FoamLife Hanging Shoes 2026 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Hanging Shoes 2026 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: FoamLife
Interviewee: Karl Read / Co Founder & Creative Director

How was the 2025 hanging shoes market?
2025 saw strong momentum for FoamLife, particularly with increased interest from new territories and retailers looking to bring the brand into their stores. Our own ecommerce performed well, with solid growth year-on-year, and we received really encouraging sell-through feedback from our retail partners. Importantly, this wasn’t just at entry price points on styles like the “Tarlan” & “Lixi”, we saw good performance across mid and exit price point categories too, like the “Seales”, “Mully Cork”, “Sully” and “Kbay” styles in the Men’s collection and the “Seales-SC”, “Goldie”, “Selene” and “Kbay” styles in Women’s. It shows that customers are increasingly valuing comfort, sustainability and considered design over purely price-driven purchases.

What are the current trends in hanging shoes?
For us, comfort continues to lead, but it’s now expected as a given rather than a standout feature. We’re seeing flip flops evolve beyond basic beach use, becoming everyday essentials designed for travel, downtime and daily living for various occasions and enviorments. We continue to explore textured finishes and subtle detailing, The direction remains clean, versatile and effortless to wear, with a focus on understated design that works from the beach to city. Sliders continue to grow for us in both Men’s & Women’s collections. Flip flops are evolving through new colours and materials that deliver on comfort, whilst offering more versatility in the collection.

What new styles and shapes are you offering in 2026?
Across the range, we’re refining existing best-sellers with updated materials and new colourways, while continuing to grow our slider offering alongside our core flip flop business in both Men’s & Women’s collections. For the Men’s collection we’ve introduced a new flip flop style called the “Traa-WC”, the same spec as our Traa-SC styles but with brighter colourways, inspired by the 2026 Football World Cup. The “Karmo Slide” is a new addition to the range that builds on the success of our “Tarlan Slide” silhouette. The “Karmo” takes that familiar base and evolves it with a more padded, adjustable hook & loop strap, giving a more secure fit while increasing overall comfort. The design leans into a slightly more sport-inspired direction, with bolder branding making it a strong option for consumers looking for something that sits between lifestyle and active. It’s a great example of combining comfort, adjustability in a versatile slide that works across multiple settings. For the Women’s collection, brand new for 2026 is a style called the “Zaluna” that’s available in two colourways, black and haze pink. It’s made with our sugarcane EVA foam and a padded upper strap made with an iridescent, metallic vegan leather for a beach to bar feel. With the success of our cork footbed Women’s style Goldie, we have introduced a new style called the Vayla and the Vayla slide. Crafted with a Bloom™ algae blended EVA foam and a top cork layer with a metallic gold fleck. Both the the flip flop and the slider are made from a woven upper strap with gold foil detailing.

What materials and construction techniques are you using in your 2026 collection?
Our focus remains on combining comfort with more responsible material choices. Across the range, we use our signature lightweight ‘soft to step’ foams, including recycled EVA, sugarcane EVA, and Bloom™ algae blended EVA foam. We’re also continuing with our use of RPET materials across toe posts, linings and straps, alongside hemp canvas, and plant-based bio-leathers. From a construction point of view, we focus heavily on comfort and durability, with features like raised arch support in all our styles, textured and anti-slip footbeds, padded uppers and a new hook and loop strap construction in the Men’s slider style “Karmo Slide”.

What colours and prints are you offering in 2026?
Our 2026 colour palette is built around a balance of core, wearable colours and fresh seasonal updates. We have 7 new colourways in the Men’s collection and 10 in the Women’s. In the Men’s collection we continue to focus on strong commercial tones like black, tan, olive, navy and greys, which form the backbone of the range. Alongside this, we’re increasing the use of softer neutrals like putty matched with navy. A new colour for 2026 featured in styles “Traa” and “Traa-SC” is Steel Blue, it’s a medium shade of blue with grey undertones that’s perfect for consumers wanting to wear colour without it feeling too bright. For those that want some colour pop, our new style “Traa-SC” features a Brasil green colourway with White and pop yellow highlights. The Women’s collection still features core colours like Black, sand, latte brown and light beige, with the increased use of Navy. Washed tones such as Pastel Olive and Haze Pink have been introduced, as well as more seasonal highlight colours including coral orange and aqua green for a fresh high-summer offering.

