Serious question: is being a mainlander something you look down on? If not, why would you refer to it as “outing”?
Southern Ontario, 1960s: they were flip-flops. Never heard of “zories” until this thread.
IN the 60s in western Pennsylvania I called them thongs as did most people. Flip-Flops was a term used by some, and we all knew what they meant. There was one family that called them zories, and for some reason the members of that family constantly found reasons to say the word. When I reminisce about that family, I remember them constantly talking about zories.
They’re called thongs here in Australia. Most people would know that Americans call them “flip-flops” but no one would use the term here without irony.
In New Zealand, they’re called jandals. Which comes from a marketing term and is a contraction of “Japanese Sandals”.
My mom still calls them that occasionally.
The Google Ngram viewer shows that “flip-flop” started being more popular than “thong” in the mid-50s. “Zorie” was not commonly used.
We called them zoris in 1962-ish suburban New Jersey. We went to a progressive private school, which may have influenced our word choice, or it may have been more widespread. Never really heard of other people using the term since then.
Same
Fair question.
I can already see the cries of “racist!”, but as homogenized as Hawaii is with it’s multi-ethic mix, there’s a still an “Us”, kama’aina (those who were born or lived here for an extended period here) and “Them”, malahine (newcomers) attitude. It has nothing to do with race or color. I have cousins who were born and raised in the mainland who are “mainlanders”.
I’ve been slammed on a couple of other threads for discussing how in Hawaii we make fun of different races or malahine, but it’s in good spirits without intent to hurt or harm, and is what allows us to live together. It was in this spirit that I posted: “If you ask for flip-flops, you’ve outed yourself as a mainlander.”
I remember knowing them as “thongs” when I was a child (Los Angeles in the '70s), with “flip-flops” being used more and more commonly before completely replacing the term around the late '80s (I believe “thong” is now used almost exclusively to describe the undergarment, thanks in no small part to “The Thong Song”). Like Johnny L.A., I also had some family members who liked to call them “go-aheads”, because just try walking backwards in them!
As to “zori”, never heard the word before seeing this thread. When I read the title, I thought it was referring to some new kind of footwear that is an alternative to flip-flops.
When Mrs. L.A. was a little girl, ethnic Hawaiian kids would beat her up every day for being a haole. 
I’m sorry she experienced that. As much of a melting pot Hawaii is, it’s still got racism problems.
I know them as flip flops and I know they’re horrible for your feet https://www.webmd.com/beauty/features/flip-flops-fun-but-not-great-for-feet#1
I grew up calling them zories because my family lived in Japan when I was young (very: we left when I was 1 year old). I never knew and am surprised to hear there were pockets of the US where the term was common.
Sorry to hear about your wife’s experiences. Just as everywhere, there’s good people and bad. I’m thankful that the majority of kids/people I’ve known have been generally good.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, so nearly 50 years had passed that I found my 3rd grade school picture and to my surprise there was a white kid in my class. I vaguely remember him and while he wasn’t a good friend, as far I can remember no one treated him any different.
Never heard them called zōri in the US, including the 3–4 years I lived in San Diego. No idea who the earlier poster was hanging out with, but nobody I knew in SD called them anything but flip-flops or sandals. Given West Pac base cross-pollination, it’s not unlikely that military personnel posted in Hawaii adopted it, but mainland San Diegans didn’t seem to use the term, even if they did weird shit like pronounce Diamond (near Emerald and Ruby streets downtown) as Dee-a-mond.
In Japanese, the link posted by the OP could be called 草履 zōri, but anything without straw (either actual or simulated) would be called サンダル san’daru。 If you look in a Japanese-English dictionary, theoretically flip-flops could be called ゴム草履 gomu-zōri (lit. rubber zōri) but I’ve never personally heard anyone in the Kanto area call them that.
I think Johnny L.A.’s family overgeneralized/cross-adopted a Japanese word in an idiosyncratic way, which happens quite often with a handful of common terms. You wouldn’t believe the number of English speakers who adopt 元気 genki (healthy, happy, energetic, “up”, etc.) even when otherwise mostly opposed to mixing languages just because it’s lexicographically so damn useful to have a word with wide meaning and application that English doesn’t have a home-grown version of, or hasn’t already stolen from another language.
Though I’m pretty much still a malihini, I get where you are coming from. There is an anecdote in Judy Rohrer’s book, “Haoles in Hawaii” where she talks about a California student who comes to study at UH, and is deeply offended at being called a haole. Of course the locals think she’s being silly; Hawaiians of all ethnicities and attitudes tend to have a much more laid-back (and probably healthier) approach to ethnic differences.
Of course, the SDMB isn’t Hawaii. To the extent that you can be sensitive to and respectful of other attitudes, and explain where you are coming from (literally and figuratively), you bring a useful perspective. Still, it doesn’t hurt to stay aware that what you say can be interpreted differently in different contexts. That’s why I thought it was interesting to ask about your “outing as a mainlander” comment. Mahalo for answering.
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Thank you for your comment and insight. I write as I speak and have come to see many of the regulars here as casual friends and forget that many wouldn’t understand my sense of local humor. I’ll keep your post in mine in my future posts.
It’s not just my family. When I was growing up, the rubber ‘shower shoes’ were commonly called ‘zories’.
I only remember the bamboo ones as being called that, but then again it was a long time ago. I only recently remembered that I grew up saying “pop” and only changed to “soda” when I moved to FL.