinary slippers, but they do have colorful designs.

Suddenly, everyone’s wearing one! That made me consider buying one as well.

One day, my best friend and I went out to do some shopping and she bought two pairs of Havaianas for P2, 600 bucks! What’s the fuzz with these Havaianas? Is it like a fad or hype that overcomes everyone, then suddenly dies down? Like pearl shakes and shawarma? Staring at the slippers, I was puzzled why it was so expensive. It doesn’t look expensive! They’re just slippers.

So one time a factory outlet had a 50 % off sale and I decided to buy and try a pair. I chose a silver plain flip-flops. I was happy to find that they had my size and that it fit. I started to feel that it was a promising and wise purchase.

But my pair turned out to be such a disappointment. Barely an hour in a shoot, my feet had cramps. Then when I got home, the skin under the thongs was itching. My feet had marks from the thongs!

I thought perhaps because it’s new, but I wore the slippers day in and day out, until my feet too tired and strained.

The Brand

The brand Havaianas claims to be the best rubber flip-flops in the world. It is marketed and manufactured by a Brazilian company Sao Paulo Alpargatas.

Havaianas were first created in the 1960’s with a Japanese sandal (called the Zori) as inspiration for the design. The designers were so fascinated by the relaxed island culture of Hawaii that they named the flip-flops Havaianas (pronounced as ah-vai-yah-nas), which is Portuguese for Hawaiians.

I like the branding of Havaianas though, with their colorful posters and feel-good campaigns. One of my favorite was their “I’m a Happy Sole” campaign, where they launched a video-making contest, with the theme, “What would you do to make the world happy?” I also admired their “Make your own Havaianas” event last 2008.

I like Havaianas for its free-spirited, adventurous branding, and I can relate to that. Havaianas has succeeded to flip-flops from just a beach accessory to a wardrobe essential.



Still, what will I do with a funky, colorful pair of slippers when they're not comfortable? I dislike it because it didn’t consider the fact that people have different feet types.

Not Human- Centered

Did the makers of Havaianas conduct research on different types of feet? Did they ask why people want to wear open shoes or slippers instead of closed shoes? What was the extent to which they defined “comfortable?”

Too Expensive

Havaianas are over-priced, there’s no doubt about that. There are other brands like Banana Peel that sell the same products with same quality at more affordable prices.

Form

People who are flat-footed will easily like Havaianas. But people who have curvy and small feet like me needs something of the same shape, and something that can support my weight. That’s why I really like Crocs because the makers of the slippers clearly understood the need for curvy slippers. The result was it was relaxing, therapeutic and comfortable.



People are Different

I guess that’s one of the things that some brands, like clothing apparel, disregard.

People are different, they have different shapes and sizes. So they must be sensitive on that.

That’s why I admire Forme, Golden ABC’s fashion apparel line for women. Perhaps overpriced Havaianas can learn something from them.

Forme recognizes that every woman has a different body shape. This inspired Forme to offer clothes tailored to suit women of different body shapes. They identified four shapes:

Triangle - wide hips and narrow shoulders

Inverted triangle - wide shoulders and tapered bottom

Rectangle - straight from top to bottom

Hourglass - proportioned shoulders and hips with well-defined waist

Forme succeeded in offering something unique. The brand understand the various needs of women and in doing so, customers trust them and buy their clothes.

I want that kind of sensitivity from brands, especially clothing and footwear.