Bring Us Your Sandaled Masses: How Lifestyle is Energizing a Franchisor’s Formula

When Flip Flop Shops president Brian Curin describes his top business challenge, he doesn’t talk about mall locations or franchise fees or any of the things that you might expect a fast-growing franchisor to dwell upon. Instead, he brings up talent.

“We’ve had over 13,000 people apply to be a franchisee, but we have said ‘yes’ only 68 times,” says Curin.

Without a doubt, those franchisee candidates inside the “yes” column certainly appear bullish on the warm-weather footwear shops — at least when you consider that Flip Flop has grown to nearly 80 shops within 4 short years and has an additional 110-plus shops in various stages of development.

“The biggest thing for us is the attitude. Anybody can come up with the money, anybody can have retail experience, but do they have a good attitude? Are they excited about this lifestyle? They have to live it or it’s just not going to work,” explains Curin, whose earlier franchising feats include tours of duty on the management teams that built Cold Stone Creamery and Moe’s Southwest Grill.

“Essentially, people want to be in business for themselves, but not by themselves,” says Curin, repeating a favorite maxim that appears to be well validated by the franchisor’s annual revenue — a figure that retail watchers estimate was safely north of $20 million in 2012.

Meanwhile, looking ahead to 2013, the franchisor is set to exceed the previous year’s growth with 40 new shops slated to open, and 50 franchise agreements expected to be signed by the end of 2013.

For its part, the franchisor also plans to bring the retail chain overseas through master franchise deals in regions including Australia, Latin America and the Middle East’s Gulf Region.

When asked whether Flip Flop’s strong growth is in part due to a new innovative approach to franchising, Curin responds, “What’s new and innovative in franchising really comes down to concepts. It’s not necessarily the approach to franchising. It’s really the opportunities that are available.”

As for the concept behind Flip Flop, Curin explains how back in 2007 he accidentally walked into one of the original Flip Flop Shops in Scottsdale, Arizona, and quickly recognized what is known in the franchising business these days as “a good lifestyle fit.”

“I immediately introduced myself to the original cofounders of the company and asked whether they had thought about franchising it. We ended up putting a partnership together with myself and my three other business partners, and then we rebranded, redesigned, and launched the franchise in early 2008,” explains Curin, who says that the Flip Flop concept hit the ground running, with little additional tweaking required.

“Out of the gate, we were able to build something for the person who was actually coming in and buying the product,” he adds.

Curin and his partners did complete some additional market research before introducing their franchise concept involving cork floors, the scent of coconut oil, and a music selection that would make Jimmy Buffett feel at home.

Today, Flip Flop Shops can make sandal transactions feel like “mini vacations” to mall dwellers, according to Curin, who had garnered a taste for the warm-weather lifestyle earlier in his career when he exited Cold Stone’s franchisor management team to build the creamery’s master franchisee for the Caribbean market.

“Ice cream and Caribbean was pretty much a no-brainer. So it was interesting to have built a system as a franchisor, and then to be inside the system,” says Curin.

Still, Curin and Flip Flop CEO Darin Kraetsch faced some initial challenges as they introduced their franchising concepts to the tight-knit action sports retail industry.

“This is a true lifestyle brand — and no one has really done this before, where they’ve taken a true lifestyle brand and franchised it. With the Flip Flop brand, we realized that we needed to take a more laid back approach and view our franchisees as true partners,” adds Curin.

In addition to gaining buy-in from passionate franchisees, Flip Flop sought out the support of a roster of important suppliers and partners.

Says Curin: “I think that we have needed to cross barriers quite a bit because of the type of concept it is, and a supportive industry is part of that.”