What year was the flip flops invented?

Answer 1

John Cowie. A England-raised businessman who started a plastics manufacturing business in Hong Kong after the war. It was Cowie that started manufacturing a plastic version of the Japanese wooden sandals in the late 1940s. New Zealander Morris Yock imported from John Cowie and Co. and claimed the concept as his own which he patented in 1957. John Cowies children say that their father claimed to have invented the name Jandal from a shortened form of 'Japanese Sandal'. John Cowie and family emigrated to New Zealand in 1959.

Answer 2

The use of the word flip-flop for thong style sandal is actually a modern term dating from the 1960's that describes what is probably the oldest form of footwear still being worn.

Flip flops as we know then here have been around for at least six thousand years. As a point of comparison, primitive shoes are shown in rock paintings dating from the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 15,000 years ago. There are depictions of flip flops in ancient Egyptian murals on tombs and temples from about 4,000 B.C. as well.

The oldest surviving examples of thong type shoes were made from papyrus leaves around 1,500 B.C., these are on display in the British Museum. Early flip flops were made from a multitude of materials. Ancient Egyptian sandals were made from papyrus and palm leaves; rawhide was used by the Masai in Africa; wooden sandals were made in India; rice straw was used in China and Japan; the leaves of the sisal plant provided twine for sandals in South America; and the indigenous populations of Mexico even used the famous yucca plant.

Styles too varied with the differing placement of the toe strap, as subsequent civilizations preferred using different toes. The Greeks for example made use of the big toe; the Romans, the second toe; and the Mesapotanians, the third toe. These distinctive, physical entities were recognised and captured in Egyptian statues, and this was thought to represent the celebration of other cultures.

The Nihon fuuzokushi jiten (Encyclopedia of the History of Japanese Manners and Customs) reports the wide use of zori (a form of flip flop with a thong held between the toes) in Japan from at least the Heian period (794-1185). Japanese children have traditionally worn them when learning to walk.

Answer 3

It was Morris Yock of Auckland, New Zealand who came up with the modern design that we see today and patented it in 1957.

Answer 4

1940!