Just in time for summer: flip-flops with a secret compartment for booze. “Kids wear flip-flops to school and all over the place,” said Mike Gimbel, former drug czar for Baltimore County and director of substance abuse education at Sheppard Pratt. “You would never know the kid was walking around with vodka in the bottom of their shoe.”

Manufactured by surf and sandal company Reef, the flip-flops can hold about one ounce of liquor in each shoe and come with a miniature funnel and measuring bar.

Calls to Reef were not returned by press time.

The company is selling the built-in flask in several men’s styles, which run about $45 a pair.

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An employee at the Wave Dancer store in Towson Town Center in Baltimore County said the word has not gotten out yet about what he expects to be a hot novelty.

Pointing to the imprint of a mixer on the shoe’s sole and images of a metal flask on a tag — and the capacity of the canteen — Gimbel said the company is clearly promoting alcohol use.

School officials called the product alarming.

“Kids are very creative, and obviously someone at Reef is also very creative,” said Susan Katz, president of the Baltimore County PTA Council. “It’s just another avenue for us to circumvent a law meant to protect children.”

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com