Manolo’s Shoe Blog

Manolo says, sensible peoples in positions of authority are stepping forward to protect the innocent.

Crocs, those ubiquitous, Swiss-cheese-like clogs, are joining their flimsier flip-flop cousins on school “do not wear” lists around the USA.

More public schools are instituting stricter, parochial-style dress codes, and Crocs, along with generic sandals and flip-flops, aren’t fitting the closed-toe, closed-heel criteria. […]

In some elementary schools, Crocs are a safety question. Though most schools are escalator-free — in the past year, the Croc-escalator cocktail has been blamed for injuring the toes of a few children — administrators say monkey bars and Crocs, as well as sandals and flip-flops, don’t mix.

It’s not “totally unreasonable” for schools to be sensitive that some clothing poses safety concerns, says Lisa Soronen, senior staff attorney with the National School Boards Association. “Schools are sued not infrequently for a variety of injuries that happen to students” on school property. “I’ve tried on Crocs. They’re not made for your individual foot. These aren’t custom shoes here.”

Ha! The Manolo laughs at the obvious!

Manolo says, here are the few links which may perhaps amuse…

“Whatever biotch, those ratty paisley cords are not exactly happening either” I said to myself, so pleased was I in my fashion superiority. And then I glanced down at my feet and saw this.

If you do want to recycle your old Crocs, clearly mark the outside of the package with “RECYCLE” and mail them to

I don’t want to be boring Halloween cliche after all and go as a playboy bunny or anything (not that I know where I am going, but thats beside the point). And so, I’ve decided to draw inspiration from the most creative and trendy of them all- the fashion designers. After all, there is no reason not to be fashionable on Halloween!

Manolo says, the Manolo has been quoted in the very amusing article about the Crocs in the Baltimore Sun.

In a world of fashion that has more than its share of don’ts — what exactly is it about a toy-like little shoe with holes that provokes such vitriol?

Is it the candy colors they come in? The plasticity? The cheapness? Is it the brazenness with which Crocs owners have introduced the former boat shoe into polite society, shuffling and shlumpfing around grocery stores, shopping malls — even offices.

“They repulse me,” says Vincenzo Ravina, who founded Ihatecrocs.com with his friend Kate Lesh, the happy snipper. “They are to your eyes what secondhand smoke is to your lungs.”

[…]

TV personality Bill Maher recently focused a diatribe against them that began, “New rule: Stop wearing plastic shoes.”

[…]

Manolo the ShoeBlogger puts Crocs in his “Gallery of Horrors.”

“The Croc-wearers walk about as if they have discovered something special in the unsightly combination of plastic clogs and foot sweat,” Manolo tells The Sun. He attributes their popularity to “the self-destructive cult of comfort.”

“Like sweatpants and mullets,” he says, “they appeal to that demographic which feels most comfortable only in their La-Z-Boys, buffalo wing in hand, or in the NASCAR aisles of their local Wal-Mart. In other words, the Crocs are 21st century peasant shoes … ugly, roomy, cheap and useful for standing knee-deep in pig manure.”

Maher seemed to agree with Manolo and Rudo of Cross Keys when he summed up the Crocs phenomenon as America’s “latest step in our neverending quest to dress as casually as possible.”

“You know I used to wear flip-flops, but they were a little dressy,” he deadpanned. “I want clothes I can hose down.”

Maybe Maher and Manolo are right, that what’s really upsetting the haters is the sense that Crocs are doing more than their part to chip away at our sense of decorum.

It is true. Crocs are not merely the comfortable shoe, they are also indicative of the general relaxing of traditional standards of decorum and respect. What is most troubling, however, is that so few peoples seem to understand this.

Manolo says, the Manolo could not agree more, Crocs = Bad!

P.S. Consider this the mild bad-language content warning for the above video from the increasingly ubiquitous William Sledd.

P.P.S. Many thanks to the Raincoaster for finding this.

Manolo says, this creeps the Manolo out, and makes him wish to avoid the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.

P.S. Many thanks to the Manolo’s friend Karl for sending this most disturbing image.

Manolo says, there is only one person who would wear such ridiculous feetwear.

Answer below the jump.

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Manolo says, the Manolo’s internet friend Wayne has alerted the Manolo to two pairs of the unusually life-like shoes…

Manolo says, perfect for the beach! And oddly preferable to the fishy Christian Louboutin monstrosities.

And the next shoes are not for the faint of heart..

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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.

[…]

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.

Manolo says, “Knew a man, Bojangles
And he danced for you
In worn-out shoes
With silver hair, a ragged shirt
And baggy pants, the old soft shoe”