We also simply called and used them for "Shower Shoes"

I didn't know they had any other name besides thongs (what my mom calls them) and flip flops (what I and everyone else I know calls them)

Thongs, to me, are and will always be a type of underwear.

Flip flops that's it. Never in my life heard of Zori till now. Have no idea what the word is you don't want to use, they were never thongs or shower shoes, just plain old flip flops no matter how fancy or basic. I still own various iterations of them from bling fleur-de-lis rhinestone bedazzled ones to the camo crocs ones they are flip flops. I don't like them as much these days it bothers my toes but when I was young I lived in them in the summer. I have blown out my share of flip flops and stepped on a pop top lol anyone else in Margaritaville!

They were always thongs to me, but since that's now underwear, flip flops it is. Never heard of Zori.

Flip flops. I also never heard that called anything else.

Zoris as a child, thongs later.

All of the above. Southern California in the 50s and ever since, a beach wardrobe staple!

Put me in the Thong crowd until kids started wearing extremely uncomfortable underwear by that name and ruined it for us old folks. Now we have to change the name of the shoe to flip flops. :)

Flip flops here also. I tried the thongs, no thanks! LOL

Growing up in Western PA. we called them thongs. Moving to the Philly area as an adult I had to switch to flip flops or I'd get really odd looks if I said something about buying new thongs for summer.

They were called flip flops by everyone in FL when I was a kid and that's all I ever knew them by. I blew out many pairs too until I bought a pair made by OP and they lasted forever, I finally threw them out when the rubber got too brittle, they must have been 25 years old. Now I buy Okabashi brand.

Flip flops

Flip flops or Chanclas

Thong sandals if they're good ones, or flip-flops if they're rubber. Never heard of zoris.

Re: the title of this thread.... Do you call sandals "shoes" or are they two separate things? Footwear also includes socks and hose and boots, so we don't call all footwear "shoes".

They're flipflops, as long as they're rubber, plan and usually CHEAP... like when Old Navy has them for $1. If they're not rubber but pretty much same design, they become sandals along with any other open, strappy, warm weather shoe.

Flip flops is what most people I know call them. But when we were kids we called them clackers, because that's the sound they make. Was that just us?

We always called them thongs or flip flops.

We call them flaps.

Exactly what some others have said. They were always thongs. Then thong became underwear and these became flip flops.

Sort of like peddle-pushers became capris. And pound signs/number signs became hash tags. And on and on. Why???

Interesting! in australia they've always been known as thongs, only people from overseas seem to call them flipflops. I never realised they were called thongs in the us, i thought they were known only as flipflops there.

Flip flops - but now I have to purchase the "orthopedic" version calledFit-Flops and I call them "EXPENSIVE".

A few years ago I purchased a large number of cheap (59-cents/pair) flip flops from Hobby Lobby, in a wide array of colors and sizes. I used them as a fun border around a flower bed (on their sides and secured in the ground with landscape staples). I have a lot of outdoor flip flop decorative items. They're just FUN!

No matter what anyone else calls them, I call them "unfit to wear in public except at a beach!"

Agree and it got so bad here our priest had to tell the teens they were not appropriate for Confirmation!!

flip flops or thongs.

Flip flops

Although all of those names were commonly used, even the less frequent zories, I got tired of the morphing names and the wide range of names. I have just referred to them as sandals for quite a few years now.

Like many others, I called them thongs until that became a name for underwear, then and now I call them flip-flops. I learned the word zori from my Japanese friends, but I never think to use it.

I call them flip flops. Don't wear them much unless I'm getting a pedicure. They aren't very safe shoes.

In Hawaii they are "slippahs". (Slippers)

"Leave yo' slippahs at de door 'for come in de house." (You can tell who's home just looking at the pile of shoes outside.)

People were shocked to see photos of the Northwestern womens championship la crosse team posing with President Obama at the White house one summer, every team member in flip-flops.

Flip-flops, never thongs. I have heard Zori but never thought to use the term.

Sushipup, in its broader meaning, shoes covers any foot covering which protects your feet from the ground. I didn't have enough characters available to use a longer word, too. :)

Hounds, thank-you for teaching me a word. My bilingual (Spanish/English) friends called them zoris too, so I never heard chanclas.

Flip flops are the term that I use for this particular style of footwear. If you select a brand that has a shaped footbed and some sturdiness, then they are as safe to wear as any sandal.

I have a few different pairs, two are strictly for the pool area, shower, and locker room at the fitness center, and also for the boat. HERE'S my favorite brand at the moment....super supportive, and very secure, even when soaking wet. I may have to get another pair just in case they stop making these.

I also have a pretty leather pair that actually go out in public with me! (But only after I give myself a pedicure!)

I can't wear the cheapie flip flops at all anymore, worse on my feet than going barefoot.

My first thought was thongs. i've also heard them called flip flops.

My childhood friend and her family always called them "zoris"; her dad was in the service and they lived in several places before they landed in my hometown. They were "thongs" to the rest of us, but I always thought calling them zoris was rather classy.

I've been wearing them since I was about 8 or 9. Always called them thongs until a few years when thong undies became popular and I now call them flip flops.

Flip flops unless they're "fancy," those are sandals :)

Thongs when I was a child in OH. Flip Flops during the decades I lived in FL. Now back in OH as a middle age adult, sandals.

While in FL I did have what I thought of as "dressy flip flops". :-)

Flip flops, thongs when i was really young, and never ever zoris... Even though i grew up in places with huge a Asian influence?

Sandals

flip flops

llucy's comment reminds me of a couple of adorable women whom I often see at the fitness center pool.....they have flip flops with a whole lot of bling!

If they have stiff, unbending soles, I call them uncomfortable and won't wear them. If they have supple soles, I call them flip flops.

By the way, at my (former) office, our boss banned the wearing of flip flops in the workplace. He thought they were too informal for office wear as well as unsafe/unstable.

They were always Zorries when I was growing up in Seattle. Changed to thongs at some point, until that became the name for underwear, now flip flops. My husband grew up in SoCal and he called them go aheads.