“They helped Uncle Ho to travel far, and with them, he overcame the difficulties to build the country”, boasts a communist song to the glory of the father of Vietnamese independence.
At the Ho Chi Minh Museum in the capital Hanoi, the worn-out sandals of the leader who died in 1969 are proudly displayed, next to his old Chinese-style uniform.
In the street, many still maintain the myth of this light and inexpensive shoe, born at the end of the 1940s during the war in Indochina against France, a colonial power defeated in 1954.
The soldiers had been conquered by the unbeatable cost of manufacture, and the resistance of the sandal, made from the tires of military trucks taken from the enemy, according to legend.
Today, rubber comes from used car or airplane tires, but its qualities are not questioned.
“They have historical value, they are easy to wear and pretty,” describes Dao Van Quang, a 47-year-old tourist, buying his pair for 200,000 dongs, or 8.50 euros.
“Rubber sandals still have great potential,” Nguyen Duc Truong, 58, told AFP in his “Vua Dep Lop” (“King of Rubber Sandal”) workshop in Hanoi.
The “dep lop”, on its scale, is resisting in the fourth largest shoe producer in the world, where the giants Nike and Adidas produce millions of pairs each year.
At “Vua Dep Lop”, some pairs stand out, displaying colors that contrast with the black of the classic model.
“We are trying to make them more flexible and bring it up to date. By changing the style, we have won customers,” rejoices Nguyen Tien Cuong, who took over the business from his father-in-law in 2011, and has sold over half a million pairs since.
“We need to constantly renew ourselves. We want these sandals to become a symbol of Vietnam, and when foreigners visit the country, they mention the rubber sandals,” he hopes.