Jay Longley, owner of San Clemente-based Rainbow Sandals, added some bling to his popular leather flip-flops.
It was his wife’s idea.
“It’s easier to just say yes,” Longley said joking, when she suggested the idea.
The shoemaker recently took its trademark leather sandals and imbedded the straps with colored Swarovski crystals.
Nordstrom, one of Rainbow’s accounts, tested them out.
Women customers went crazy for them, Longley said.
The company plans to increase its selection in 2008 and launch the shoes throughout its accounts, including Dillard’s Inc., Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Journeys, a shoe store. They sell for $80 a pair.
Rainbow also is adding kids’ sandals with the jewels.
“More and more people told us, ‘You got to do a better bling bling than what’s on the market,”‘ Longley said. “All the girls like it.”
It seems like Rainbow has the Midas touch when it comes to sandals. The 33-year-old company is a 1970s icon that initially garnered a following with wedge sandals that had rainbow soles.
Three decades later, big wave surfers and regular Joes still are clamoring for the brand.
The company has been on a tear, introducing new leather sandals in different colors, sheepskin boots, clothes and even opening its own stores.
Rainbow grew from $5 million in sales in 2001 to a projected $50 million in 2007, Longley said.
It has more than 80 workers in San Clemente, up from about 35 in 2001.
The company’s operations are spread among three buildings. There are two shipping warehouses, one that’s 53,000 square feet, which opened in 2003, and another that’s 10,000 square feet.
There’s also Rainbow’s landmark design and sewing facility with multi-colored walls, which has a small storefront that’s usually jammed with customers. Most people wear their leather sandals until they literally fall apart.
Longley’s secret?
“We kind of roll along,” he said.
Behind that laid-back attitude is a keen business sense.
Longley, a surfer who loves to tinker and invent, said the company focuses on making “really good product” and then sells it for a little bit less than the rest of the market so “it gets out there.”
“We get all these ideas,” Longley said. “It’s fun to fool around.”
The company is also coming out with removable accessories to dress up its classic sandals: clip-on leather flowers with Swarovski crystals.
Longley said the company worked hard on the idea, scrapping initial designs because they were too tricky to attach to the sandal.
New designs are much easier, he said.
The company has also come out with one-toe socks to wear with its sandals, fleece jackets with a Rainbow logo and flip-flops that are lined with fleece.
“I didn’t think they’d do well,” Langley said of the fleece thongs. “But hell it’s cold so that’s working.”
Another hot seller: Baja boots made with sheepskin that are available in different colors, such as light blue, pink and tan.
“Everybody seems to want them,” Longley said. “We can’t keep them in stock.”
The company’s staple sellers are brown and black leather sandals.
But it drew crowds and buzz a few years ago when it added leather sandals in different colors, such as light pink, baby blue and white.
Rainbow sells the bulk of its shoes, some 80%, to department stores, such as Nordstrom; mall chains, such as PacSun; surf shops; and sporting good stores, including Sport Chalet.
In June, the company opened its first store in New York in the trendy Soho area.
Longley said he spent “a ton of money” to fly a girl from Hollywood out there to design it.
“So of course it looks good,” he said.
Rainbow also is getting ready to open another store in February in Los Angeles on Melrose Avenue, Longley said.
The company, which also has two of its own carts in malls in San Diego, wanted to have a place to test new designs, Longley said.
“If you have your own stores you get a good feel of what to sell and how it sells,” he said.
Rainbow may also open a couple of stores in Texas next year, he said.
But the company plans to continue selling the bulk of its shoes to stores.
Rainbow makes a small chunk of its thongs locally.
It has a small factory in San Clemente where it makes about 1,000 pairs a day. The factory there is mainly used to refill orders that run short, Longley said.
The rest of the shoes are assembled in China after the company ships all the parts there, Longley said.
The company then houses the finished goods,some million pairs,in its San Clemente warehouse, where they’re shipped.
Up next for the company: more accessories.
Longley said Rainbow plans to come out with beanie hats, scarves and gloves, kid-friendly rubber clog sliders, and soft casual shoes.
