In a backlash against the metrosexual man trend, flip-flops are on the outs with 'real' men. Not a moment too soon for my liking. Sandals are fine, but flip flops just look silly on guys.

"I think the cheap ones are non-manly - they are [lacking in] power," said Mark Wright, a business-school student in Cambridge, Mass. "They are physically weak (unlike, say, a boot); they're cheap, suggesting the wearer is poor (unlike, say, a nice Italian shoe); in addition they make no statement and have no character."