Sunday, May 22, 2011

Musings: Havaianas


As one can tell from my previous summer essentials  post, the Brazilian flip-flop brand Havaianas are my favorite type of flip-flop, and the flip-flop is my favorite shoe. As such, I have quite a few of them.


So what's new o mundo Havaianas? What styles should I consider? Where can I find the best deals and selection? All that and more after the jump!


 So as a professional online shopper (in that I get paid to help people to shop online), I have a few suggestions as to where to by Havaianas. If you're looking for selection, especially limited edition and customizable pairs, you won't do better than the offical website. The only drawback there would be that you're going to pay full price, and you normally will have to pay for shipping.  For a limited time, they are offering free standard shipping on an order of 3 or more pairs. As always, check the site for details.

For the best combination of consistent selection, size range and the fastest free shipping, Zappos is going to your best bet overall resource for the main line.

That being said, I've gotten most of my pairs from Piperlime, since I already shop there the most. Their selection is spotty in the most popular sizes and colors. If you sign up for email offers and are patient, Piperlime is going to be your best chance of getting a discount plus free shipping.

So in addition to their core line of classic top, feminine slim, and fun slim patterned flip-flops, there are also the Brazil, Team, University, and other limited edition styles.

The Brazil flag logo appears on both Men's and Women's styles

While the Brazilian flag is a perennial offering, during World Cup Soccer time, Havaianas also offers styles inspired by lots of other national colors.  Here are a couple pics from Havaianas US flikr of their team logo opening at Barney's:

Simon Doonan, creative ambassador at Barney's. You may recognize him (like I do) from his appearances on Vh1's "I love the..." series.
Penn Badgley
Tons of celebrites love their Havaianas. Check out this site for more pics.

In addition the national colors, here are a few other fun patterned styles:
Havaianas has teamed up with Conservation International for this limited edition style, 7% of the sales will go to conservation projects on Brazil's coastline.
Women's Fun
Women's Hit
Men's Universtiy
I just ordered by pair of these. There are also University styles in Women's but they were out of my size. Remember, the top styles are unisex. All Havs, even the Women's slim styles, come labeled with the Men's sizing. So I normally buy the 9/10 (I'm a size 9 in most shoes). I would say Havs do run on the smaller side, so if you're in between order up. On your first order, perhaps order both. Once you've figured out your size, you're good to go. So in the case of the Men's University, I just ordered the 7/8 Men's.

I hope I've encouraged readers of both genders to get out there and try a pair. Like the patterns? Head on over to the Havaianas mania section of their site to download wallpapers & more. Now I'm off to the pool. Happy Summer!

2 comments:

  1. my heart lies with Rainbows as I find them to be the essence of spring and summer galavanting. but when i wore them to my yoga teacher training they were perennially wet and all i was wishing for was a pair of havaianas. i will not make the same mistake twice, and for yoga teacher training Level 2 in September (in Austin, definitely flip flop weather), i will get me a pair of havaianas. unless you are selling them used, for cheap, in size 7. in other favorites, i just bought these from Sanuk and love them:http://www.zappos.com/sanuk-vertigo-sand

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  2. Those Sanuks look cute! I only have one pair of wedges, I've been thinking that I need to incorporate a little more height into my flip-flop collection. I've never had a pair of Rainbows. I just headed over to their website, and goodness do they need to update it! It does look like they have some colors though, which may have been the reason I hadn't tried them before. But I do understand about the water issue, as most of the time I'm wearing my flip-flops to the pool at some point in a summer day.

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