Havaiana: The march of the fashionista flip-flop

Once, even a Brazilian peasant worker would think twice before putting a pair on. But the march of the havaiana flip-flop is now unstoppable. It has become standard issue for hundreds of thousands of Britons desperate to free their feet from the confines of traditional shoes and trainers this summer.

Produced for pennies by poorly paid workers in a remote corner of northern Brazil, havaianas, made popular by celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham and Gisele Bundchen, are selling at a rate of over 70,000 pairs a month.

Their popularity is being fuelled by the heatwave. Sales are soaring, with havaianas outselling other brands - and selling out almost as soon as shops get them.

Imports from Brazil almost doubled between 2003, when 382,000 pairs arrived on our shores, and 2004, when 678,000 pairs were imported. The unstoppable tide of flip-flops is set to increase still further, with over 230,000 pairs imported in the first three months of this year alone.

Fashion retailer Office is reporting four-fold increases in sales, flogging around 2,000 pairs a week at up to £25 a pair. "These are the new Birkenstocks, they are cool and they are cheap," said a spokesperson.

The flip-flops are also dominating home pages of shopping websites. Matt Phillips, a founder of surf website rip101.com, commented: "We only started selling them in May, but they have literally been flying off the shelves and seem to be all the rage this summer."

With prices reaching £60 a pair for customised models, retailers are making millions out of one of the most cheaply produced products on the high street. The flip-flops cost just 25 pence a pair to make, with labour costs a fraction of this figure, according to industry insiders. Though they sell for between £1 and £3 in Brazil, in Britain customers are charged up to 80 times the cost of manufacture.

Profits at the company that makes them, São Paulo Alpargatas SA, more than doubled between 2000 and 2005; last year 158 million pairs were sold worldwide, making the company £284m and representing half its total earnings. At the factory in Campina Grande, in Paraiba, north-east Brazil, they are produced at a rate of five pairs per second, with 450,000 pairs made daily. Overseas exports of the flip-flop now stand at 22 million pairs a year.

Not everyone is impressed. Fashion commentator James Sherwood said: "I don't care which celebrities choose to wear what is essentially an ugly thing. Personally, I would not be buried in them. They are cheap and throwaway - the fashion equivalent of McDonald's packaging. They won't exist next year and nobody will be seen dead wearing them anywhere."

Brazilians are nonplussed by the popularity of what are known as peasants' shoes. "I remember as recently as five years ago nobody would be caught dead wearing havaianas. They were mainly worn by poor people," said Antonio Gonzalez, 26, a São Paulo banker. "Suddenly some guys at college appeared in the new uni-colour ones and told us they were cool. The truth is they are very comfortable and practical for the tropics. In the rainy season they are perfect, drying off in a minute and lasting ages, and now they look good too. There is nowhere havaianas are not acceptable footwear now."

For Silvia Ruiz, 34, a PR executive in São Paulo, celebrities have helped make them respectable. "The famous advertising phrase was, 'the sandal that doesn't smell with straps that don't break'. This was basic, popular, working-class marketing. Then they were remodelled and celebrities were being snapped wearing them. This is an aspirational country that really follows what celebrities wear and do. So now my daughter wears them to school - unthinkable just a few years ago."

While the sun may be shining for those strolling around in their havaianas, the grim reality for production workers at the factory in Campina Grande is a monthly wage of little over £100 for a 44-hour week. This is barely enough to feed a family. Ironically, the flip-flops are named after Hawaii, a destination that the workers could only dream of.

According to Neil Kearney, director of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Union, "the whole thing is a rip-off from top to bottom. The people making them are paid a low wage and consumers at this end pay a huge mark-up."

Mr Kearney accuses the Brazilian footwear industry of having a poor reputation for health and safety, and says that companies are not doing enough. "There needs to be a significant tightening of the retailer's surveillance and monitoring of its supply chain."

As consumer pressure grows, with Britons spending more than £40m on ethical goods in 2005, companies are clamouring to show how socially responsible they are. Alpargatas is no exception, judging by the pains it takes to present an image of a firm that looks after its workforce. Yet requests for an interview were refused.

Businesses such as Gap and Nike, once notorious for the child labour and appalling working conditions at the factories of their suppliers, are now members of the Ethical Trading Alliance, a body set up to bring non-governmental organisations and businesses together to improve working conditions. But investigations by pressure groups continue to expose problems faced by workers in the developing world, particularly countries such as China, where illegal and exhausting working conditions are the norm.

With audits advertised far in advance, companies have more than enough time to cover up poor working conditions. The irony is that in order to meet the financial demands of clients, suppliers have little choice but to cut their margins, and labour costs are among the first to be squeezed.

Children often continue to be used as cheap labour, but are conspicuous by their absence from official inspections at some factories.

Mick Duncan, secretary of the anti-sweatshop group No Sweat, said: "There is a gap between words on paper and the reality in factories, and a massive conflict existing where companies have a corporate social responsibility department but also have a buying department after the best deal. The bottom line will always outweigh the pressures of social responsibility."

The popularity of havaianas has spawned a host of imitators, with some of Britain's biggest supermarkets getting in on the act and sourcing cheaply produced flip-flops from China and other countries that campaigners rate among the worst for working conditions.

British designer Katherine Hamnett, an advocate of ethical production, said: "We need to really have some kind of global labour-certification standard that people can trust. People care and are increasingly wanting to buy products that don't do social or environmental damage."