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Alpargatas S.A.
Alpargatas makes and sells Havaianas flip-flops and other footwear and apparel, mostly in Brazil but increasingly around the world.
Alpargatas is the Brazilian company behind Havaianas, the rubber flip-flop brand you have almost certainly seen on a beach, in a locker room, or on a celebrity's feet. It makes and sells sandals and flip-flops, plus some apparel and sporting goods, and it sells them both in Brazil and in dozens of countries abroad.
The core of the business is simple: take rubber and make a cheap, durable sandal, then sell it in enormous volumes. Havaianas started in 1962 inspired by Japanese rice-straw sandals, and for decades it was a humble, low-priced staple for Brazilian workers. The clever turn came later, when the company turned the same basic product into a fashion item — printing colorful designs on the soles, signing up celebrities, and selling flip-flops in fancy stores for many times the cost of making them. That mix of huge volume and fat margins is the engine of the whole company. Brazil is where most of the money comes from. Havaianas is close to a national habit there, sold in supermarkets, shoe shops, and its own stores, which gives the brand enormous reach and pricing power at home. Abroad, the brand sells in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, where it is more of a lifestyle label and international expansion has been the growth story the company has pushed for years.
Flip-flops are a tough business to get rich in, though. The product is cheap to copy, competition from other sandal makers is fierce, and a sandal is the kind of thing people buy once and wear for years. Sales also depend heavily on warm weather and on Brazilian consumers having spare cash. Those vulnerabilities, more than any single rival, are what keep management up at night.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026