Here in Hawaii, we don’t call them flip-flops, thongs, zoris or jandals. No, they’re slippers, or slippahs. We wear them at all times and for every occasion. Whether we’re headed out to a fancy dinner, around the corner to the grocery store, or to the beach, slippers are usually on our feet.
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What does OluKai mean in Hawaiian? Our name, Olu (comfort) Kai (ocean), is Hawaiian. It’s in and around the ocean that we feel most at home, and in Hawai’i that we feel most inspired. That’s why we create footwear that combines comfort and craftsmanship with the ocean lifestyle.
Flip-flops. You probably know them as flip-flops. Japanese-introduced shoes which are probably the most common footwear on the island.
Etymology. Although the Beach Boys 1964 song All Summer Long mentions “T-shirts, cut-offs, and a pair of thongs”, the term flip-flop has been used in American and British English since the 1960s to describe the thong or no-heel-strap sandal – This type of footwear is also known as “slides” or “sliders”.
What Hawai’i wears, and what the rest of the world calls by so many other names, is the rubber slipper—or even more correctly, the rubbah slippah. The name is important because the slipper is important. It is ubiquitous in Hawai’i, and Hawai’i identifies with it deeply.
Names for Whales in Hawaii
The word kohola refers to reef flats as well as the humpbacked whale, perhaps linking the spray of the waves on the reef with the spray from a whale’s blow.
In the native Hawaiian culture, “Imua” means “to move forward” or “to move ahead” toward a goal.
It’s thought that flip-flops first debuted in America after World War II, when soldiers brought “zori” sandals home as gifts from Japan. As a result, there is a small population of America’s East Coast that still calls these sandals “zories”.
When it comes to sandals in Hawaii, there are really only two real options: Locals or Rainbows. Locals are the cheaper (around $20), thin, plastic and rubber flip flops. They literally say “local” on them, and they’re aptly named. These sandals are everywhere, mostly due to the low price and comfortable fit.
Simply put, a house shoe is a shoe that’s meant to be worn indoors, typically at home. While the terms are often used interchangeably, some folks differentiate house shoes as a closed footwear style and slippers as a distinctly slip-on style—hence the name slip-ers.
The undergarment is usually called a g-string (or colloquially, bum floss) in Australia, however, due to U.S. influences in Australia the word thong is now also used.
“Thong” comes from words meaning “restraint,” according to The Oxford English Dictionary, and was originally a narrow strip of leather used to secure something. (In the case of thong underwear, not much restraint is required.)
The shoe known in Australia as a “thong” is one of the oldest styles of footwear in the world.
What Hawaiians wear on their feet, and what the rest of the world calls by so many other names, is the rubber slipper — or even more correctly, the rubbah slippah.
Easy to get off and on, cool, nonbinding and casual – slippers keep the dirt off our feet and give us a little protection from the rough surfaces we walk on. Most people would much rather spend their nonworking hours out of shoes, and a thin pair of rubber slippers is as close to barefoot as possible.
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