Croc vs. Escalators, The Deadly Croc
Manolo says, many, many of the Manolo’s internet friends have been emailing him links to this story, about the hideous and deadly Crocs.
At rail stations and shopping malls around the world, reports are popping up of people, particularly young children, getting their toes caught in escalators. The one common theme seems to be the clunky soft-soled clogs known by the name of the most popular brand, Crocs.
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In Japan, the government warned consumers last week that it has received 39 reports of sandals — mostly Crocs or similar products — getting stuck in escalators from late August through early September. Most of the reports appear to have involved small children, some as young as two years old.
Kazuo Motoya of Japan’s National Institute of Technology and Evaluation said children may have more escalator accidents in part because they “bounce around when they stand on escalators, instead of watching where they place their feet.”
In Singapore, a 2-year-old girl wearing rubber clogs — it’s unclear what brand — had her big toe completely ripped off in an escalator accident last year, according to local media reports.
And at the Atlanta airport, a 3-year-old boy wearing Crocs suffered a deep gash across the top of his toes in June. That was one of seven shoe entrapments at the airport since May 1, and all but two of them involved Crocs, said Roy Springer, operations manager for the company that runs the airport terminal.
Of the course, all of this is old news for the regular readers of the Manolo’s humble shoe blog. But it is good to finally see this danger being exposed to the wider world.
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Comments
la vache espagnole 16 years ago
Manolo –
I just moved to China a couple of months ago and I have been shocked at the number of crocs that have been roaming free in the PRC. I had hoped that I would escape such horrors in coming to Asia, but I was sadly mistaken. Clearly Japan has a similar problem. One can only hope that the dangers of crocs will continue to be exposed.
– Maria
Ponytail 16 years ago
It’s not just catching your foot on escalators and such – there are hospitals which are banning them too, due to the risk of injury (and also because they don’t look very professional !). Read : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6979400.stm for more details.
the unfashionista 16 years ago
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – they paint those caution lines on escalators for a reason! When I was a child, every single time we got onto an escalator, my mother checked to make sure my shoes were tied, because she had gotten her shoelace caught in the escalator as a child and was hurt.
Twenty years later, I still check my shoelaces before I get on an escalator.
These injuries come, I am sure, from small children dragging their feet alongside the escalator (outside the yellow or white caution line). Children are naturally curious, and many parents do not realize that escalators are dangerous.
It saddens me that so many people are so eager to jump on blaming crocs that they are not even considering the inattentive parenting that is the real cause, and the crocs only being the contributing factor.
la petite chou chou 16 years ago
Gonna have to agree with that. Crocs are hideous and not as protective as other shoes, but it isn’t the crocs fault it got stuck in the escalator.
Wendy 16 years ago
Echoing the unfashionista and la petite chou chou: The Croc is an abomination, but it’s not the Croc’s fault it got stuck in the escalator. Teach children where to stand and how to get on and off the escalator properly – and that an escalator is not a great big ride-on toy – and they won’t have any problems. Fail to teach them these things, and they’ll be at risk of injury regardless of their footwear.
gemdiva 16 years ago
Is there any chance that, due to the bulbous shape of the Croc, a very young child’s perception of exactly how close they are to the hazardous edges of the escalator is thrown off? In other words, they know where their foot is, but the shoe is protruding far beyond their toes, so they don’t realize the danger. Perhaps Croc wearing adults should stop imposing their footwear habits on young ones to whom they pose a danger. This is kind of like parents who smoke not exposing young children to dangerous secomd hand smoke and likely to go over just as big with Croc wearers as the second hand smoke argument went over with smokers.
Bottom line, expose yourself to as much danger as you want, but protect the kiddies and let them make their own fashion choices when they are old enough to understand and cope with the risks.
dangster 16 years ago
I recently had a close run-in with an escalator. I was not wearing the abomination that are the Crocs, but I was wearing my Nike Aces (tennis shoes). I was going down a floor, facing sideways, not paying attention, and didn’t realize that I had reached the bottom of the escalator. Because I did not step off the escalator in time, one of my shoes sort of got “caught” (although “caught” is a strong word, it is hard to explain this) at the bottom, and the escalator turned itself off.
Later I realized that when my shoe got caught, the escalator had somewhat ripped up a bit of the outer bottom edge of my shoe. And I am 24 years old. So while we all know that Crocs are horrid shoes, the moral of this story is that you should be careful on escalators no matter how old you are or what shoes you are wearing.
