Emerging Dallas-based brand Hari Mari has opened its first store. The new shop is inside its headquarters and warehouse on South Haskell Avenue in Dallas, where customers were starting to stop by anyway, said Hari Mari co-founder Lila Stewart.

The store, which has a full selection of its flip-flops for children and adults, opened in time for spring break when people are inclined to buy a new pair of flip-flops.

A collaboration last year with Nokona, the Texas maker of hand-crafted leather goods including baseball gloves, produced a new line of high-end leather flip-flops that Neiman Marcus will be picking up this spring along with a new co-branded line with men's brand Peter Millar, which opened its first North Texas store in Plano's Legacy West.

Hari Mari is taking a big step with Peter Millar, Stewart said, by working on its first closed toe shoe. Look for it in 2019, she said. "It's going to be casual."

Closed shoes may be a bridge to being less of a seasonal business, Stewart said. Hari Mari's business is gangbusters from February through August but drops off after that, she said.

Hari Mari was founded in 2012 and has nearly doubled the number of stores where its flip-flops are sold to 1,500 from 800 at the start of last year, Stewart said. It also expanded its sales team from five to 25 people in the last couple of months.

The brand is sold in small independent shops and resorts and in major retail chains including Nordstrom, Gap, REI and Orvis. This year, it's also carried on Zappos.com. Hari Mari sells directly to consumers in addition to its wholesale business.

The company competes with old, established brands in the flip-flop category, most of them based in California such as Reef, Quicksilver, OluKai and Rainbow. The industry is estimated to be a $19 billion-a-year business but it's made up of private companies, so market data is hard to get. Last year, Brazilian flip-flop brand Havaianas sold for $1.1 billion.

Hari Mari wouldn't disclose its annual revenue. It started out with seed money from friends and family. "We bootstrapped ourselves," Stewart said.

Hari Mari recently completed a second round of funding. It's easier to raise money for oil and gas and real estate investments in Texas, she said. "But we were proactive and got it done."

Local investors need to look at the Dallas economy differently, she said. "There are so many emerging brands here."

Stewart and her husband and co-founder, Jeremy Stewart, are beginning to network with other companies like them in Deep Ellum and the Design District. Those connections can help them share ideas and make themselves more visible to investors.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias