Around 20 years ago, when the surf industry writ large was still floating well above water, Reef sandals came to their star athlete, Mick Fanning, with a concept.
It was a typical flipflop, but with a catch. There was a bottle opener on the underside of the sandal, allowing everyone from frat bros to frothers in the car park, to crap open a cold one simply by slipping off their shoe. Plus, they looked cool doing so.
Genius product. It’s often called the best-selling piece of gear from a surf brand of all time. And it’s reportedly sold something like 11 million units, racking up somewhere in the realm of half a billion dollars. And so, here’s Mick’s side of the story.
Speaking on the Straight Talk podcast with Mark Bouris, Mick told the tale of how the legendary slipper came to be. At first, Bouris thought it was Mick’s idea. But no, the folks at Reef came to him with the idea of a signature sandal.
“It was at a time where I was partying and having a lot of fun,” Mick said. “That was a character of mine. Eugene [his intoxicated alter ego] or whatever. They figured out a way to put the bottle opener into it. I was like, ‘sweet. Let’s give it a go.’”
After a first run of the sandal had some success, they had another idea, one targeting the ideal consumer: college kids. Particularly in America.
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“They’d take them to all the colleges in America, in their school’s colors,” Mick explained. “And they’d have Reef girls – these beautiful models wearing G-string bikinis. They’d have the Reef girls selling the sandals. You can imagine how college frat boys would go in and see all these hot chicks selling sandals. Like, ‘I’ll buy a pair just to talk to the girl.’”
The funny thing is, most people who wear them are not surfers, let alone know who Mick Fanning is. And that – penetrating into the non-endemic, non-surfing consumer market – is what made the product so insanely successful.
“I see people in like middle of America wearing them,” Mick said. “I walk straight past them, and they wouldn’t know who the hell I was.”
And the sandal is still selling today, 20 years on.
The chat goes on to discuss much more than just sandals — from career ups and downs, to losing his brothers, to Mick’s post-pro surfing chapter as a businessman and father. Hit play above to listen to the entire thing.
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