KEPLEKK… keplekk… keplekk. The sound of my Japanese slippers flapping against the pavement as I walk to the provision shop near my house is a memory that’s seared into my collective consciousness of growing up; one where collecting saga seeds, playing ting ting with my neighbour, the sound of my pet dog barking, the familiar honking of the roti uncle on his bicycle doing his rounds around my neighbourhood feature largely in the reel-play of my childhood.
The humble Japanese slippers, mainstay of most – if not all – Malaysian households deserve a place of honour in the annals of our history. It’s not a fashion statement by any means; the hardy rubber slippers are whipped out for practicality as opposed to vanity.
My trusty pair of Bata slippers got me through most household activities in the past – walking around the neighbourhood, washing my father’s Mazda car (an activity I loathed despite my father’s 50 sen bribe to stand under the blazing sun with a pail of soapy water!) and even going to the toilet (Asian toilets were perpetually wet and slippery back in the days).
In this damnable weather and with about 250,000 sweat glands found on the feet, our slippers are a practical solution for sweaty feet. Good to use, easy to slip into and frankly, it’s cheap. Who doesn’t remember their ubiquitous pair of Tat Sing or Bata slippers? In fact, I still own a pair!
And then as time evolved, so did our slippers. What used to be plain rubber thongs evolved into fashion statements. Forget Japanese slippers – they were now called a more ‘pish-poshy’ flip-flops, a nod towards the musical smacking sounds they made when we walked.
They were cuter, looked a lot more refined than the stubby old slippers of the past and they came in a variety of colours and styles. Fashion styles come and go, but our slippers are here to stay.
And then recently, designer label Hermes took our Selipar Jepun to a whole other level. The French fashion house received a barrage of criticism for a pair of up-market flip-flops they’re selling for a whopping 335 British pounds (about RM1,730)).
Herme’s website claims that the “designer” sandals come with “technical straps”, foam soles and “calf-skin lining” which got us chuckling at the audacity of it all.
“Slippers for THAT much?” we marvelled. “I’ve got to sell my pair of Tat Sings on E-Bay!” quipped someone else.
SLIPPING THROUGH HISTORY
Fashion houses may have just caught on to the ubiquitous presence of the Japanese slippers and may want to (literally) cash in on its enduring popularity, but the slippers themselves haven’t only been embedded in the collective memories of Asians everywhere, but in the history of the world at large as well.
Do the Japanese really have a hold on the origins of the flip flops as we know (and love)? Well yes and no.
While the Japanese has been most associated with the brand of slippers that we’re most associated with, the origins of thong sandals actually predate them by thousands of years.
Thong sandals have been depicted in ancient Egyptian murals from as far back as 4,000 BC! These ancient sandals were made from papyrus and palm leaves.
According to the ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, sandals of papyrus were a part of the required and characteristic dress of the Egyptian priests.
The simple pair of flip-flops has been a mainstay in tropical Southeast Asia for centuries, and not necessarily from the influence of the Japanese.
Generally, a sandal usually has a sole made out of rubber, leather, wood, tatami or rope. It’s usually held to the foot by a narrow thong that generally passes between the first and second toe, or by a strap.
The simplicity of the design led many historians to believe that this footwear was used across the globe through the centuries – from the Masais of Africa to the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
In India, the ‘chappal’ was common, with no straps but a small knob sitting between the first and second toes, known as Padukas.
What’s closest to the flip-flops of the West is the Japanese zori, which happens to be the most ancient form of footwear in Japan.
Back in the Heian period, which ran from 794 to 1185 when art, poetry and literature was its peak in Japan, the zori – a flat straw sandals with a thong held between the toes (known as a hanao) – was worn with white, split toe cotton socks called habi. This form of footwear wasn’t only distinctive but extremely comfortable, lightweight and practical.
MALAYSIAN CONNECTION
While relatively little is mentioned about the appearance of Japanese slippers in this nation, it can be assumed that this localised version of the Japanese zori would have had made its appearance in this part of the world around the time Imperial Japan expanded its territory in Southeast Asia during World War II.
Rubber shoe production in Malaysia had been long established since the 1930s. The earliest record of the manufacture of rubber footwear in Malaya proper was in 1937 when the Czech company, Bata, began production in Klang.
Subsequently, two Chinese firms recruited skilled workers from Bata and opened shoe factories in Klang around the same time.
However, during the Japanese occupation years, many businesses – especially those Chinese-owned ones – were taken over and reassigned to Japanese interests.
Large numbers of labourers were conscripted to work on military projects while manufacturing businesses came to a screeching halt when the supply of rubber was redirected for industrial and military purposes.
Rubber estates were taken over by the Japanese Army’s Shonan Gomu Kumiai (Shonan Rubber Association) and factories, by Japanese companies under the Japanese military administration.
