These days, Steve Tyler LOOKS like someone's grandma.
Posted on 07/17/2009 9:17:07 AM PDT by Justaham
Crocs were born of the economic boom.
The colorful foam clogs appeared in 2002, just as the country was recovering from a recession. Brash and bright, they were a cheap investment (about $30) that felt good and promised to last forever. Former president George W. Bush wore them. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler wore them. Your grandma wore them. They roared along with the economy, mocked by the fashion world but selling 100 million pairs in seven years.
Then the boom times went bust, and Crocs went to the back of the closet.
The company had expanded to meet demand, but financially pressed customers cut back. Last year the company lost $185.1 million, slashed roughly 2,000 jobs and scrambled to find money to pay down millions in debt. Now it's stuck with a surplus of shoes, and its auditors have wondered if it can stay afloat. It has until the end of September to pay off its debt.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I have a pair of brown slides with turquise bows that I love. Off to Hallmark to buy another pair or two.
These days, Steve Tyler LOOKS like someone's grandma.
Actually Crocs tried to expand, nobody bought their secondary products.
You overpaid. The genius of Crocs is that they have almost zero labor involved in making them. It's a shoe that's made via injection molding - essentially, you squirt foamed goo into a mold and bake until cured. I have a Dilbert squishy figure on my desk that costs less than a pair of Crocs, and it's made by the same process.
Any factory capable of doing automated injection molding can make Crocs - all they need is the right goo and a set of molds. In terms of production costs, there's no reason that Crocs should command standard footwear prices. Fashion and novelty were the only real price drivers.
Agreed. At six bucks I probably paid three times what the material costs were.
I still like them, though.
Oh, yeah, they’re far better than flip-flops and serve pretty much the same function.
No loss, i’ve never heard of them!
They may not be trendy anymore, but the CrocsRX ones do have a place in society:
http://www.orthoticshop.com/blog/crocs-rx-versus-crocs-retail/
I’ve got friends who are diabetic who wear the things all of the time.
It was a hot IPO at one time.
I think all these people who are blowing them off because of the looks or because they are no longer in vogue are secretly slaves to fashion themselves, although they would never admit it.
They’re hideously ugly but they’re GREAT gardening shoes! :)
Converse is part of Nike now, and diversifying it's product line. I think the thing about Converse is that it's a very functional product. I grew up wearing them.
If it wasn't for the fact that I don't want to look stupid, I'd still wear them. They're a kid's product, and I'm not a kid anymore.
Doc Marten's also diversified. There must be 30 times as many Doc varieties as there were 20 years ago.
I think the Crocs were slightly different than Doc Martens, as the Doc Martens primary appeal was their counter culture attitude. As such, people in the mall were good candidates for Crocs, but not for Doc Martens.
The Doc Martens were originally popularized by the skinheads because they resembled the boots Nazis wore in WWII. I know a lot of the kids were convinced that Doc Martens was the company that made the Nazi boots. That's untrue, although the founder of Doc Martens, Dr. Klaus Maertens, was a Nazi in WWII.
http://www.dmusastore.com/c-1-mens.aspx
Not much of the storm trooper/Neo Nazi image there.
I purchased my first pair to use for gardening clogs. They were easy to hose off when muddy. When I developed plantar facilitis I discovered how comfortable they were. But I thought they were too ugly to wear aside from gardening and taking out the trash.
I did order a pair of their flip flops to wear after I had toe surgery and they were very comfortable. People with PF are not supposed to wear flip flops but these were much more substantial than the cheap pairs you find at Walmart and at the time I couldn’t wear regular shoes.
I am going to check out the footwear catalogs and see if they are at clearance prices and pick up another pair or two.
I have a feeling that you will still be able to buy knockoffs.
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