Thirsty? Here, Suck on My Shoe

Nordstrom department stores have agreed to pull from store shelves a nifty new flip-flop flask that alcohol-prevention advocates say could help underage drinkers hide their booze, reports Join Together.

Apparently communication director Pete Schulberg of the Oregon Partnership, a nonprofit drug/alcohol awareness and prevention group, was strolling through a Portland, Ore., Nordstrom store not long ago when he spied the Reef brand Dram sandal – a flip-flop with a flask, funnel and plastic key fitted in the heel – in the department store’s famed shoe department. Pete was not amused – not, apparently, at the idea of sucking back a sip from a shoe but at the idea that the hidden flask could be perfect for teens wishing to hide their booze from adults. Schulberg ticked off a letter to Nordstrom’s store prez, Erik B. Nordstrom, JT reports, describing the sandal as a possible scourge supporter: “We believe that if we are to make inroads into the crisis that is underage drinking, products such as the Reef flip-flops should not be sold under the Nordstrom banner and in Nordstrom stores,” he wrote. In response, Erik B. left a voice message for Schulberg, agreeing to pull the flip-flop from store shelves – the product, he said, was “ridiculous.” “Our goal is to have great fashion,” Nordstrom spokesman Michael Boyd told JT, and that doesn’t include the “gimmicky” flip-flop, which he said simply “doesn’t fit with our merchandising mix.”

This isn't the first complaint alcohol prevention folks have filed about the Dram sandal. In March, Baltimore youth advocates made similar complaints about Reef's Dram sandal as well as their BYOB flip-flop, which features a built-in bottle opener. "Kids wear flip-flops to school and all over the place," a substance-abuse educator there told the Baltimore Sun. "You would never know the kid was walking around with vodka in the bottom of their shoe."