Allow manually entered text in ui-select

here is a solution:

HTML –

<ui-select ng-model="superhero.selected">
  <ui-select-match placeholder="Select or search a superhero ...">{{$select.selected}}</ui-select-match>
  <ui-select-choices repeat="hero in getSuperheroes($select.search) | filter: $select.search">
    <div ng-bind="hero"></div>
  </ui-select-choices>
</ui-select>

CONTROLLER –

$scope.getSuperheroes = function(search) {
 var newSupes = $scope.superheroes.slice();
  if (search && newSupes.indexOf(search) === -1) {
    newSupes.unshift(search);
  }
  return newSupes;
}

Here is the CodePen solution.