Havaianas Celebrates The Brazilians Who Make the Community Proud
In honor of this year’s Pride Month, Havaianas is celebrating Brazil’s rich LGBTQIA+ community. The brand behind the iconic flip-flops highlights some of the people at the center of the country’s scene with a new Havaianas Pride collection and corresponding campaign that sheds light on the array of LGBTQIA+ people that call Brazil home.
The collection is an homage to all things Pride. For starters, there’s the classic Havaianas flip-flop reimagined in bold rainbow colors with the phrase “love is love” splashed across it. In addition to customizing its iconic sandal, Havaianas designed shirts, hoodies, socks, pins, and a special edition cross-body bag with similar messages.
As part of the collection’s release, Havaianas is partnering with All Out, an NGO and initiative that advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide, for the third year in a row. Seven percent of all profits from product sales of Havaianas Pride goods all year round will be donated directly to the organization.
Havaianas and All Out are also coming together to address an important issue central to the LGBTQIA+ community in Brazil: the census. Up until last year, the Brazilian government had failed to include questions related to sexuality and gender identity in their national survey. Thus, together with All Out and the Data Folha Institute, Havaianas plans to implement a survey that covers previously overlooked populations. This is data that could change the daily realities of the LGBTQIA+ community.
To mark the launch of the Havaianas Pride campaign, the brand gathered a group of people from different parts of the LGBTQIA+ community in Brazil, from artists to activists. Gabi Lisboa, a content creator and creative director who appears in the photoshoot, expresses pride whenever she can: “Daily, indoors and out, following my truth, and happily working and living with queer people, watching and being a part of their growth every day.”
Joining Lisboa in the campaign are nail artist Viviane Lee Hsu, activist Jorge Luiz Madruga, creative multi-hyphenate Kibba, activist and advocate Neon Cunha, digital strategist Juliana Araújo, and model Sume Yina. “What I feel over the years is that acceptance has been increasing, which only contributes to us being able to live more safely, being who we really are,” Madruga, who helped shape LGBTQIA+ activism during the ‘90s and 2000s, said of his evolving relationship to Pride throughout the years.
While Havaianas Pride and its newly minted census initiative are a sign of progress in many forms, members of the community are quick to point out that there are many more changes to be made, particularly when it comes to the rights of trans people. Cunha emphasizes that progress is perhaps not always the best measure of success: “Let's replace progress with transition. Progress seems to have a milestone, a point, a place, and an arrival process. Transition is an ongoing process in which we can always be a better version of ourselves.”
Havaianas Pride is available all year round starting now because although Pride may only be one official month, it’s worth walking freely every day.
