Havaianas and My Hawaiiano Cousins

Years ago, my cousins in Batac, Ilocos Norte (now mostly in the Big Island of Hawaii) had this thing about Beachwalk. This is a tsinelas or flipflops which has a cream sole and supposed to feel like walking on a beach. Of course, in Ilocos they call tsinelas as smuggle or ismagel.. The "e" is hard unlike in Visayas, I heard, where they pronounce it as ismagol. But Beachwalk is Beachwalk and that's what they call it. It was more expensive than what we cousins in Baguio wore, which is Spartan. Like the namesake, ours is hard and malodorous. So our cousins walked the streets of Batac wearing Beachwalk and they felt like kings because that's what most of the Annak ti Batac (elites) wore. And when they came to Baguio, they also walked along Session Road wearing Beachwalk but then they realize they are not exactly Annak ti Batacs here because Baguio, being little America, love wearing shoes. So here comes Havaianas, which now have a retail store near Cathedral. It is very expensive and a big hit in Manila. But I don't know (and considering the student population here), it's deja vu all over again for me and my memories of my cousins now in Hawaii.