Elvira 16 years ago
I must agree with GemDiva’s comments regarding children’s perceptive abilities. And for that reason, I do blame the Crocs, in addition to the inattentive parents and the escalators themselves. If a garment is going to distort a child’s percpetions of the space around them, that garment should not be worn by children. The ugliness of Crocs is an entirely separate issue.
TG 16 years ago
Fourth of July my husband and I went to our friends home to enjoy a BBQ in their backyard with the kids. We arrived and our host (The husband) was wearing crocs. I, being opinionated and loud, went on about how a grown man should be embarrassed to be wearing those. His were black, which compared to the neon green ones, seem tame, and we were in his backyard, but alas, they were still unacceptable.
We were all having a lovely time when out BBQ came to an abrupt end. Playing with his child near the garage, he stepped on a nail, which Easily peirced his crocs and went straight through his foot. Our host was hauled away by the ambulance to get a tetanis shot while screaming bloody mary. At least it was him and not one of the children!
Those things Suck. I occassionally see otherwise well-dressed people in the fashion district (where I work) walking the street in them. It is mind blowing.
La BellaDonna 16 years ago
This is more of the Escalator Peril and the less of the Crocs. La BellaDonna agrees with the peoples who point out that the young children move about and are thus imperiled, but La BellaDonna vividly remembers, as she was riding up one escalator, seeing a young woman of her acquaintance – a college-age woman, with some martial-arts training, no less! – being hurridly pried loose from the escalator that went down. It had sucked in the hem of the coat of the young lady, who was struggling out of it before more was pulled into the machine.
La BellaDonna, she therefore encourages all the peoples to be careful on the Escalators that want only to eat you – not just the children in their horrible Crocs, or their parents in same, but the young girls in their gauzy skirts, the home boys in their dragging, sagging jeans, the flared jeans for all types which drag on the ground, the folks in floor-length Muslim attire.
La BellaDonna 16 years ago
Bah! “Hurriedly.” La BellaDonna, she apologizes.
Beyond Blond 16 years ago
Ponytail – thanks for the link to the BBC article. I had no idea that some hospitals were thinking of banning Crocs. Honestly, nurses were one of the few groups of people I was willing to forgive for wearing the painfully ugly footwear, for practical reasons. Who would have thought that there were safety concerns there too?
manu 16 years ago
Very dangerous shoes! Be careful!
ikie12pts 16 years ago
I love my Crocs. I care not what they look like. They feel wonderful, my knees no longer hurt and neither does my back. It seems a shame that your losing clientele to Crocs, makes you write “Very dangerous shoes! Be careful!” hilarious…..
drzeus 15 years ago
“If a garment is going to distort a child’s perceptions of the space around them, that garment should not be worn by children. ”
Bearing in mind how relatively slowly a child’s perception of space develops, that is going to throw a quite a few items of garments out the window – the majority of gloves allow you little perception (not to mention little grip) of feel in the hands – not what you need on handrails of escalators. I used to abhor mittens for the reason that I could never really tell where my hand was nor grip anything – especially escalator rails! Slippy slidey things. Great thick winter coats likewise. Hats and anything being carried. Loose laces (which most littel kids can’t tie anyway). Open toed sandals – when we were kids (you know, back in the dark ages! (70-80’s!!)) the front of our sandals were always ahead of our toes (so we could grow into em a bit). You never really knew where they were (hence the bruised knees). If a child’s perception of space isn’t developed enough they shouldn’t be on an escalator.
As stated, escalators are very dangerous things. One of my most frightening moments was watching (and hearing – not nice) a lady fall backwards on an escalator! Teach your children to use them properly or, heaven forbid, get some extra exercise and use the stairs, or use the elevator!
This should not be about Crocs – they are no more dangerous than any other shoe, simply that if your foot happens to be in the wrong place it will likely get hurt more than with ordinary shoes. Having said that, the soles on Crocs are substantially thicker than the majority of shoes and should trigger the safety mechanism quicker.
TG if the nail your mate stood on went right through the thickness of the sole of the Croc, I imagine the same would have happened with an ordinary shoe; most shoe soles these days are plastic/rubber based. Having said that, my own do seem rather prone to getting garden prickles embedded in them ;-) They certainly aren’t much of a fashion item for me (I am embarrassed to wear them out of the house), but oh boy are they comfortable – you just bounce along in them!
michele 15 years ago
This is a joke! Have you ever stepped on a nail? It could easily have went thru a tennis shoe? I know it has happened to me! If you dont like the shoes thats fine. Dont buy them! If you do thats great, I will propably see you at the store!!