Beaupréau-en-Mauges (France) (AFP)

Do not slip on the rocks, nor burn your feet on the hot sand: the plastic sandal Méduse, which marked generations of children, celebrates its 75 years and remains manufactured in France, from where it is exported with success abroad.

"I don't think I saw a client who didn't tell me about his holidays and his childhood, when we talk about the Medusa, that's what is great, is that we spend more time to exchange on our personal memories, than on the product itself ", enthuses Anne-Céline Humeau, CEO of the company Humeau-Beaupréau.

Since its creation in 1946, this sandal "has not changed at all in its shape", recognizable by "its rounded toe, its braided straps and its spiked sole" and "it is precisely its timeless side that people are looking for. ", continues Ms. Humeau who sells some 500,000 pairs per year.

"My children have worn them, and I still wear them when we go fishing, so it's timeless," observes Cécile, sales assistant at the Chaussold store in the center of Nantes.

"It has become a fad, because you see young people now wearing them in the street, with socks, without socks," she continues amused.

Her boss has kept in the back room old sandals, almost identical, that her shoe-making parents sold in the markets several decades ago.

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On the sole is written "La Sarraizienne", from the name of the original Auvergne brand, from which Humeau-Beaupréau bought the molds in the early 2000s.

- Noodle, sticky, skeleton, cricri or mika -

"We first fought against counterfeiting to clean up the Asian counterfeit market a little, which could be very present and therefore we were obviously helped by the courts and today we are greatly helped by customs," says Anne- Céline Humeau, at the head of a team of 130 employees, based in Beaupréau-en-Mauges, a small town in Maine-et-Loire where her family has been making shoes for five generations.

In the workshops, large bags of plastic marbles are poured into molds from which the sandals emerge, available in various colors and in all sizes, from 18 to 48, to be sold between 12 and 20 euros.

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Humeau-Beaupréau "is the last PVC injector in France. Everything has been relocated, a lot to China, a lot to countries with very low labor costs", underlines Francis Geffard, vice-president of the French Federation of shoe.

"They relaunched this production, with this vision of a product more fashion than utility, and it worked very well to the point that the Medusa, it became a truly fashion item", remarks Mr. Geffard.

One of the keys to success is that the “Sun” model of the Méduse brand has “really entered into the habits of foreigners too”, according to Guillaume Beaupréau, Anne-Céline's brother, who is the company's general manager.

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In Asia, besides "the slightly hype side" of this sandal, often worn with socks, it is very popular because "they have periods of monsoons, with a lot of rain at the end of spring, and suddenly it is a product. which is really easy to use, which does not get damaged, ”explains Mr. Humeau.

On the internet, 50% of sales are made in France, and 50% abroad, according to the company.

The name "Medusa" comes from the similarity between the color of the gelatinous animal and that of the first sandals, but across the different regions, the Medusa is also called "skeleton", "sticky", "noodle", "cricri" , or even "mika" in the West Indies.

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In addition to the "color palette that makes you want", according to Corinne Durand, manager of the "Les Courtes Pattes" store in Nantes, the recent models are also distinguished by a "much more flexible" structure than the original, and all satisfied. its customers who praise "the quality" and "the very affordable price".

© 2021 AFP