Rarely has an item of apparel so divided the public into lovers and haters, but this seemingly innocuous and childish footwear does exactly that. It is a bit like Marmite in that respect – you either love it or hate it, but there is no middle ground.
Crocs started life at sea as a deck shoe – hence the holes and the non-slip soles. Their genesis is a business fairytale: in July, 2002 three men on a Caribbean sailing trip fantasised about a pair of shoes that were slip-proof, waterproof, comfortable, fun, smell-free and didn’t leave marks. So they decided to make them.
Following their initial success with boat users, hospital workers adopted Crocs because they could be easily sterilised, and by those in the catering industry and other professions who were on their feet all day because of their comfort. Crocs’ rise to fame was somewhat meteoric, relying as it did on word of mouth alone in the early days. By 2007, Crocs reached their ‘tipping point’ and were a fashion craze and their presence on the high street became ubiquitous.
Sadly, Crocs became the victim of their own success and brand awareness. With the world market swamped by replica copies the durability of the popular multi-coloured Crocs clog shoes has come back to bite them with losses reaching $30.3 million (£18.1 million) compared with a net profit of $2.1 million a year ago.
Analysts claim the long-lasting quality of the foam footwear, combined with the economic downturn, has hit sales. A failure to diversify beyond the original shoe design has also been blamed.
The results are better than the huge downturn in sales many had expected, but revenue at Crocs, a US company, still fell by 11 per cent to $197.7 million (£118.2 million) in the second quarter of 2009.
Written on Mon Aug 09 · Tagged: brand awareness, crocs
