Once upon a time, I loved the rugby stripe look. At my most ardent, I had two rugby shirts and I was also in the market to buy flip-flops and bought blue-and-green rugby stripe ones from Old Navy. I did not know at the time how well they would work out for me: the fabric straps are a touch dressier from rubber straps and never rub and blister the top of my feet; the shoe surface is “felted”, smooth to the touch. The flip-flops have long been cracked where the strap meets the shoe between a green panel and a blue panel; I have to take care to really lift my feet when I run or else the they will bend at the crack and I trip most suddenly and ungracefully. Even so, I know I won’t find another pair with the same fit.
It was only a short while ago, incidentally on the same day as Game 1 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when I realized that the flip flop’s rugby stripes are Vancouver Canucks colours! A lot of companies in Vancouver sport blue and green logos as well as healthcare groups. You know I love the colour green and a green top paired with blue jeans is kind of Canucks colours as well…!
The flip-flops might hold out for a while yet but I marvel already how well-traveled a pair of shoes can be from Calgary and L.A. in ’05 to Hong Kong and China in ’10–these travels I have pictures to prove. I’ve brought them on countless other trips, like the Sweden-Germany trip of ’06, because I’ll always tuck them into my suitcase in case the hotel floor is grubby. Lucky pair of sandals!
