Innovators By Current Global

"Collaborations to me, are a love affair," says Eno Polo, US president of Alpagartas, the parent company of the world's most popular flip flop brand, Havaianas, on the latest episode of the Innovators podcast by the Current Global. Collaborations are at the core of both the brand's success and its wide reach, but in order to become successful, they need to remain authentic, he explains. "It has to be two-way. I think a lot of brands out there force collaborations, they pay for collaborations. But if you pay for going out with a girl, I don't call that a love affair. I'd rather it be a natural feeling – she likes me, I like her – and we go out together. That's what I call a true collaboration, and those are the ones I think are most successful." Havaianas shot onto the international stage when French designer Jean Paul Gaultier accessorized his models on the New York and Paris catwalks with the flip flops in 1999, instantly turning them into an object of desire. What followed was a series