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By Julie Ward, USA TODAY
Wearing flip-flops to the White House might raise eyebrows, but wearing them to show school spirit has become fashionable. Just in time for back to school, a new line of collegiate flip-flops has been expanded. Students at 19 major universities now can let their footwear do the talking when it comes to supporting their schools.
Jodi Hochberger, a University of Michigan junior, wore school color shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops to Saturday's football game against Notre Dame. "Everyone wears maize and blue, and I liked having the shoes that matched," the business major says. "I got a few comments about being overly spirited. It's one of the ways to show school spirit, especially on game days." After test marketing in select areas late last year, the collegiate flip-flops, with a patented spongy sole, and also called floaties, depending on thickness, are headed to stores near campuses mainly in the Southwest and Southeast. "Girls want to support their teams, but they want to look cute doing it," shoe designer Wendy Wolther says. "College fashion is an untapped business." The brightly colored Sugar Shoe line originally included Arkansas, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Florida. While the only cold-weather school in the initial rollout was Michigan, the line has expanded this fall to include other schools known for chilly weather, Connecticut and Maryland. Other schools added for the fall semester: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Mississippi, South Carolina, Miami (Fla.) and Virginia.
Although Northwestern isn't on the list, Wildcats flip-flop wearers got a lot of attention during the summer when some members of the national champion Northwestern women's lacrosse team wore thong footwear to the team's White House meeting with President Bush. Criticism followed, and eventually the celebrity footwear was auctioned to raise money for a young cancer patient, Jaclyn Murphy of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., befriended by the team. Auctioned on eBay, nine pairs of flip-flops raised about $1,653, according to assistant athletics director Jack Griffin. While showing school spirit on your feet is a growing trend in the collegiate market where a variety of styles are available, stores near campus rather than campus bookstores are where collegiate comfort footwear is more likely to be found. "Our target is more where young girls and college students would actually shop for their regular flip-flops," says Mary Boncutter, president of R&S Trading Co., which includes Sugar Shoes, a line long popular among young girls and teens before its recent expansion into the collegiate market. But in Texas, Tyler's, with two stores near the University of Texas campus in Austin, also has found its online offerings of nine of the new collegiate line, ranging from $19.99 to $31.99 a pair, draw students, fans and alumni from a wide geographic area well beyond Texas. Keri Wranischar, Tyler's online sales representative, says, "UT fans are crazy for anything that has the UT logo on it. They go nuts. The line has done well in the store and online. It's a way for people to support their teams. But it's amazing to see the range of people who hit our Web site from all around the country. We see sales to Georgia, Michigan and Florida." Recent Texas graduate Hilary Farr owns two pairs of the flashy and squishy flip-flops, which come with a key chain made from the same soft material. Says Farr, "There are a lot of college flip-flops out there, but so many are just black, but these are something that screams the school and team." |
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