--- title: What Color Are These Flip Flops, PHOTO description: Are these flip flops blue and black or white and gold? canonical: https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-21T15:22:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:50.996Z og:title: People Are Flipping Out About the True Color of These Flip Flops og:description: Are these flip flops blue and black or white and gold? og:url: https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Are Flipping Out About the True Color of These Flip Flops twitter:description: Are these flip flops blue and black or white and gold? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # No One Sees Eye to Eye on What Color These Flip Flops Are by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 21, 2016 3:22 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 21, 2016 3:22 PM UTC Do you remember [The Dress](http://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/?iid=sr-link2)? It’s back, with a twist. Back in February 2015 [the internet broke](http://time.com/4238688/the-dress-1-year-anniversary-white-gold-blue-black/?iid=sr-link2) after Scottish musician [Caitlin McNeill posted](http://time.com/3725628/the-dress-caitlin-mcneill-post-tumblr-viral/?iid=sr-link4) a picture of a dress on the micro-blogging website Tumblr with the caption “guys please help me — is this dress [white and gold](http://time.com/3725528/dress-explainer-white-gold-blue-black-science/?iid=sr-link3) , or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the f\*\*\* out.” The photo went viral as people made impassioned arguments over the colors in the photo. Now it’s happening again, but with a photo of flip-flops. On Nov. 17, Twitter user @positivedemi posted a photo of a pair of Havianas flip-flops and asked, “What color do you see?” > [](https://twitter.com/positivedemi/status/799346903112630272) And with that simple question, the internet machine was off and running again arguing about whether the sandals were black and blue or white and gold. **(Gift it**: [**_for men here_**](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G93UFQ0?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B000MUK6MA&th=1)**_,_** [ **_for women here_**](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0157910FM/?tag=timecom-20)**_)_** The reason that people see different colors is that[ human eyes evolved](http://time.com/3725528/dress-explainer-white-gold-blue-black-science/?iid=sr-link3) to see in daylight, but daylight changes color at different times of day. “The wavelength composition of the light reflected from an object changes considerably in different conditions of illumination,” [Science Daily wrote](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/07/040727085636.htm) at the height of the frenzy over The Dress. “Nevertheless, the color of the object remains the same.” For the record, [Buzzfeed](https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/what-colors-are-these-flip-flops?utm%5Fterm=.qcl5B3vKZ#.lvonlOgeV) was able to confirm that the flip-flips are actually blue and black. Strangely that hasn’t settled the argument online yet. What do you see? **_You can get blue and black Havaianas similar to the ones above_** [**_for men here_**](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G93UFQ0?ie=UTF8&tag=timecom-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B000MUK6MA&th=1)**_,_** [**_for women here_**](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0157910FM/?tag=timecom-20)**_._** What Color Are These Flip Flops, PHOTO ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/"},"headline":"No One Sees Eye to Eye on What Color These Flip Flops Are","datePublished":"2016-11-21T15:22:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:50.996Z","description":"Are these flip flops blue and black or white and gold?","url":"https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4578378/flip-flop-viral-color/","name":"No One Sees Eye to Eye on What Color These Flip Flops Are"}}]}] ```