Name: How Crocs Became An Unlikely Billion-Dollar Brand
Uploaded: 2021-05-27T06:14:33.000Z
Duration: 11 min 16 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

And a lot of people think they're really ugly.

People who love to hate Crocs had cause to celebrate in 2008 when

investors were writing the company off as a passing fad.

Crocs lost over $185 million that year and cut about 2,000 jobs.

The stock plunged to just over $1 a share from a high of about $69 a year

earlier. But over the next decade, Crocs would go on to sell over 700

Recently, the clogs have been strutting down runways at luxury fashion

shows. Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Post Malone are

It's a top brand among Gen Z, and limited edition Crocs are selling for

hundreds of dollars on the resale market.

20 pairs of Crocs, five shirts, and my laptop is filled with Crocs

stickers. Here's how Crocs came back from the dead and turned a widely

Crocs start at about $35 and were originally designed as a comfortable

shoe for boating. Three friends - Scott Seamans, George Boedecker and

Lyndon Hanson - came up with the idea while sailing in the Caribbean.

Seamans was wearing a slip and odor resistant clog made by a Canadian

Boedecker and Hanson thought they were ugly but were sold on their

functionality. They licensed Foam Creations' foam resin technology, called

Crocs later acquired Foam Creations in 2004.

The shoes debuted at the 2002 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and

Annual revenue jumped from $24,000 in 2002 to over $108 million in 2005.

In 2006, Crocs raised over $200 million in its IPO, the biggest in shoe

history. In 2007, Crocs had its most profitable year in business, raking

The stock hit its all time high of about $69 a share.

It was growing strong, strong double digits.

In some quarters it was growing triple digits.

So it was one of the hottest growth stocks.

People, people bought into it. I'm about to try Crocs on for the first

time in my life, something I've avoided so far because they're so ugly.

These are actually so lightweight and comfortable, I feel like I'm not

It's no wonder parents, kids, hospital and restaurant workers sought them

But their distinct style evoked strong feelings.

The public, it seemed, either loved or hated them.

When I first saw Crocs, I actually did vehemently hate them.

Like I thought they were just completely ugly.

I was like, what excuse does anyone have for wearing these ugly shoes?

Tyson-Tshitundo was working on a food truck one summer and their feet were

So they set their pride aside and bought a pair of Crocs.

The shoes were so comfortable, they started wearing them to work, class,

I'm here in a pair of Crocs and I'm having a blast because I'm not anxious

When I show up somewhere in Crocs, it is very evident that I'm not too

concerned with any social hierarchy that's going on.

Because of its vocal community of haters, Crocs have unwittingly become a

What the clogs have come to represent has played a large role in the

To Tyson-Tshitundo, wearing crocs is a symbol of embracing their

individuality rather than conforming to conventional ideals about fashion

and beauty, something they struggled with growing up.

It did come from a place of ignorance, my like deep hatred of Crocs,

because I was like, they're different and they're ugly.

So I hate them. But by 2008, many had condemned Crocs as a passing fad.

The company had to somehow convince a wider audience that its shoes

weren't just about function, but about fashion and that it's fashionable

But the company took some wrong turns along the way.

And by 2008, the bear outlook on Crocs was gaining steam.

Back in 2007 and 2008, when the brand had hit its peak, it really was

It was something that we heard very commonly from investors - that Crocs

To keep up with demand, the company grew in an unruly fashion.

It expanded into too many product lines, distribution channels and markets

The company had expanded into over 5,000 SKUs and was saddled with excess

inventory. Crocs of all kinds weren't selling.

They grew very fast, but it was not sustainable.

They had over two years of inventory that they had to work through.

Experts say Crocs fell into a common pitfall for young companies - trying

Over the next several years, Crocs worked on narrowing its focus.

We need to focus from a product perspective, really get focused back on

our core molded heritage, get focused on some new key product lines that

we're bringing to market. We need to get focused geographically.

As you said, we're extended into about 90 countries across the globe.

The company closed underperforming stores, cleaned up its distribution

network, reduced overhead and cut its product offerings by about 80

percent. And it doubled down on what the company is known for.

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How Crocs Became An Unlikely Billion-Dollar Brand

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