The Humble Hawaii

 When I mention the word Chappals or slippers the first image that comes to your mind is that of the humble blue and white soles with an easy to slip into ‘Y’ shaped blue straps. When Bata in the 50’s introduced the brand name Hawaii for slippers, it was a best seller, as the common man had finally found an affordable footwear with a feel good brand name that would give him a feel of walking the pristine beaches of the far away Hawaii, while in reality he was strolling down the shores of the Marina in Madras.

Hawaii went on to become a generic and people simply bought Hawaii and not chappals anymore and the brand name itself was used in many households as a weapon to shape the lives of many a wayward youngsters, both by their parents and the girls next door.

One of the most durable pieces of footwear of the days, as the soles outlived the straps everyone had a spare strap at home. A safety pin is all that was required to ensure that you could reach that last mile home and then replace it with a brand new one.

As the nation and the people grew in economic stature the poor little Hawaii found its place being moved to the insignificant corners of the house and slowly got confined to the wash rooms only.  And what a fall from grace it was for a name like Hawaii, to be called bathroom slippers. The final nail on the coffin was when the Indian PM a few years back commented that he wanted to see people who ‘even’ wear Hawaii chappal in a hawai jahaz. A statement akin to the one made by Shashi Tharoor referring to Economy class passengers as Cattle class, but the former quote courted less controversy for obvious reasons.

With Globalisation and opening up of the economy fashion statements changed and that brought about a change to the semantics of casual foot wear too. Flip Flops appeared from nowhere, slippers and chappals were crass and unsophisticated. Manufacturers of the good old Hawaii imitations also changed the design to remove the stigma associated with the blue and white bathroom slippers! Branding came into our lives and turned to an obsession and we were respected for the brand we adorned.

The inspiration to this story was when I saw the soles of my branded hardly worn ‘flip flops’ open up recently. I realized the relevance of a concept I came across called the Veblen Effect in Psychology which was being used inadvertently in the beginning but deliberately later, in brand promotion. Veblen effect is when consumers perceive higher priced goods to be worth much more simply because they cost more. This is exactly what happened to the good Old Hawaii slippers. They vanished when the chappals / slippers became flip flops, and when someone put a logo on the straps and you ended up paying and buying the brand and not foot wear for its utilitarian value, all the while paying more so that you felt it was worth much more. Incidentally the new global head of Bata is an Indian and this is also a shout out to him to revive the good old Hawaii!!!