Not slipping on the rocks, nor burning your feet on the hot sand: the Medusa plastic sandal, which has marked generations of children, is celebrating its 75th anniversary and remains made in France, from where it is successfully exported abroad.
" I don't think I've ever seen a customer who doesn't talk to me about their holidays and childhood when we talk about the Medusa, that's what's so great, we spend more time sharing personal memories than talking about the product itself, " says Anne-Céline Humeau, CEO of Humeau-Beaupréau .
Since its creation in 1946, this sandal " has not evolved at all in its form ", recognizable by " its rounded toe, its braided straps and its studded sole " and " it is precisely its timeless aspect that people are looking for ", continues Ms. Humeau, who sells some 500,000 pairs a year.
" My children wore them, and I still wear them when we go fishing, so they're timeless ," observes Cécile, a saleswoman at the Chaussold store in the center of Nantes.
" It's become a fashion trend, because you see young people wearing them in the street these days, with socks, without socks, " she continues, amused. Her boss has kept in the back of the shop some old sandals, almost identical, that his shoemaker parents used to sell at markets several decades ago.
The sole is written " La Sarraizienne ", the name of the original Auvergne brand, from which Humeau-Beaupréau bought the molds in the early 2000s.
- Noodle, slime, skeleton, cricri, mika or lêkês -
" We initially fought against counterfeiting to clean up the market a bit from Asian counterfeits which could be very present and so we were obviously helped by the courts and today we are greatly helped by customs ," says Anne-Céline Humeau, 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 beads 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.
"Humeau-Beaupréau is the last PVC injector in France. Everything has been outsourced, much to China, much to countries with very low labor costs ," emphasizes Francis Geffard, vice-president of the French Footwear Federation.
" They relaunched this production, with this vision of a product that was more fashion-oriented than utilitarian, and it worked very well to the point that the Medusa has become a truly fashionable item ," notes Mr. Geffard.
One of the keys to success is that the " Sun " model from the Méduse brand has " really become part of the habits of foreigners too ", according to Guillaume Beaupréau, Anne-Céline's brother who is the company's general manager.
In Asia, besides the "slightly hyped " aspect of this sandal, often worn with socks, it is very popular because " they have monsoon seasons, with a lot of rain at the end of spring, and so it is a product that is really easy to use, that does not get damaged ," explains Mr. Humeau.
According to the company, 50% of online sales are made in France, and 50% abroad.
The name "Medusa" comes from the similarity between the color of the gelatinous animal and that of early sandals, but across different regions, the Medusa is also called " skeleton ," " slime ," " noodle ," " cricri ," "mika" in the Antilles, or " lêkês " in Ivory Coast. " Lêkês " are, in fact, the best-selling shoes in the West African country .
