Teva Sport Sandals

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A pair of Teva sport sandals

Teva Sport Sandals is a maker of footwear (mainly, but not exclusively, sport sandals) and a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation. Teva takes its name from the Hebrew word for nature.

1 History
2 Construction
3 External link
4 References

[edit] History

Diagram of product describing the patent.

Mark Thatcher was the inventor of Teva sandals. While working as a rafting guide in 1982 he noticed the lack of proper shoes for river activities. Sneakers would become heavy when wet and would take days to dry and thongs (the only kind of sandal available at the time) would slide off feet very easily.

Thatcher fashioned a thong-style sandal with nylon ankle strapping, thus creating the first sport sandal. Thatcher patented his invention, found a manufacturer and began selling the "amphibious utility sandals" by himself, selling only 200 pairs the first year. Although it was an effective piece of watersports footwear, it proved less effective for regular sports as the first Teva users often complained of blisters between the first and second toe caused by the thong-style strapping system. However, the following year a sudden high demand of Teva sandals arose as young Americans found the sandal highly "fashionable".^[1]

It was then when a partnership was made between Thatcher and Deckers Corp. Deckers eventually got exclusive rights to Tevas® including patent #4,793,075 for the basic design (granted 1988) and a trademark for the brand name. The sandal was redesigned, creating the Universal Strapping System. The first model was called "Hurricane" and it is the basic design of all Teva sandals.

[edit] Construction

The basic model consists of a 2-layer sole: The inner sole is softer and serves as the footbed, most of the models come with arch support and microbian zinc, a technology that prevents odor and kills bacteria.

The outer sole is harder and is made to have a good grip over wet surfaces.

The Universal strapping system consists of 3 parts:

The toe post: a strap that goes on the frontal part of the sandal, across the toes and in between the inner and outer sole.
The Heel strap: Goes around the ankle to prevent the sandal from sliding off.
The side strap: Connects the toes post and the heel strap on the outer side of the sandal, this prevents the sandal from stretching in awkward positions where injury could happen.

Each strap is connected to the others by triangular "rings" where each strap goes around one side of the ring.