A recent BBC article entitled "Havaianas: How a Brazilian
flip-flop took over the world" doesn't mention IP once,
yet it contains some useful IP lessons.
The article looks at how Havaianas went from a cheap,
working-class footwear brand in Brazil to a highly successful
international fashion brand – the company behind the brand,
Alpargatas, now sells some 200-million pairs of flip flops per
annum, has dedicated shops in malls all over the world, and was
recently sold for USD1-billion. So, how did the company manage this
remarkable turnaround, and how is any of this relevant to IP?
The article says this: "It is one of the simplest shoes on
the planet: a piece of plastic, roughly the outline of your foot,
with a crude strap holding the sole to your toes." What
that's telling us is that there's clearly no technology
involved here, the company didn't achieve its success on the
back of patents.
