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| State | Candidate | Delegates |
|---|---|---|
 Donald Trump | ||
Pennsylvania |  Joe Biden |
The Summer of the Flip-Flop
Aug. 24, 2004 -- You can't miss them when you're walking down the street. Flat, high-heeled, basic and bejeweled, flip-flops are on everyone's feet this summer.
The thong sandal has taken the footwear industry by storm — flip-flops currently account for nearly 25 percent of the $7.5 billion sandal business. Their popularity, affirmed by the double-digit growth of the flip-flop industry, has caused fashion industry insiders to dub this summer the "summer of the flip-flop."
Once relegated to the beach and backyard, flip-flops are now a wardrobe staple. Styles abound: a search for flip-flops on Zappos.com, an online retailer that stocks more than 500,000 pairs of shoes, returns over 1,200 thong sandals.
Says Suze Yalof Schwartz, Glamour magazine's executive fashion editor: "There's a flip-flop for every occasion known to man. There are jeweled flip-flops, ribbon flip-flops, leather flip-flops — if you look down a city street, you'll find at least four on every corner."
Costs Can Rise to $500
Price points are as varied as the shoes themselves. Convenience stores hawk them for a few bucks a pair while high-end designers like Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo sell theirs for hundreds of dollars.
Marshall Cohen is a senior industry analyst for the NPD group, a sales and marketing research firm that tracks footwear trends. He asserts there's no cap on how expensive flip-flops can be.
"When you have a product that has such a fanatical following, there's no end," Cohen notes. "They have become a signature piece, so like with handbags, if someone wants to sell a pair at $500, they can."
While designer creations represent only 7 percent of the nearly $2 billion business, they influence the entire flip-flop market, spawning similar styles in lower-end stores.
Not Just For Hipsters
It's not just the young and hip who are snapping up the shoes — flip-flops have transcended all sorts of demographic barriers.
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