The Crocs Go Public
Manolo says, the Manolo he has been quoted in the Colorado Springs Independent regarding the hideousness that is the Crocs, and this on the eve of the company’s offering the public the stock.
The shoe may have its B list of celebrity devotees — Graham Nash, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Garner and her main squeeze, Ben “Kiss of Death” Affleck — but there also are plenty of fashionistas decrying the whole plastic-shoe fad and hoping it will go away soon.Crocs are the latest atrocity to be added to Manolo the Shoe Blogger’s “Gallery of the Horrors,” a collection of some of the ugliest shoes of all time (shoeblogs.com/horrors.html). They’re right up there with Uggs (”the only peoples who should be wearing this boot are the preteen girls who love the Hello Kitty”), the Birkenstock Boston (”looks like it was put together by the blind medieval monks, for wear by the peasants of the mud”) and the Dansko Teton (”glorified, heavy-duty house slippers”). But Manolo seems particularly offended by the popular rationale for Crocs, since it implies that style and comfort are incompatible: “Why must the ‘comfort’ always be the war cry of those who would lead us into the bad shoes?”
The fashion mavens’ aversion to Crocs isn’t merely an aesthetic problem for the company. If, as Manolo suggests, Crocs are a bad idea that should be discarded on the ash heap of shoe history, if they are the next Uggs, then that makes the effort to take the company public a bit gamier than the usual IPO. Among the “risk factors” Crocs notes in its SEC filings are the company’s relatively short history, its reliance on a small product line and the fickleness of the shoe-buying public.
Fickleness of the public, indeed! If it had been left up to the Manolo, the baby Crocs they would have been strangled in their cradle.
November 24th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Shoes? These are real shoes?!
I have a pair but I call them garden clogs. They sit on my screen porch, available for anyone who needs to go out onto the wet grass and turn off the hose, or move the sprinkler. I expect the children will use them this winter in the snow to bring in firewood. I just thought of them as a nice splash of colour that ensured my family would leave their outdoor footwear where it belongs in the closet, instead of in my pretty screen porch!
You mean people actually wear them…in public??
November 24th, 2005 at 10:11 am
I can see that these are useful for children, but Talmida is right, an adult should only use them while washing their car. Preferably as a tool with which to get crud off of bumpers
November 24th, 2005 at 10:28 am
I have a pair of these, for the gardening. They are nice to kick on & off, you can hose them out when they are done, they don’r blister or require socks, and the little rubber bits in the insole are fairly comfortable (unless it is shovel time. Then get some stout boots). Leaving them sitting on the outdoor deck for several months appears to do them no damage. I got mine from Lee Valley last fall, & had NO IDEA that they were “fashionable”. My sneaking suspicion is that there are merely the inheritor of the adidas/nike plastic sandal with the little wiggly rubber nipples in the sole - lauded for “comfort”, & worn by far, far too many. And, if I ever venture further than my mailbox in my garden clogs, may I develop bunions that prevent the wearing of my latest prized darlings, the Fluevog’s “Listen Harlow”.
November 24th, 2005 at 11:04 am
A friend of mine bought the Crocs for one purpose only. She was trekking around rural India in the Monsoon season– her rationale? The rain goes into the shoes, and then the rain goes out of the holes!
She (smartly) left them behind upon her return.
November 24th, 2005 at 11:05 am
This are truly horrible for anything but gardening, but I am more horrified by the shoes with big springs for heels that I’ve been seeing here and there. Another form of the “ugly, but comfortable” trend I suppose.
November 24th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Actually Jane, at least one friend of mine wears the shoes with big springs for heels because her doctor told her to. She has some “normal” shoes, but can only wear them for short periods of time. For walking around the college campus, she must wear the shoes with springs. She has some kind of tendonitis in her ankles. At least they are better-looking than my grandmother’s orthopedic shoes.
Of course it is possible that not everyone who wears such shoes has some kind of injury or chronic condition, and if they don’t, they should wear nice, normal shoes.
November 25th, 2005 at 3:27 am
The Z-coils are lifesavers for those who cannot anymore walk without them. They are shock absorbers. Not everyone can wear beautiful shoes, alas.
November 25th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Alas, I work at a large hospital and these monstrosities have become rather popular with the staff. Oh the horrors! I’ll stick with my sky-high heels thank you very much!
November 28th, 2005 at 12:13 pm
My sister has the Crocs in pink — she wears them all the time. It upsets me. . . as for Cortney’s comment, I was unlucky enough to find myself in an ER recently and my doctor was wearing them. It made me nervous! Luckily, her taste in shoes was not a reflection of her excellent medical skills.
November 28th, 2005 at 12:56 pm
Alas, alas! I work in Boulder CO where I see these atrocities everywhere, in addition to other shoes of the peasants of the mud - and the noveau hippies pay the $100 of dollars for them! And not just in gardens, but in public. And at work.
I just shake my head in amusement.
November 28th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
My fiancee and I made a stop in Denver during our recent holiday travels…
The Denver airport features these silly things in nearly every little souvenir and newspaper store AND, everyone in said airport seemed to be wearing a pair.
All I can say is, WTF? Seriously, WTF?
July 25th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
While Crocs may not be the most fashionable shoe around - they are certainly the fashion statement at summer camps. My son and daughter both take them to camp to be used as an all around camp show. For water activities, for trekking around in the woods, and muddy trails in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Photo’s from summer camp web-site features 6-10 girls sitting beachside all sporting their colorful crocs on!!
This is one place Crocs are great for!!