This lovely item of tacticality is courtesy of Commentariat(tm) member rq.
As they say, “this would go well with tactical capris”: [tac]
The “floperator”
When I was a kid, I read somewhere that the vietcong made sandals out of discarded radial tires and inner tubes, so I made myself a pair of roman-style sandals that laced up my calves. It was pretty easy: cut the tire with a coping saw then sand the edges, drill 3 holes, and cut strips of inner tube. The problem with my tactical sandals was that they were really uncomfortable – car tires aren’t very bouncy so they transmitted a lot of the impact of walking up through the leg. The other problem was that they offered absolutely no protection against nettles or brambles.
Back around that time (1974) you could go to Sunny’s Surplus in Baltimore and buy a pair of army surplus jungle boots for $5, $7.50 if they were in good condition. They sure made a lot of them for the jungle in Vietnam. Those boots were incredibly rugged and pretty ugly but that was mostly what I wore as a teenager. I’m still tough on footgear: I demand tacticality from my footwear.
The “bad for running” patch is a nice reminder, in case you find yourself in a zombie apocalypse in some beach-spot, and have to decide whether to run, or to hot-wire a golf cart for your get-away.
They are called “the floperator” which I think is about 6 characters too many. Why didn’t they call it the “flopinator”? Or perhaps the “uberflop”?
I agree that they would go well with tactical capris, like these, from [feldfire]
I’m not sure what’s so tactical about those capris. They look like regular sports leggings with the addition of belt loops and a web belt. I think they should have knee-pads like the SWAT guys wear. Perhaps they should have aramid-braid piping down the outside of the leg to block any sword-cuts.
The website includes a photo (complete with American flag patriotism!) of how to wear them. But I think that it would have been better if the model had been holding one of those sugary mixed drinks with too much cheap rum in it, with a little American flag stirrer and maybe a Navy SEALS logo.
The model is wearing a tactical headscarf as a sarong, which is also a pretty cool visual reference. But it’s the wrong color for night time combat.
Wadafuq?
That whole webshop seems to me like some insider joke that I just cannot get.
OK, tactical flip flops are pretty funny.
Yeah, they are pretty useless. Firstly, most women don’t need belts for holding up their pants (due to their hips being wider then the waist). Secondly, if you want to use a belt for carrying stuff, then it needs to be wider and stiffer than the one shown in this photo. So either way it’s useless.
By the way, personally I do carry stuff attached to my belt, but that’s only because I cannot put any weight on my shoulders or else my back will start hurting. I started with carrying my digital camera attached to a belt (like this https://uniquephoto4.azureedge.net/resources/uniquephoto/images/products/processed/SDASPDCS.zoom.a.jpg ) but now I also attach regular bags to a belt. Anything that saves me back pain is good enough for me.
You can totally run in sandals made from tires. There are even a bunch of running sandals based on it, as they became somewhat popular after ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall. At least three companies putting them out, although most, I suspect, don’t use tire rubber.
As for their tacticality? I have no idea, although if you can do a 100mile race in them you are probably tactical in your own way.
After a recent study came out about men and the environment, I’m thinking of selling a line of tactical reusable shopping bags in the hopes that it’ll help just a little.
Take a product, pretty much any product, paint it any of the current ‘tacticool’ colors, call it “tactical”, get some photos if it in the hands of a model that looks like what most people think an “operator” looks like and you can almost double your original price and insecure people will buy it from you.
A friend dropped his camo wallet in the woods. Took us hours to find it. Lesson: camo is stylish for some people but some things you really want to be able to find. Knife, flashlight, wallet, keys. Besides nothing screams wannnabe and male insecurity like inappropriate use of camouflage.
The original tacticool color was OD green (WW2). Then black (M-16), tiger stripes (SF in Vietnam) … a bunch of European theater green/brown blotch patterns … a couple of iterations of desert patterns, Coyote Brown, Digital muck in several flavors … and on and on. Ironically, the Israelis have pretty much always stuck with some flavor of OD green. As one Israeli soldier put it “It’s drab. Doesn’t catch the eye. Roll around in the dust and it is whatever color the ground is”.
Tactical flip-flops. Why not? What next? Tactical point slippers? Ice skates?
Tabby Lavalamp@#4:
After a recent study came out about men and the environment, I’m thinking of selling a line of tactical reusable shopping bags in the hopes that it’ll help just a little.
Sell them with a ballistic plate and kevlar in them. Make them black and hold them together with titanium(looking) screws instead of rivets. Because a good guy with an armored shopping bag can beat a bad guy with a gun. By putting it over their head and drumming on it, or something.
witm@#3:
As for their tacticality? I have no idea, although if you can do a 100mile race in them you are probably tactical in your own way.
Mine were from radial tires and were warranted for 20,000 miles.
I know I joke around about this stuff but there is something deeply disturbing about how many Americans want to look like “operators” or SWAT team. Well, the SWAT team probably want to look like “operators” too, so it’s “operators” all the way down.
Sociopath camouflage: you’d better stand back or I’d kill you if these bone spurs of mine weren’t flaring up.
ha.
I’ve got a primitive skills book: Participating in Nature (link: https://www.worldcat.org/title/participating-in-nature-thomas-j-elpels-field-guide-to-primitive-living-skills/oclc/903508050&referer=brief_results )
That covers making sandals out of tires. But they are more of the Teva-style, and it was more because they would wear down much more slowly than leather moccasins.
huh, I just realized the symbol on the heel of the “tactical flipflops” is supposed to be the primer end of an ammunition casing, isn’t it?v