It was probably during this period that Japanese soldiers introduced the zori in Malaya. Darker history – while remains unverified – whispers about the Japanese zori or slipper being used as an instrument of torture where prisoners were forced to bite down on rubber slippers until their teeth broke while they were subjected to torture.
Many commentaries suggest that during the occupation, prices of basic products like clothing and shoes skyrocketed beyond the reach of Malayans, so modified versions of the zori using discarded tyre casings were often used as footwear. It’s widely believed that it was then that Japanese slippers soon wormed their way into households, as it costed almost next to nothing to make them.
After the World War, the legacy of the Japanese slippers remained despite anti-Japanese sentiments that ran deep in this nation.
Manufacturers recognised the versatility of the Japanese minimalistic footwear and rubber slippers soon became a cheap, indispensable household item that sold well both locally and even abroad.
After the disruption to trade caused by the Second World War, the production of footwear resumed and rose sufficiently to enable export for the first time in history. In 1955, the World Bank reported that Malaya exported a princely 5.3 million pairs of shoes and slippers between the years 1953 and 1955.
WORLD DOMINATION
Meanwhile, after suffering a devastating defeat at the hands of the Allied forces in 1945, the Japanese were left with a depleted treasury and an oversupply of rubber.
In efforts to rebuild their country, they had to monetise their rubber and one solution was to manufacture the rubber zori. In the 1950s, Japan began exporting Japanese rubber slippers, ironically to countries like the US.
“It’s interesting that Americans were willing to consume footwear that was so clearly linked to a recent enemy state,” notes Elizabeth Semmelhack, senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
The earliest flip-flop adopters were mostly American housewives, she explains, “…who would wear a pair of rubber thongs in the shower, maybe puttering around the house.”
She points out that the flip-flop probably originated in the factories of Japan. “The rubber industry was in full swing,” she says, and local designers would have experimented with synthetic zoris.
The Hiroshima Rubber Company made the sandals for export in the 1950s — supersizing the zoris to accommodate Westerners’ feet. According to Semmelhack, the term “flip-flop” arose spontaneously in the 1960s, inspired by the slap-slap of rubber as it hit the foot.
As the slippers soon got assimilated into American popular culture, they were redesigned and given a facelift of bright colours that dominated the 1950s fashion.
In 1962, Alpargatas, a Brazilian manufacturer, marketed a version of the slippers known as Havaianas in Brazil. Havaianas' simple wishbone between-the-toe design was inspired by Japanese zori sandals.
“It's true that some executives from (parent company) Alpargatas took a trip to Japan before the launch in 1962,” admits Rui Porto, a long-time company executive who now works as a media consultant for the brand.
By 2010, more than 150 million pairs of Havaianas were produced each year, and remains one of Brazil’s best exports to this day.
While the Japanese may have failed to conquer the world during the Second World War, their slippers certainly did. History points out that this type of sandals have existed since the dawn of time in many places around the world, but it’s undeniable that the Japanese had unwittingly sparked a trend of sorts with their version of the humble sandals.
With Hermes now jumping on the wagon and attempting to introduce Japanese slippers as a form of high fashion footwear, you can go ahead, blow the dust off your Selipar Jepun and wear them with pride!
FLIP FLOP FACTS
1.The flip-flop is one of the oldest forms of footwear. These Egyptian flip-flops were made with papyrus and reeds. Early African flip-flops were crafted from animal hides, Indian flip-flops were wooden and in China and Japan, the footwear was made using rice straw.
2.There’s a National Flip-Flop Day! It’s held on the third Friday in June every year since it was created in 2007.
3.In 2011, then-president Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to be photographed wearing flip-flops. This was most likely the first time the people of the United States saw a president’s toes!
4.There’s a cocktail called the Japanese Slipper. Made from Midori, Cointreau, and lemon juice, the Japanese Slipper was created in 1984 by Jean-Paul Bourguignon at Mietta's Restaurant in Melbourne.
5.Don’t blush — “thong” is just another word for flip flop, a term you’re likely to encounter in Australia. This simple shoe goes by many monikers: jandals (short for Japanese sandals), slops, tsinelas, chinelos, and slippers are just a few of names you might come across worldwide.
6.In 2005, a group of women from the Northwestern University lacrosse team visited the White House, donning (gasp!) flip flops. There was a minor outcry from the public and the athletes responded by auctioning off the now infamous flip flops online, raising funds for a friend battling cancer.
7.If you thought that running in flip flops was impossible, think again. The Tarahumaras, a tribe living in Mexico’s Copper Canyons, run hundreds of miles across woods and on rocky terrain wearing only Huaraches, self-made sandals very similar to flip flops. Keith Lavasseur, a man from Maryland, ran the 26-mile Baltimore marathon while wearing black Reef sandals. He finished in 29th place out of more than 3000 participants and it took him 2 hours, 46 minutes and 58 seconds to finish the marathon.
8.The earliest pair of flip flops, from between 1550 B.C. and 1307 B.C. was found in Europe and are made of papyrus leaves.