A shoe can hold a country’s history as much as it can define it. Not everyone wanted the canvas rubber shoes, but everyone had a pair—at least if their school was Kenyan enough. We’d put them on whenever we heard girls from the next school were coming for a function. They became a cult item not by choice but because schools issued an edict: every student had to own a pair. It worked—I still can’t tell how these sneakers managed to be so ugly yet cool at the same time.

Sliding your index finger down the list of high school admission requirements, you’d find “rubber shoes” among them. Not just any kind of rubber shoes—canvas rubber shoes. A pair made of cotton canvas fabric and a sturdy rubber sole. Their two bold stripes—white and red—made them distinct, often seen in black and white colorways.

These shoes went perfectly with almost anything; they matched skirts, tracksuits, jeans, and every school uniform you could think of. They silently shut the class gap that fashion often created in schools. Everybody wore them, so nobody was better than anybody else. Still, some students found creative ways to make them stylish—painting and writing quotes or lyrics on the white variants. But how did they become so popular?

Schools listed them as a requirement in newsletters and admission letters, powering their demand. Not only did this boost the local footwear industry, but it also made the rubber shoe a household staple across Kenya. Like wildfire, the sneakers became everything a P.E. sneaker should be, but they also stepped out of the school gates into the feet of shoshos and anybody who wanted something functional and all-purpose. The reason was that they were far more affordable than a pair of Converse, and their durable cotton canvas was a value-added feature. Moreover, it felt distinctly Kenyan, showing off the sporty culture in our school system.

Bata’s Toughees have long been the hallmark of formal school footwear, but so have rubber canvas shoes for sports. The fashion landscape is changing, and some schools have crossed off these canvas shoes from their requirements, but they continue to be a nostalgic item. Over the years, they have reinvented themselves a couple of times under new names—like rubber bullets—and different colorways, but it’s always been the same shape and the same memories. The two-striped canvas shoes are a symbol of a society choosing to elevate its aesthetic by embracing their utility. Through the slow conditioning of school systems, they became a classic and will remain one forever.