I love jandals, but it hasn’t always been love - in fact it was hate. I hated them because the strap rubbed between my toes and because it felt like the soles were made out of concrete…. but what I hated most was how the strap would pop out or snap while you were walking along…. mega pain!  So I avoided jandals for a very long time and actually had no intentions of ever wearing a jandal again.

But…. everything changed when in my early 20s I happened to bump into a very pretty pair of pink Havaianas, they were pink (did I say already!), I L-O-V-E-D them and I wore them everywhere. 

By the time they died and a couple of children later my spending priorities had changed and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy another pair.  And so my search began for an affordable, quality pair of jandals…

Thongs, Flip Flops, Sandals, Jandals, I decided to call them Rubbers.

The search begins…

In the summer of 2008 I needed some new Jandals. What I found was a whole lot of low quality, mass produced mediocre Jandals. Under all the flashy colours and cool designs they were unfortunately all much of a muchness, run of the mill low quality synthetic rubber jandals. So I decided to do some research into the more expensive big-name brands and was shocked to find out that big brand and big price did not necessarily equal big on quality. It seemed as though a genuinely decent pair of jandals for a decent price just didn’t exist.

So, in the end I settled for a generic $15 pair. Very very bad decision. After two weeks of painful wear the strap gave out and they were tossed in the bin, summer had barely begun.

I felt cheated. Don’t you think my feet…….. all Kiwi feet (the Jandal is one of our icons for goodness sakes), deserve better than that? Fast forward, Thailand 2009. The wound from the disappointing Jandal experience still hadn’t healed.

If you didn’t know before, you know now, Thai rubber trees produce some of the best rubber in the world. Would I find the world’s best Jandals in Thailand? Seems logical enough don’t you think?

Yes. I discovered a niche crafter of Jandals whose Jandals were so fine that in the moment I slipped them on…..is there such thing as Jandal bliss?

Getty Ho
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