Anything new in terms of sustainability?
Sustainability continues to be a core focus for FoamLife, and something we’re constantly evolving rather than treating as a finished goal. All of our products remain 100% vegan and PVC-free, and we continue to expand our use of recycled and bio-based materials, including sugarcane EVA, algae-blended foams, natural cork, hemp/cotton canvas and RPET fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles (from post consumer waste.) Our packaging is also fully plastic-free and biodegradable, using recycled card and cornstarch-based materials from the factory to the end consumer.

Please tell us about your key marketing stories for hanging shoes for 2026
Our key message continues to centre around FoamLife® as a sustainably focused, lifestyle footwear brand made for easy everyday wear, from the beach to travel, outdoor living and everything in between. For 2026, we are focusing on a few core areas: comfort-led design, more considered choices across the materials we use in our products; and versatility, showing how our products move naturally beyond the beach into everyday life. We are also putting greater emphasis on storytelling around the brand, helping to position FoamLife® as more than just a traditional flip flop brand. The aim is to build a clearer lifestyle around the product, rooted in simplicity, comfort, time spent outdoors and a more relaxed way of living.

How are you helping retailers sell this category?
We work closely with our retail partners to support sell-through by offering a well-balanced range across entry, mid and premium price points. This makes the collection easy to buy into and suitable for a broad mix of accounts, from surf shops and beach retailers to fashion stores, surf schools, resorts and lifestyle-led stores. We also support retailers with in-store POS materials, branded display solutions and a library of seasonal lifestyle and product imagery. These assets are designed to help retailers communicate the FoamLife® story clearly, not just the product features, but the comfort, style, versatility and more considered choices behind the range. Our in-store display solutions, including branded stands and visual merchandising, are built to make the collection easy to understand, easy to shop and easy to merchandise at accessible price points. With the expanded team injecting fresh energy and perspective into the business, we are excited about the opportunities ahead and even more committed to supporting our retail partners at every level. Our focus remains on broadening the brand narrative, building on a strong foundation of historic success while embracing new opportunities to elevate how the brand comes to life on the shop floor. Over the past several years, we believe we have played a key role in driving momentum and focus within the category, and with the strength of the team and the direction of the brand, we are confident this trajectory will continue well into the future. We are not short of ambition for where we see the opportunity for Foamlife in the future. For any wholesale enquiries please email.

Key Products:

Mens: FoamLife – Karmo – White:
The FoamLife Karmo Slide, built for everyday ease, these slides deliver effortless comfort with a sleek look With an adjustable padded strap to perfect your fit, they’re the perfect go-to for relaxed days, or stepping out in understated style.

Karmo-White

Womens: FoamLife – Vayla – Light Beige:
FoamLife’s VAYLA flip flops are effortlessly natural with a subtle. hint of shimmer, these women’s flip flops combine laid-back comfort with elevated detailing. A cork footbed and gold fleck finish bring a touch of understated glow, while Bloom™ foam adds a more conscious feel. Perfect for beach days, warm-weather wandering, and easy everyday style.

Vayla-Light Beige

Womens: FoamLife – Zaluna – Black:
FoamLife’s Zaluna flip flops for women are designed for effortless, everyday wear, these women’s flip flops bring a subtle touch of shine to a classic silhouette. The iridescent metallic upper adds a beach-to-bar feel, while the lightweight design keeps things comfortable from sun-soaked days to dressed-up nights.

Zaluna-Black