Crocs Popular Because of the Crocs Haters?

littlerubbershoes.com was recently mentioned in a NY Times Magazine article on what makes Crocs so popular. After reading the full article it seems to me the writer feels the popularity of Crocs by us Croc Fans is to spite the Anti-Croc movement. I respectfully disagree.

There might be some of that now that they have become so popular in our society, but the Anti-Croc’ers of the world didn’t know about Crocs until the passion and love for these shoes had already hit critical mass. It is not a situation of which came first the chicken or the egg. Fans of Crocs came about because of comfort, the ability to express themselves through colorful shoes, and not caring what other people think about what you are wearing because Crocs made them happy.

The Anti-Crocs “movement”, using this term loosely since we are just talking about shoes, only came about because of the rapid growth and popularity of Crocs. If you look at anything popular, you are going to have people who will to try to knock it down. I think the love for Crocs may be fueled by the Crocs Haters to a certain degree but I don’t think the love for Crocs from fans around the world would be lessened any if there weren’t Anti-Crocs people saying how ugly they are.

What is great about this country and other the free countries around the world is that everyone can have an opinion about anything, but at the end of the day, we are just talking about shoes. I have actually enjoyed watching the destruction of Crocs videos that have been made because I find them humorous and creative. We even posted them on this blog.

I think the article was an interesting read, I just got the feeling the premise of the piece was that Croc Fans were born out of people hating them because they felt they were ugly. I actually think it is very much the other way around.

I take more of the approach, if you like the shoes, wear them and not worry about what other people think of you. And after hearing from the many Croc Fans from around the world, seeing the number of “I Love My Crocs” widgets posted on mySpaces and blogs, and the number of people motivated to post their Crocs Pictures and Videos on the web, I think that is what most Croc Fans will continue to do.

Let us hear from you by submitting a comment. Tell us what you thought about the article and why you think there are such polarizing views on Crocs?

Crocs Survey

I was contacted by Dave, a graduate student at West Virginia University, asking if we could help him with his creative strategies course. Dave is a fellow Crocs Fan and is doing a project where he is looking for some information (anonymous) on what type of people wear Crocs and what it is about them that they like.

So Croc Fans, let’s help Dave out and take this quick < 5 minute survey and help him with his project. He has promised to share the information with us when he is done, so it will be interesting to see what type of responses you all give.

When you are done with the survey, add a comment to this post and give Dave some feedback on the survey.

UPDATE: The survey is now closed.

It seems the survey only supported 100 users and is not complete. Thank you all for helping Dave out with this project. I’ve been told he will share the data with us when he has it compiled. Stay Tuned!

More Pictures from Fellow Croc Fans

We receive pictures from fellow Croc Fans all the time, and here are some of our latest.

Here is Chris wrestling a Croc on his 25th birthday wearing his Crete Crocs at Gatorland in Florida. Great action shot Chris!
Crete Crocs

Andrea and her son sporting their Sage Crocs.
green beach crocs with son

Allison and her niece showing their matching Yellow Crocs with Jibbitz.
yellow crocs with jibbits

We love hearing from you and seeing your pictures of you in your Crocs. Send us your most creative Crocs pictures and we will post them for the world to enjoy. Send your photos to Crocs@littlerubbershoes.com.

Sometimes Predicting The Next Best Thing Doesn’t Pay

3 years ago my wife came to me and told me about a new pair of shoes called Crocs. She said these shoes are going to be big. And like a good husband I listened to her. As it turned out, my wife predicted one of the biggest cultural, apparel, and marketing phenomenons of our time.

After she brought home a pair, I was hooked and that is how this blog started. On August 21st 2005 I registered littlerubbershoes.com and started this blog about Crocs. Little did I know that nearly 3 years later I would still be posting about these silly shoes, but here I am.

In January 2006, I posted about the pending Crocs stock IPO. Oh, if I only knew then what I now know today…

CROX Stock Price

You would think a guy inspired enough to create a fan blog devoted to a pair of rubber shoes would be inspired enough to purchase a couple of shares of their stock. Well if only that were the case.

$1000 dollars would have bought about 40 shares back in Feburary 2005. Today those 40 shares would be worth $3,647 or 3.6x return (Today’s Closing Price $91.18).

Well, since we are at it, let’s rub some more salt in my mis-calculation on how going about capitalizing on this priceless prediction by my wife by calculating the total opportunity cost/time for setting up and maintaining this littlerubbershoes.com blog:

5 hours – Blog setup and general maintenance

15 mins. – Time it takes to research and write the average blog post

132 – Blog posts.

$35 / hr. – My approx. salary hourly rate

$30 Domain Registration

$300 Web Hosting

(10 x (5+33 hours) x $35) + $30 + $300

$13,630 Total Opportunity Cost of Blog

Instead of taking 5 minutes to login to ETrade.com and to purchase CROX to make an easy 3.6x on a stock investment, I decided to spent $13,300 in opportunity cost by starting a fan blog. In addition to this, you might even consider that this blog (111,000 Unique Visitors in last 12 months) actually in a small way may have helped the stock price by furthering the Crocs brand value and spreading the Crocs message.

So, in summary…

My wife predicted Crocs would be BIG. Crocs are huge. Crocs are everywhere. Crocs are worth 3.64 Billion Dollars. Crocs stock is $91. And I have a Fan Site about rubber shoes. My wife still loves me, but wishes I would have gone the ETrade route.

All things considered… I have had fun with the site as this was my first blog. I have no regrets and I will probably continue to blog about Crocs. I have been able to get to know hundreds of fellow Croc Fans from around the world and helped spread the love for a truly great shoe that I wear every time I go work in the yard.

My Full Disclosures. I do not work for Crocs. I have never worked for Crocs. I have never met anyone who has worked for Crocs except I think an employee posted in our Crocs Forum. I have never recieved any free products from Crocs. I do not own any Crocs stock nor have I ever owned any Crocs stock. I don’t think I will ever own Crocs stock given the current price (unless the good folks at Crocs feel generous and want to thank one of their biggest supporters!). I do wish I had purchased Crocs stock back in early 2006.

Given all of that, I must say I have been able to pay for my blog expenses plus a little extra through the advertising on the site. Thank you to our advertisers Tillys.com and the other sponsors listed in the right column of the site..

If you have enjoyed littlerubbershoes.com over the past couple of years, let us know by leaving a comment, visiting our sponsors, bookmarking the site, subscribing to our RSS feed, and checkout Shop For Crocs where you can comparison shop for all styles of Crocs

More Crocs Bans

A school in the Boston area wants to ban Crocs from the school citing a safety concern. According to the news report school officials at the Thompson Elementary School in North Andover sent notes home with some of the children telling them to leave the “loose-fitting shoes” at home.

The school nurse reported an increase in injuries as a result of Crocs slipping off kids feet while on the playground. I am all for personal responsibility, and when it comes to children, parents need to make appropriate decisions about what their kids shouldn’t wear, but is this crossing the line. I’m not saying the school should or should not dictate what the kids can and cannot wear. I just think our society is a little too lawsuit happy and I just see this as the school district trying to cover themselves. I’m not saying the school does not have the best interest of the kids in mind, I just think we are becoming a bunch of wimps.

Leave us a comment and tell me your thoughts.

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