Rock out with your Croc out

My mag Business 2.0 recently ran an article on Crocs. If you're one of the fifty people left in the world who are not wearing them, they're a colorful species of rubber/plastic clog that all your neighbors and their kids have on their feet. The consensus seems to be that they're hideously ugly. Strangely enough, this opinion seems to be shared by the people who wear them. In fact, the last two Croc'ed people I talked to admitted they were ugly, but added they were oh so comfortable. Apparently, wearing Crocs is like having a baby: It seems horrible to those who haven't done it, but those who have are smitten.

Strangely enough, a few years ago I predicted the rise of the Croc. Back in 2001 I used to visit a site called Halfbakery obsessively. It's a site where people suggest half-baked ideas, and other people vote them up or down. One person posted an idea that was pretty much just "Update shoes and socks. The current system seems outdated." That post seems to have been deleted from the site, as it wasn't actually an idea per se. But it did make me think-- doesn't this person have a point? One responder wrote "How can you improve upon what is basically a piece of floor attached to your foot?" And he or she had a good point. But couldn't you?

I decided there had to be some shoe design that would:

• Be as simple an inexpensive as flip-flops
• Be as comfortable and protective as sneakers
• Eliminate the need for socks
• Be easily cleanable (like in a dishwasher or clothes washer)

I never went too far with this idea, besides postulating some kind of articulated footbed that would conform to the shape and movement of the foot, and imagining snap-on uppers that would allow you to convert them between sandal mode and shoe mode. I filed it away in my personal halfbaked idea file and went on with my life.

Years later, when I was working at Bon Appétit, we were sent a couple of pairs of Crocs for evaluation-- one black, one emergency orange. A couple of the editors took to them right away and began wearing them at work-- and I knew someone had made my idea a reality. Well, except for the sock part. (As Photo Director Ilene's Croc-wearing nephew says, "They make my feet sweaty.")

The real brilliance of the Croc makers is that, instead of a mechanical engineering approach with the articulated footbed, they took the materials science approach and made them out of a resin that conforms to your foot. So they remain simple in construction, and therefore cheap.

Only problem: Everyone thinks they're ugly. Yet everyone is buying them. So I guess that's not such a problem after all, is it?

Earlier I equated wearing Crocs to having a baby, but I suppose there's a better analogy. Maybe wearing Crocs is more like smoking crack: Try it once and you're hooked. I have to admit, I'm very curious to see what the fuss is about... But I'm too afraid of becoming a Croc-head.

Comments

[Anna]

It was an unexpected twist to hear that they are comfortable.
I thought you would argue that they are ugly and cute,the charmful charmless.
The Crocs are like wearing a pair of Shrek and Princess Fiona on your feet, I think, which, especially for kids, does not sound so bad.

[Steve]

These have got to be the ugliest, lamest shoes I've ever seen

[redwann]

It is very rare that style works harmoniously with functionality, but then who cares if they feel like pillows against your feet.