Armed with that insight, the brand has shifted emphasis to Europe’s major cities and built what van de Camp calls a “pyramid model” of distribution: top-tier retailers for brand-building, mid-tier for broader access, and mass for volume. The key change is segmentation. “If you go to a luxury retailer and offer them a product that is also on Amazon, they won’t be interested,” he says. “So we now design assortments unique to each level of distribution. That was a fundamental change — and fundamental to our success.”
This means difficult choices. “We have massive business at the bottom of the pyramid with one of our most iconic products, the Brasil Logo,” van de Camp says. “Now, we need to divest from that, because you want to sell it at the top of the pyramid. In the past, we had one line and sold it to everybody. That has shifted since we started this journey at the beginning of 2024.”
Examples illustrate the approach. In London, Havaianas sits within Schuh, Office, Foot Locker and Selfridges — stores that are metres apart, yet serve very different customers. Paris follows the same pattern: Galeries Lafayette with a premium execution, versus youth-focused Citadium next door. In the UK, Flannels secured exclusivity for the Dolce & Gabbana collaboration, while Office received a bespoke in-store system tailored to its customer base.
Alongside wholesale, the brand has redefined its own channels. “Our dot-com used to be very price driven, very volume driven,” he says. “Now, it’s a full-price proposition, focused on experience, education and storytelling. Premium doesn’t mean more expensive — but it shouldn’t have a grocery feel.”
Still, wholesale remains the main growth engine. “Unlike brands that say ‘DTC [direct-to-consumer] first’, we are not a 365 business; we don’t have a 12-month business. Wholesale is our engine of growth. We leverage those partners like no other, and we leverage DTC to show what a really cool, premium flip flop experience looks like,” he says.
That pyramid strategy has already brought in partners including Zara, JD, Naked Copenhagen and Galeries Lafayette. “The reassurance we’ve had this year is that the strategy works,” says van de Camp. “From Zara knocking on our door to Kylie Jenner wearing Gimaguas, the momentum is real.”
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