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 disadvantages of wearing both kinds of shoes in water. Athletic shoes or hiking shoes get too wet, leading to gravel and fungus on the wearer’s feet while flip flops or thongs can get out of the wearer’s feet very easily while running.
Mark Thatcher decided to spend some time to design a sandal which was in the shape of a thong but had a nylon ankle strap to support the foot of the wearer. It was fortunate that Velcro material came up almost the same time when Thatcher was searching for an alternative to thongs. He used Velcro to bind the sandal with the wearer’s foot with a strap of Velcro around the ankle. With this sample in hand, he knew that he did not have financial resources to start manufacturing these sandals on his own and that he needed to find a manufacturer.