Heightened flip-flop marketing
California fashion brand ERL has raised the bar on flip-flops—and their marketing—in more ways than one might imagine. To quote from the VMan website:
ERL — the Venice Beach label known for blending skate culture, ’90s nostalgia, and high-fashion irreverence — has dropped its first-ever flip-flop, and it’s a full-blown, three-tiered, platform-soled ode to California cool. Designed by Eli Russell Linnetz, the ERL Flip Flop comes in three versions: Low, Big, and the mythical Huge (we’re not in standard-issue poolside territory anymore).
The Low is the closest to what most of us think of when we hear “flip-flop”: a one-inch EVA rubber sole, unfussy and close to the ground. The Big, clocking in with a five-inch sole, seems genetically engineered for the post-ironic downtown cool kid, both ridiculous and resolute. And things escalate even further with the Huge. A staggering eight inches high and only available by request, the flip-flop functions less as footwear and more as sculptural punchline.
To quote from the HighSnobiety website:
A conventional pair of suede-strapped and rubber-soled ERL's flip-flops retail at $185; a five-inch pair reaches $375; and they attain the awe-inspiring height of eight inches in their final form, the aptly named Huge Flip-Flop.
Available "only upon request," according to a release, ERL's Huge Flip Flop retails for an astonishing $1,250, making it perhaps the priciest flip-flop on the market, designer or not.
To amplify the inevitable stir drummed up by a four-figure flip-flop, Linnetz lensed an overtly sexed-up campaign in which tanned and toned models wear nothing but its new sandals. Again, ERL photoshoots have always incorporated a cheeky bit of skin — often literally — but simulated sex? That's a first.
