Jay “Sparky” Longley stands proudly in front of a sandal wall of fame inside his San Clemente-based Rainbow Sandals Inc.
In six separate glass displays are well-worn pairs of his company’s sandals with handwritten letters from customers.
One guy from New Zealand professes how he wore his leather Rainbows all over the world, happily logging more than 100,000 miles in them.
The sandals don’t lie.
Stinky? Surely. Beat up? Visibly. Grimy? Definitely.
But the sandals still are in one piece, which makes Longley grow a dopey smile on his sun-kissed face.
“It’s real,” Longley said, pointing to the wall. “It’s not a phony-baloney deal. People look at these letters and they know other people are not lying.”
Rainbow Sandals, a symbol of 1970s Southern California beach culture, have slipped in and out of fashion through the years. But overall, the company’s trademark sandals with colorful strips along the soles have built a brand cache that’s stuck for three decades.
And, like many things from the 1970s, they’re hotter than ever these days.
The company behind the flip-flops does a mere $3 million a year in sales, according to founder and owner Longley. But Rainbow is big in other ways. The company’s sandals are a staple of famous big wave surfers such as Gerry Lopez and Mike Doyle. They’re also a hit with ordinary beachcombers alike.
“We grew up wearing Rainbows and now we’re seeing our kids’ kids looking for leather sandals,” said Jake Schwaner, general manager of Hobie, a surf shop in Dana Point and Laguna Beach. “Sparky’s leather sandals are an icon.”
According to Longley, his success boils down to the obvious: his sandals last. They’re “just a little bit better than anybody else’s,” he boasts.
Rainbow’s office, built in 1949, is a San Clemente landmark with its faded, multi-colored walls and a giant ’70s-era outdoor sign that reads: “Rainbow Sandals. World’s Best Made Sandals.”
The company’s offices and sewing space cover about 20,000 square feet, after recently undergoing a 15,000-square-feet expansion. Rainbow counts about 35 employees and expects to soon hit 50, according to Longley.
On a typical day, men and women, nearly all Hispanics, work different stations in Rainbow’s factory. Sewing, gluing and assembling, they produce about 1,000 pairs of sandals a day. The shoes sell for $12 to $45 in stores, depending on the style.
“I can’t make them fast enough,” Longley said, as sewing machines hum in the background. “It’s wonderful.”
“Once customers wear Rainbow Sandals they never go back,” said Courtney Rickerl, manager of Hobie in Laguna Beach.
As if proof, a rainbow painted on the ground in front of Rainbow’s entrance is chipped and worn from decades of foot traffic. Young surfers donning Rainbows come to the offices to buy back-up pairs. Moms purchase sandals for their kids and husbands.
A charismatic Longley is there to greet them all.
On a recent day, Longley, dressed in a T-shirt and his favorite “pants”,a tattered pair of cotton plaid shorts,helped a customer make a big decision: brown or black leather sandals for her husband. She said he already owns a brown pair.
Longley was adamant: stick with brown. His logic was simple.
“It’s a huge change for a man to make,” he said, explaining that brown is “a daytime color” while black is “a nighttime color.”
Another customer, Matt Major of Capistrano Beach had an easier time deciding. He just bought two pairs.
“I’ve had Rainbow Sandals since I was 8 and they last forever,” said Major, donning his favorite worn-in pair. “They form to your feet. They’re super comfy.”
Those characteristics don’t just happen by chance, according to Longley, who considers the manufacturing process to be an “art.”
He said it takes just the right touch to get the glue to adhere properly and for the closed-cell sponge rubber soles to keep their shape and not go flat.
Longley said he never had any formal training in chemistry. In fact, he said, he barely graduated from high school.
But Longley has spent endless hours tinkering with molecular combinations to make ingredients to produce a “functional” product “that works,” he said.
“I’m a very tenacious guy,” Longley said. “I’ll try until I die.”
Longley said he comes to work at 5 a.m. and does a little of everything.
“I’m back there cleaning the toilets,” he said. “You’ve got to do it. It helps everyone else out.”
Longley’s hard work has paid off,he has a second house in Baja where he goes to surf and recently sold a 7-seater airplane that he used to fly there.
“At the core of Sparky’s business he’s a surfer,” said Court Overin, group vice president of VNU Expositions, producer of the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo. “He’s done a great job serving the specialty market with his sandals. I’ve heard testimonials of people who have worn them until they literally fell off their feet.”
It all started in 1974, when Longley helped out a friend by producing some sandals from a plant he was using to make handbags for Sears and J.C. Penny.
When the economy went south, Longley soon dropped the handbag business in favor of sandals. His friend bowed out.
Soon after, Longley moved to a 500-square-foot office in San Clemente,his current spot,where he developed, manufactured and distributed the first Rainbow style: a sandle with a nylon strap and rubber bottom.
Longley charged $5 a pair, and made about 100 pairs a month,just enough to cover a second round of orders.
Hobie, which still carries the sandals today, was one of Longley’s first accounts.
“We’re always stocked with Rain-bows. It’s a staple of our store,” said Rickerl of the Laguna Beach stores. “They have a really, really good reputation for quality and endurance.”
In 1975, Long-ley introduced a woman’s style and evolved his selection from there.
There are now a slew of styles and colors in sizes for men, kids and women. There are brown or black leather styles, thick or thin soles, Rainbow-colored rubber bottoms, printed nylon straps. There’s even a pair with hemp straps.
Schwaner of Hobie in Dana Point said he sells thousands a year, particularly of the leather variety.
“Sparky’s leather sandals are like a fine bottle of wine,they get better with age,” he said.
In the past decades, Rainbow Sandals has expanded its distribution, going from California to the entire West Coast and to the East. At one point, an employee traveled the country and sold the footwear out of his van.
Eventually, Rainbow established distributors all over the world, including in Japan and Guam, and now ships about 200 boxes a day from its San Clemente digs.
Rainbow’s loyal following has meant steady business for Longley, even in the 1980s when fashions turned from those popular in the ’70s.
He launched his best-selling leather style in 1980, which help Rainbow change with the times. The late-1980s proved tough, he said, as they were for everyone.
“The majority of the loyal customers kept me going,” he said.
Longley, an old school surfer, insists money is secondary to creating things that people enjoy.
“We just want to make something that’s not a lie, something that’s a good thing,” he said. “The only way to get that is to struggle everyday to make the best.” n
