The Right (Summer) Stuff

In Cambridge, the average height of pedestrians has risen by an inch--not because of a growth hormone dreamed up in an MIT laboratory, but because of a new trend in footwear.

Choose someone dressed in neo-hippie Clothing--cut-offs, flannels and beads. Inspect the person's feet, and you'll find out why people seem taller these days.

The pedestrian is probably wearing sandals. They might be clunky, inch-thick corksoled ones with fat leather straps. Or, they could be inch-thick black rubber-soled contraptions, secured to the person's feet by brightly colored nylon straps.

These intrinsically unattractive shoes, designed mainly for comfort, have become the latest trend in footwear. Cork-soled Birkenstocks and rubber-soled Tevas are spotted on Harvard Square feet with increasing frequency.

National sales of both styles of sandals have increased dramatically, manufactures say.

"Sales are just phenomenal," says Lisa Geil of Birkenstock, based in Novato, California. And Geil says sales are especially strong in college towns.

Similarly, Deckers Corporation, which makes and markets Tevas, "has doubled in size for at least the last three years," says spokesperson Ken C. Fish.

The company is expecting to make $30 million in shoe sales this year. Last year Deckers made $11 million.

The customers who help the companies rack up these astounding sales figures all deny that they've bought into a fad. They don't deny the fad's existence; they simply blame the fed on other people.

"A lot of rich preppie kids wear them. They're pseudo-deadheads," says Sarah K. Luecke, a rising sophomore at Brooks School.

And still, there is the pesky race to be on the cutting edge of fashion, "I got my Birkenstocks before they were trendy and cool," a Harvard Square regular asserts.

Most wearers recently accosted in the Square cite comfort as the main reason for wearing the trendy sandals. The old credo of the fashion-conscious, "It's better to look good than to feel good," appears to falling by the wayside.

"I wear [Birkenstocks] not because I'm a hippie burnout, but because they're the most comfortable shoes you can buy," says Marc C. Foster, a rising senior at Lexington High School, though he admits that his choice of footwear may be directed by his parents' "clog genes hanging on."

"I like the style, the look, and the comfort," Lucy Karaszewski of Manassas, Virginia says of her Birkenstocks and those of her two children.

Standish Bradford, 15, expresses similar sentiments about his Tevas. "They're comfortable. When it's sunny you don't have to deal with shoes."

And he adds, "They look good."

Still, not everyone has stepped into the sandal scenario.

Bradford's friend Jordan Gulas has remained loyal to bucks and sneakers. Tevas, he says, are "for dumb hippie kids who can't afford shoes."

But the kids can afford to shell out $30 to $50 for a pair of Tevas, and more than $80 for Birkenstocks?

Gulas and his non-hippie friends call the rubber sandals "Air Jesuses."

For some young people, the perception that sporting a pair of Birks or Tevas will label them a "crunchy" '90s hippie is a minor drawback.

"I'd wear them all the time except for the crunch stereotype," Luecke says.

The stereotype is not surprising, since both shoes have counter-culture or outdoorsy origins.

Birkenstocks, named for their German inventor, were first brought to America in 1966 and sold through a health food store.

Geil says the surge in Birkenstock sales are an indication that "Americans have left the '80s dress for success era."

Tevas were invented in 1982 by Colorado River guide who, tired of flip-flops falling off into the water and shoes full of rocks, designed the rubber sandals. The sandals are named after the Hebrew word for nature.

Though Teva is pronounced with a short e as in "bed." Most people pronounce it with a long e, as in "street." Its manufacturers don't mind the mispronunciation, though.

"The way we figure it, if people are buying and want to call it teeva, it's fine with us," says Dana Carlyle, a customer service representative for Deckers.

Fish adds that the company's marketing strategy is "mainly aimed at the outdoor-type, active people, or people that want to look outdoor and active."

The marketing strategy appears to have succeeded--for now. But before you go drop close to $100 on a pair of Birkenstocks, you might remember the fate of another cork-soled contraption: the now obscure platform shoe.