Kanga footwear are low boots or shoes with an upwardly curved toe. There are winter and summer types of such footwear. Winter kanga boots are made of white-colored reindeer koiba (skin from the feet of a deer), while the summer shoes are made of seal hides or leather.

When wearing kanga shoes, the Sami people put on koiba pants, the narrow ends of which were tucked into the kanga and tightly wrapped with leather straps.

Kanga shoes can be found in the Sami legend of the Meandash-maiden and her son, which was recorded by the ethnographer Vladimir Vladimirovich Charnolusky. Meandash is a mythical werewolf, a Sami primordial ancestor who could turn into both a human and a reindeer. According to this legend, the son of the Meandash-maiden wanted a human woman as his wife, and his mother set out to find one. This legend also includes the classic story of the three daughters. The Meandash-maiden offered the following test to the prospective brides: when she came to each of them, she told them to dry her kanga shoes. Whereas ordinary Sami kanga shoes were stuffed with grass, the Meandash-maiden’s ones had insoles made of tender lard.

The Meandash legend,

The test was whether the brides would pull out these valuable insoles. Two of the three brides stole the insoles by substituting them with hay, which of course was noticed.

“And the fat from the shoes has been eaten! Instead, she put grass in the shoes, and made the insoles of simple sheep hay“. (“Meandash”)

For this theft the Meandash-maiden turned the brides to stone, and only the third bride, the youngest daughter, did not suffer such a fate, as she showed honesty and diligence.

“The girl dried the tonke-poyda well and gave the kanga shoes with insoles to the Meandash-maiden to put on“. (“Meandash”)

Unlike other clothing and footwear, the kanga shoes are still a fairly common element of the national costume. Sami girls wear them at various ethnic festivals and other special events.