Although trends come and go, a current footwear fad on college campuses has a lifetime guarantee. With college students constantly on the look for comfortable, quality shoes, Rainbow Sandals has created a brand of footwear that won’t wear out with the season.

Jay “Sparky” Longley established Rainbow Sandals in 1974 when he began producing hand-made flip-flops in his Laguna, Cal. garage.

Longley said he originally began making the sandals because he wanted to create a comfortable brand of flip-flops that were durable and could withstand the test of time. He states on the company’s homepage, “It began 35 years ago, it was another beautiful day at the beach, and then I saw another broken sandal littering the very beach I was enjoying. It gave me an idea, why not make a better sandal, one that would last a long time and be comfortable. So the process began, I researched and developed until the formula was just right. The final product was Rainbow Sandals, quality sandals that are second to none.”

The sandals are designed with specially formulated glue, parachute stitching, and a memory foam soul in order to create a comfy and resilient pair of flip-flops.

Longley first began selling his fashionable wearer-friendly flip-flops at the Laguna Beach Sawdust festival. At that time, he was hand creating about five pairs a day. However, the shoes’ reputation for comfort and quality was quickly established by his customers’ satisfaction, and, a short time later, Longley relocated to San Clement and began producing 1,200 pairs of sandals daily.

Recently, production increased so drastically the company chose to relocate to China where 9,000 pairs are produced daily. Longley insists the quality of the sandals has not changed with this move and each shoe is still hand-made in extremely satisfactory working conditions.

Longley further states on the company homepage, “It is the reputation of this comfort and durability that has passed on from customer to customer; word of mouth and proof of our product is how we’ve grown.”

Rainbow promises to fix any pair of sandals that has broken due to design flaws. Any sandals with popped straps, worn through souls or peeling of the soul layers can be sent back to the manufacturer and returned repaired, free of charge.

Rainbow Sandals only advertises its products in a handful of European surf magazines as well as The Surfer’s Journal and Longboard Magazine; however, the shoes have still managed to become one of the top three selling sandal brands in the United States. This is proof that a quality product and good customer support is more important than fancy advertising. Word of mouth has brought this company huge success.