Teva

Teva was founded in 1984 in Grand Canyon, Arizona by Mark Thatcher, a Colorado River-rafting guide who developed the iconic strap-sandal construction (the foundational Teva sport-sandal product) after losing his standard hiking sandals on a river-rafting trip and improvising a strapped-sandal alternative from rubber and webbing. The brand has been one of the defining post-1984 American-anchored 'sport-sandal' brands and is widely credited with inventing the entire modern sport-sandal product category. The Teva vocabulary settled around several specific products: the iconic Teva Original sport-sandal (the brand's defining 1984-pattern product, still in production with the original Velcro-strapping construction), the Teva Hurricane XLT sport-sandal programme, the Teva Universal sport-sandal, the Teva Flatform Universal platform-variant (the broader 2010s-aesthetic-revival platform-sport-sandal product), various hybrid hiking-and-sport-sandal variations, and a colour palette anchored to washed-black, washed-navy, military-olive, oxblood, ecru, plus the brand's recurring use of saturated red, electric-blue, butter-yellow, and the iconic 1990s-river-rafting-aesthetic accent combinations. The brand is owned by Deckers Brands (NYSE: DECK), the publicly-listed American footwear conglomerate that also owns UGG, Hoka, Sanuk, and Koolaburra. Teva operates approximately 30 retail flagship stores globally — anchored to the broader US, plus extensive wholesale through REI, Backcountry, the major US-and-European outdoor specialty retailers, the substantial Japanese outdoor-specialty distribution including Snow Peak and Beams Plus, and the broader 'gorpcore' streetwear specialty network. The brand has done extensive contemporary collaborations including Teva × Beams Plus, Teva × End Clothing, Teva × Cotopaxi, Teva × Snow Peak, and the broader 2010s-aesthetic-revival collaboration partners. The brand has been one of the defining post-1984 American-anchored 'sport-sandal' brands.