[imagesource: CrocsSA]

Crocs. You either love them or hate them.

They have become the Kardashians of the footwear industry, and much like the dysfunctional TV family, they just won’t go away.

Originally developed in 2001 as a boating shoe, their popularity with young kids and tie-dye-wearing trancies has only grown in the last two decades.

Thanks to a confused GenZ market, and some bizarre collaborations, the company has now reported revenue for 2022 to be at $3,55 billion.

That’s a shitload of foamy brightness.

According to an Insider article, these record profits have been boosted by the company’s acquisition of Hey Dude Footwear in 2021.

Hey Dude is extremely popular among GenZ customers, and with a third of their record profits coming from the sale of these shoes, Crocs have managed to sneak their way into the closets and feet of even the harshest Croc critics:

“The Hey Dude acquisition, we’ve been thrilled with that. It has been a lot of work, as I’m sure many of you can appreciate, in terms of integrating that company into the Crocs company, but it continues to outperform in terms of its growth.”

Crocs CEO, Andrew Rees, attributes much of the popularity to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns that created a shift toward more comfortable, and less image-conscious clothing and footwear.

This writer is not a fan of either Crocs or the Kardashians, but I have to admit that both have crossed the ‘trend threshold’ to become a permanent part of our culture.

Even our Editor-in-Chief, Seth Rotherham, was recently spotted wearing a pair of rainbow-coloured Crocs at Cafe Du Cap in the leafy suburb of Newlands.

When confronted about this betrayal of cool, he merely said: “F%@$ off, they’re comfy.”

The Crocs claim another victim.

[source:businessinsider]