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This guy made physical flip flops out of President Trump's contradictory tweets - and he sold out his entire inventory in less than a month
This guy made physical flip flops out of President Trump's contradictory tweets - and he sold out his entire inventory in less than a month
Dave SmithJan 2, 2019, 20:49 IST
Sam Morrison/President Flip Flops
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Sam Morrison, a 27-year-old photographer and artist based in Los Angeles, started selling flip flops themed after President Trump's contradictory tweets on his website, PresidentFlipFlops.com, back in 2017.
Morrison sold out of every pair of Trump flip flops he made in less than a month.
You can see Morrison's process and designs from the limited run below.
Sam Morrison likes to create thought-provoking art.
In high school, he made silk-screen shirts and decks of cards with secret compartments inside. But over the last several years, most of his projects were digital - that is, until he had the idea to make physical flip flops out of President Trump's tweets.
"Take a scroll through Donald Trump's 40,000 tweets and you're sure to catch some contradicting opinions," Morrison told Business Insider over email. "I wanted to highlight this hypocrisy."
Morrison had a full-time job in the advertising industry at the time, but he got to work on producing his flip flops. He sourced his own materials and printed and packaged every flip flop by hand.
On September 5, 2017, Sam Morrison started selling his President Trump-themed flip flops online through a website: PresidentFlipFlops.com.
Morrison made 1,000 pairs of flip flops.
He sold out every single pair in less than a month.
Despite a marketing budget of $0, his flip flops went viral anyway, getting coverage from major news outlets like MSNBC, HuffPost, Fortune, and the BBC. It also made the rounds on Twitter and Reddit.
Morrison says he donated 10% of every purchase to the ACLU.
Morrison explained to Business Insider that President Flip Flops was a limited run due to the effort and complexities behind the production.
"The minimum order of raw materials was 1,000 pairs, and took two months to ship to me. I hand-printed all 1,000 pairs with a heat press, packaged, and shipped everything myself, so it was a very time-intensive project."
All told, Morrison made three different flip flop designs, which were themed after three sets of contradictory Trump tweets.
These are the "Syria Edition" Trump flip flops.
In 2013, Trump tweeted urging President Obama not to attack Syria. In April 2017, he attacked Syria.
These are the "Electoral College" flip flops.
In November 2012, Trump tweeted that the electoral college "is a disaster for democracy." Almost exactly four years later, just days after winning the 2016 presidential election, Trump called the electoral college "actually genius."
Finally, these are the "Sources" flip flops.
In 2012, Trump tweeted that President Obama's birth certificate was a fraud, based off an "extremely credible source." Four years later, in 2016, Trump urged people not to believe anyone who cites unnamed sources.
Despite only three different flip-flop designs, five available sizes, and a price point of around $30, Morrison sold out of every single Trump flip flop he made in less than a month. He says they are "permanently sold out."
Morrison says people from 47 states purchased the Trump flip flops, but given the effort to produce and ship all of these shoes while still working a full-time job, Morrison says President Flip Flops was a limited run.
Should Morrison decide to make more flip flops in the future, though, he should have plenty of good source material.
