Rainbow Sandals

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Rainbow Sandals logo

Rainbow Sandals Inc. was established in 1974 in San Clemente, California by Jay "Sparky" Longley. The company specializes in both men's and women's leather flip-flops.

When Longley first started making sandals, he was assembling 15 pairs per day out of leather and Malaysian rubber in the garage of his Laguna Beach home. He first sold his sandals at the annual Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival in 1974. They were so popular that he relocated to San Clemente and founded Rainbow, which today employs 60 workers and manufactures 1,200 pairs of sandals a day.

Once popular only among California surfers, Rainbow has grown to become one of the top three best-selling brands of sandals in the United States, along with competitors Reef and Teva. Rainbows can be purchased at many outdoor/hiking/backpacking or surfing stores nationally.

Rainbow backs the extraordinary durability of its products. Each Rainbow sandal is hand-made with life support parachute stitching. The majority of the sandals are made of leather with a non-skid surface which molds to the foot, ensuring an ideal fit for virtually all feet.

Rainbow only advertises its products in The Surfer's Journal, Longboard Magazine and a handful of European surf magazines.

Major sandal manufacturer and competitor Reef has offered to buy Rainbow on numerous occasions, but Longley has repeatedly vowed not to sell the company.

Once advertised as "Proudly Made in the USA" Rainbow Sandals are now produced 'off shore' in Asia. This change in production was made in 2004.