Leslie Hamilton
If you are under the impression that Crocs are not a relevant, sensible, versatile, and slightly fashionable shoe choice in today’s climate, you are sorely mistaken and frankly, are missing out on an earth shattering experience. Crocs are not just meant for babies at the beach or pool, elderly women gardening, or a mere, short-lived and “regrettable” fashion trend from your elementary school days, Crocs are meant for anyone at anytime. Crocs do not discriminate. You can even customize your Crocs. Crocs will forever be a relevant, sensible, versatile, and slightly fashionable shoe choice. I say this under the pretense that when I reference to Crocs, it is more so the company itself as a shoe manufacturer making many different styles of footwear, most of which are made out of the signature foam material. For the purpose of this article, I am excluding all styles that they manufacture that do not include their signature foam in some manner; mainly, because I have little interest footwear that is attractive or typical by societal standards and the company is more universally known by their foam styles. Nevertheless, Crocs offer a little something for everyone, each style giving the consumer comfort and reflection of their personality; however, the Croc clog is everything you could ever want.
First of all, you cannot talk about Crocs without talking about their classic foam clog. This is their most famous shoe to date. Regardless of how small and select the adult Croc-clog-wearing population is in the United States, I can assure you that the popularity of this shoe is more widespread and popular in other countries. For example, Guatemala absolutely loves the Croc clog, where you can see many knock-offs and/or inspired versions of Crocs being sold in stores and markets or even the real thing. Thailand is all about this comfortable and sensible shoe, so much that when I was in Chiang Mai, I saw a biker gang with their customized leather MC jackets standing outside their bar-slash-tattoo parlor hybrid, smoking cigarettes by their bikes, sporting this aerodynamic foam clog. I specifically remember one wearing yellow Crocs, it was the cutest and most confusing thing that I have ever seen, given my own mental associations with Crocs. This biker gang broke all logic and knowledge about human behavior and expectations that I had - my brain imploded. Frankly, it shocked me that the Croc clog was so popular everywhere except the country that I reside in. It is rather unfortunate that in the United States, the general standard is that Croc clog ownership is limited to: babies; young children, many of which are now adults, ashamed by their possession, having deserted or hidden their clogs in the back of their closet, where you may find gauchos and any other so called “regrettable fashion choice from your elementary school days”; and lastly, geriatric gardeners. Despite societal expectations and judgement when wearing this casual and sporty-chic clog that makes my feet sweat like no other, I stick it out and stand with my follow foam cloggers. What it comes down to is that the Croc community needs more allies, it is as simple as that. One should not be ashamed by their choice of footwear, although some of the jokes are very funny.
Although many find themselves either shamed or praised for their bravery in sporting this foamy shoe in public, not to mention that some research has brought forth concern for a podiatric hazard associated with frequent use, it is hard to say that any other shoe offers such an accurate reflection of someone’s personality and customization to further personify it. The shoe itself. says, “I am practical, ‘athletic and outdoorsy?’ (the kind of athleticism and outdoorsmanship that is selective and questionable if it counts) and appreciate comfort over everything, all while hinting at my personal disregard toward public opinion of me.” It is important to note that this almost solely applies to the adult foam-clog-wearing population that does not fall into the categories of a geriatric gardener or a child of some sort. If you are a child wearing this style of Croc, you are: a. at the pool, beach or lake, b. like the shoe, c. had no choice in the matter as your mother does not trust you to dress yourself, or d. it was an easy shoe to throw on last minute. The geriatric gardener population is pretty self explanatory and thus does not need to be further defined beyond the obvious, the owner is old and enjoys tending to their garden. As far as being able to further reflect your likes, dislikes and general personality goes, those little holes on the face of the clog are essential to this sort of self-expression. There are endless combinations of Croc charms designed specifically to decorate and customize your shoe. Not only do you have free reign of charms to decorate your clog, adding a little spice to your foam, winter-esque clogs are also available with removable (in more recent models) ralen-lined, fuzzy inserts. Talk about having the comfort of warm feet and being able to wear your Croc clogs well into late fall and winter.
In the end, Crocs are not for everyone, but still remains to be an expressive and comfortable shoe - a perfect knock around shoe, if you will. Embrace the lifestyle that is the Croc clog, what is the worst that could happen? Podiatry problems? Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for fashion and that is a sacrifice that myself and other Croc clog enthusiasts are willing to make.
