 another decade.   The modern design was invented in Auckland, නවසීලන්තය by Morris Yock in the 50s and patented in 1957. However, this claim has recently been contested by the children of John Cowie. John Cowie was an England-raised businessman who started a plastics manufacturing business in Hong Kong after the war.  His children claim that it was Cowie that started manufacturing a plastic version of the sandals in the late 1940s and that Yock was just a New Zealand importer.[5]  The children also say that their father claimed to have invented the name 'jandal' from a shortened form of 'Japanese Sandal'.  John Cowie and his family emigrated to New Zealand in 1959.Despite 'jandal' being commonly used in New Zealand to describe any manufacturer's brand, the word Jandal is actually a trademark since 1957, for a long time owned by the Skellerup company.In countries other than New Zealand, jandals are known by other names.In ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව they are known as thongs. The first pair were m