Okay but Like, Crocs Are Cool Now

Let me explain.

Kristin Merrilees
4 min readApr 10, 2020
Photo Credit: @l8loomer on Instagram

For a while now, Crocs have been a pretty polarizing shoe. The brand of the same name was originally founded in 2002, and Crocs, which were initially designed to be a boating shoe, soon gained popularity amongst gardeners, nurses, and others for their comfort and practicality (in fact, due to the current stress on hospitals, they are offering a free pair to healthcare workers). But they’ve always been shunned by the fashion community, and some of that hatred has spread to the rest of the world. In fact, a Facebook page called “I Dont [sic] care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like A Dumbass” has gained over 1.2 million likes. Even Croc aficionados have long accepted that whatever amount of comfort they gain from the shoe, they will lose in coolness.

But that may be changing. While the question of whether Crocs are “fashionable” (aka, not ugly) will always remain highly controversial, the tides may be turning on the question of whether they are “cool.” In the past few years, both designers and teen girls — perhaps the most demanding of fashion critics — have begun to love them, and the rest of the world has begun to follow suit.

But how did that happen? How has the collective consciousness on Crocs changed so strongly?

Well, it may have started with the embracing of Crocs by high fashion. In October 2017, the Kardashian-favorite brand Balenciaga presented their collab with Crocs, a platform version of the classic shoe, on the runway as part of their Pre-A-Porter show in Paris. The internet was taken by storm — and had mixed reactions.

But no matter whether you loved or hated them, one thing was clear — Crocs were no longer just a shoe for kids or fashion-unaware dads. They were now avant-garde. They were now cool.

Since then, Crocs have cemented their place in the fashion world by releasing collaborations with designer Vivienne Tam, Barneys, Chinatown Market, Barneys New York, Takashi Murakami, and Liberty London. Celebrities have also been seen wearing them — such as known trendsetter Ariana Grande.

Photo Credit: @arianagrande Instagram

But they have also gained popularity amongst tween and teen girls, as I mentioned earlier. Over the summer of 2019, as so-called “VSCO girls” (girls who owned Hydroflasks and metal straws, wore oversized t-shirts, stacked scrunchies on their arms, and used phrases such as “sksksk” and “and i oop-”) gained notoriety — so did Crocs.

Photo Credit: The Pink Dream

At this point, Crocs had become known amongst teenage girls for being comfortable, easy to wear on a summer day with an oversized tee and a scrunchie, and cute in an ironic sort of way.

But beyond being a summertime trend, Crocs have remained popular amongst teens. One of the reasons this is the case is because of their ability to be personalized to each buyer. Rather than caring about name brands or fitting in with the rest of the crowd, today’s teens care more about individuality and showing their personal style and passions through what they wear. And Crocs enables teens to do this through Jibbitz, the little charms that go in the holes of the shoe. As Crocs CEO Andrew Rees stated in an interview with CNBC, “the younger consumer wants to be able to turn a generic purchase into a personal purchase and tell a story. And they can do that through the Jibbitz on the shoes and it’s an incredible vehicle.” Jibbitz allow teens to customize their Crocs and display their own personal interests — and they are often very stylish and represent recent food, fashion, and language trends.

A few of my favorite trendy Jibbitz.

Ultimately, the popularization of Crocs in the past few years shows how fashion is changing —like the rise in athleisure, it shows the increasing demand for comfortable apparel. And, as we’re all social distancing and working from home, this demand has increased even more. In fact, sweatpants and Crocs have become the official quarantine uniform for many. In fact, Madewell just released a line of tie-dye crocs that Refinery29 called “The Perfect Work from Home Shoe.” And it’s likely that even after we are back to working from work and can once again venture out into the world, people will remember the ugly-cuteness and comfort of Crocs. In other words, Crocs are here to stay.

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