Teva is one of the most famous sandal manufacturing companies in the industry today and it was founded and owned by Mark Thatcher. While working in the Grand Canyon as rafting guide, Thatcher spotted that most of the boatmen used to wear hiking or athletic shoes while in the river and he himself wore thongs or flip flops.
There are difficulties in wearing both types of shoes in the water. Hiking or athletic shoes become very wet while water, because of which wearers get fungus and gravel on their feet. Flip flops and thongs get out of the feet of the wearer very easily when he runs, which is also a major drawback for people involved in water activities.
After spending some time, Mark Thatcher designed a sandal in which nylon ankle strap was used to support the feet of the wearer, although the shape of the shoe was just like a thong. Luckily, Velcro material also came up during the same period when was looking for an option for thongs. He used Velcro to strap around the ankles so that the sandal remained bound to the wearer’s feet. After making this sample, he realized that he did not have enough finances to start manufacturing these sandals and thus, he needed to search for a manufacturer to produce his sandals.
Initially, only 200 pairs of sandals were sold in the first year mainly because people complained about their thong style straps. Some people also got blisters between their first and second toes because of the straps. Next year, American youngsters started finding them hot and fashionable and thus, their sales increased manifolds instantly.
In the same time, Mark Thatcher became partners with Deckers Corporation and finally, Deckers also achieved exclusive rights to Tevas along with their patents for basic design. They also received Tevas trademark as a brand name.
A re-designing of the Tevas was done by Deckers in 1988 and a new strapping system was also developed, following which Hurricane, the first model in this line, was manufactured. There were three parts in this new system of strapping: the toe post, the side strap and the heel strap. This design is still followed by the sandals produced by Teva even today.
All the Teva sandals manufactured today are very comfortable on the feet and do not cause any problems to the feet of the wearer. The soles are made much harder because of which, they give better grip to the feet of the wearer, whether he is walking on a wet surface or he is in water.
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