Brace yourselves: June has arrived, and that means the national treasure known as the Old Navy $1 Flip-Flop sale is here.
If you're not familiar with the annual sale (perfect for stocking up on the beach-going essential) here's how it works: Once a year for one day only, Old Navy marks down its solid-colored flip-flops to $1, while its printed pairs will set you back a whopping $2. This year, the in-store-only event will take place this Saturday, June 23.
Before you start dreaming about filling an empty pool full of rubber sandals, just a reminder that Old Navy puts a cap on 10 pairs per customer. Who would ever want to breech that 10 pair limit you ask? We crowdsourced our office and apparently more people than you would think: Benevolent brides who keep buckets of them around the reception dance floor for heel-exhausted guests, summer camp counselors who make use of them during craft time, and our personal favorite, a friend of a friend who genuinely enjoys wearing flip-flops 365 days out of the year. That's one cheap habit.
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But believe it or not, those few examples are just the beginning. A couple years back, we asked Old Navy just how devoted people are to the annual sale. Julie Luker, director of PR and partnerships at Gap Inc. and Old Navy, shared with us that "customers start asking about the date as early as February."
The one-day-only event began in 2005 and has evolved a great deal over the past decade, including some high-tech spins on the shopping concept. In 2014, for example, Old Navy introduced a vending machine that dispensed flip-flops in response to tweets, Ad Age reported. The same year, the retailer's then-CMO, Ivan Wicksteed, told Forbes that the event was Old Navy's second-biggest shopping event of the year, after Black Friday.
While the brand won't release exact sale numbers, in previous years Old Navy estimated that it's sold enough flip-flops to walk the length of California, according to Luker. In 2015, people started lining up way before opening on the day of the sale, getting worked up over summery footwear (and, of course, tweeting about it), per USA Today. Since the sales are local and run only as long as supplies last, we recommend making a morning pit-stop since the afternoon may leave you with the least desirable colors at best.
So start stacking up those stray dollar bills and make sure you have June 23 circled on your calendar. It's time to get our flippy-floppies on.