KeeperSMARTER STRAPS
HOW TEVAS BECAME THE BOOTS OF THE WORKING-CLASS RIVER WORLD
IN 1984 ONE GRAND CANYON river guide sin- glehandedly launched the sport sandal market by beefing up his flip flops with an extra ankle strap. It was the start of Teva, and by the end of
the decade, his simple sandal fix had be- come an outdoor giant and marketing sensation. Teva’s custom webbing de- signs and all manner of Velcro straps brought the outdoors to the masses. But real river guides wore Alps. In the early ‘90s, Alps dealt
with all of the deficiencies of Teva’s original designs. Every river guide knows Velcro lasts 10 seconds in
whitewater. Alps
could take a pound- ing. They had a sticky climbing shoe tread and a multi-anchor strap system that built redundancy so if one blew, you didn’t lose your sandal. They were brilliant, functional and ri- diculous looking, better suited to a Roman soldier or toga party. Rookie guides
would always show up to training with new Vel- cro Tevas, only to lose one on the first day’s
swim and
contribute to the staff room box of single sandals (in which you might get lucky and find a match—sweet!). Alps stayed on. One of my most memorable swims from a raft ruined my first
pair. They were light blue, and as a rookie guide I was quite proud of them—I’d already lost a left Teva, size 10.5 (I still have the right one). I flipped my paddle raft and got tangled up in the bowline that snaked free. I pulled my brand new river knife to cut the rope from around my ankles and accidentally sliced my Alps. I was heartbroken, but relieved that they’d saved me from chopping into an ankle artery. I promptly replaced them with a nice burgundy pair; it was the ‘90s, after all. They lasted three seasons of guiding and by the time I went
to replace them, Alps were gone. Sort of. As a company, Alps never circulated beyond the small river guide fraternity, and hadn’t seemed to try to. That made them
an easy target for footwear giant, Deckers, who, by this time, owned Teva. Deckers bought out Alps in 1995 and the sandals were demoted to a style line within Teva. Luckily, the new Teva Alps were as good as the originals.
They opened the door for more sport sandals to mature from Velcro to intelligent buckles and straps. Alps turned Tevas into the workhorse of the river world. Alps’ multiple thin straps looked ridiculous and they weren’t
made for long, but I pulled my ’96 Teva Alps out a couple of summers ago for a five-day memory trip love-in, and they were still bomber. Alps got it right early on, even though the minimalist sole left
my heels aching after a mild hike. I never did see an abandoned Alp in the staff room singles box. JEFF JACKSON
www.rapidmag.com | 25
PHOTO: KAYDI PYETTE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56