Rainbow Sandals are the best you'll ever own
I was never one to wear flip flops as a kid. I mean common they look so uncomfortable. Who wants to have something stuck between your big toe and second toe the whole day. It just seemed illogical. For that fact, that's why I wore sandals most of the time.
Growing up however, the fashion sense inside of me told me to re-evaluate flip flops and eventually I picked up some basic ones from American Eagle for a beach trip. I still thought they were a bit uncomfortable but figured that was just how it was – life of a fashionista hah.
I was shown the light
My eyes weren't open until my good buddy Jia told me about this brand of flip flops called Rainbow Sandals . At first I kind of laughed that off. Seriously who would brand their flip flops Rainbow. 1) A macho man like me would never want to wear anything rainbow looking on my feet. 2) I have never heard of this brand. So as my friend explains it, with him doing law school @ Columbia, all of his Cali friends raved about these flip flops and swore by them as the only ones they'd ever buy and wear.
Meeting a bunch of his friends that summer and spending some time in NYC, I definitely started noticing this particular brand of flip flops more and more. So I decided to give Rainbow a shot and went to one of their two physical locations in the world in NYC.
Store in NYC
The store itself is in SoHo and pretty small. It has a really earthly and natural feel to it once you step in. The layout is nothing special except for the heaps and heaps of flip-flops that just line the racks along the side of the walls. They don't exactly have the largest line of flip flops so it was pretty easy to figure out which flip flop I wanted. Jia pretty much told me that I had to get the Classic Leather model with double layers.
The double layers is supposed to simply last longer and also provide even more comfort and support. He already had the tan or brown color so I thought i'd get something different and pick up the black one.
Total cost = $53+tax. Not the cheapest but once you have them you'll never switch to anything else. I can't speak for the other models as I haven't tried them but if they're half as good as the classic leather, i'd vouch for them!
So what's the deal?
So what makes Rainbow flip flops awesome? I can say that after wearing this to the city, the beach, around Europe, Asia and literally anywhere I've been during the summer months, they've held up amazingly for these past 3 years.
\At the end of the day it's all about comfort. The biggest selling feature is definitely their ability to mold to your feet. They start off as flat blocks of foam/rubber and as you wear them, the leather will slowly begin to develop grooves based on your walking patterns and where you put down your weight.
Eventually you get the perfect grooves to match your feet kind of like Homer's butt grooves on his couch. Check out the picture of my flip flops to see what they look like today.
Verdict
Awesome-balls. I seriously don't know if I'd get any other flip flop. When these die on me (who knows when that'll be), I'll buy another set of Rainbows. When I ask people if they've heard about it, most people will have no clue what I'm talking about. I feel like it's almost like a West-coast fight club. I'm just glad that I'm not part of the club. Just don't tell anyone that I've broken the first rule.
I loved my original black ones so much that I decided to pick up a second pair on a recent trip to NYC. I wanted a brown colored one. I've had this new pair for about a year and it's broken in and colored in quite nicely!
Where can I pick a pair up?
Unforthnately the New York City retail store for Rainbow has closed and now the only one available is in San Clemente, CA now.
Online
The other easy way to do it is just buy it online. Amazon always carries a good amount of stock and is the easiest place to buy Rainbows.
