Alpargartas opens first Havaianas concept store
09/02/2009
Havaianas flip-flops now have their first concept store in the world. The new unit is located in the sophisticated Rua Oscar Freire luxury commercial area in São Paulo.
The new store offers all Havaianas styles, from the simplest and very first one manufactured and currently sold for $4 a pair to others decorated with Swarovski crystals and exported at around $120.
The project of the 300 m² store was completed by Isay Weinfeld and gives visitors the impression of being at a street market, which is where Havaianas were first sold. The styles for export are kept inside a container.
There is a customisation space where consumers may create their own styles which are signed, photographed, catalogued and filed in a virtual library.
“The project was born in 2004 but we started working on it just two years ago,” said Rui Porto, media consultant for Alpargatas. Asked about the effect of the economic downturn on this product, he pointed out that Havaianas have a great advantage on other kinds of shoes because they are sold at low prices and at the same time they are practical, desirable goods.
According to foreign trade director, Angela Tamiko Hirata, of the 650,000 pairs of Havaianas produced per day, 18% are exported.
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