Meet the mastermind behind that Gucci flip-flop car

Is it us or has everybody become obsessed with footwear recently? As usual, we blame Demna Gvasalia. If we aren’t talking about the divisive Balenciaga Croc, it’s the highly covetable Triple-S that becomes the hot topic of conversation. And don’t even get us started on Kanye West and his slide saga. We’re still unsure on whether we should be wearing tiny or giant shoes TBH.

Taking the footwear fetish to the next level, though, is Michaela McEttrick, writer and creator of Tabasko Sweet (a character played Nathaniel Contreras), who appears on satirical DIY fashion YouTube series Cheap Thrills (hosted on Super Deluxe’s channel). Episodes have seen Sweet offer tips on creating your own Lil Yachty Grillz, Margiela Fusion sneakers, and, best of all, some fake Gucci slides (made using red and green electrical tape).

The next logical step in paying homage to a shoe that has become part of an urban legend is to turn a car into one, obviously, which Sweet and co. just did (with a little help from Donut Media). “Since the first ever episode of Cheap Thrills was about the Gucci flip-flop, it felt really natural for us to return to our roots in the launch of this new take on the format,” she explains.

Taking around eight hours to create, the final result is 90 per cent genius, 10 per cent ridiculous. If you ever wanted to get you a car that can do both, it’s 100 per cent a dream. Unsurprisingly when they took the car out for a test drive, people noticed. “They were rubbernecking like crazy and recording on their phones in traffic,” she tells us.

So what do you do with a car that looks like a giant Gucci flip-flop once you’ve finished cruising around in it? Give it to Bhad Bhabie obviously. “Her manager hit us up on Twitter and asked if we could surprise her,” McEttrick says. What could be a more apt gift to celebrate her song “Gucci Flip Flops” going gold? Her response… “Y’all couldn’t have got me cupcakes or something?”

Not satisfied with seeing her creation out on the road, McEttrick already has plans to top the flip-flop. “I’ve got some requests in the comments about DIY car interior upgrades,” she says. “We grew up in the prime Pimp My Ride era and are interested in exploring the maximalist car makeover lane.”

To see what’s next tune into Cheap Thrills DIY. A new episode is released every Tuesday.