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Once-Trendy Crocs Could Be on Their Last Legs
Washington Post ^ | 7-16-09 | Ylan Q. Mui

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 ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; crocs; economy; fashion
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To: Clump

I have a pair of brown slides with turquise bows that I love. Off to Hallmark to buy another pair or two.


41 posted on 07/17/2009 9:45:42 AM PDT by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.... Obama even worse than Carter.)
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To: Justaham
Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler wore them. Your grandma wore them.

These days, Steve Tyler LOOKS like someone's grandma.


42 posted on 07/17/2009 9:46:47 AM PDT by SIDENET ("Join me or die. Can you do any less?" -Mr. Sparkle)
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To: Richard Kimball

Actually Crocs tried to expand, nobody bought their secondary products.


43 posted on 07/17/2009 9:48:38 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: EggsAckley
I just paid six bucks for mine. They’re practically giving them away.

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.

44 posted on 07/17/2009 9:50:04 AM PDT by Alex Murphy ("I always longed for repose and quiet" - John Calvin)
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To: Alex Murphy

Agreed. At six bucks I probably paid three times what the material costs were.

I still like them, though.


45 posted on 07/17/2009 9:54:17 AM PDT by EggsAckley (There's an Ethiopian in the fuel supply. W.C. Fields)
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To: rwfromkansas

Oh, yeah, they’re far better than flip-flops and serve pretty much the same function.


46 posted on 07/17/2009 9:58:20 AM PDT by Ramius (Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
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To: Justaham

No loss, i’ve never heard of them!


47 posted on 07/17/2009 9:58:53 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: Justaham

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.


48 posted on 07/17/2009 10:02:07 AM PDT by Darnright (There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive. - Tacitus)
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To: Justaham
Hmmm... I just bought another pair for my son last week at REI... will I have to stock up on them for my kids? They are really the best things for them in the summer and they last forever (his last pair lasted for over 2 years 'til he lost them!).
49 posted on 07/17/2009 10:16:14 AM PDT by AnnaZ (I keep 2 magnums in my desk.One's a gun and I keep it loaded.Other's a bottle and it keeps me loaded)
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To: Justaham
I own a pair of cammo frocs that I bought three years ago. Very ugly, but they serve many functions. I love them when I camp because I can slip them on and get out of the tent quick to start coffee and relieve myself. They are better on the beach and when boating. They wash off easy, and don't have straps like TEVAS, which hold sand and rip your skin to shreds. TEVAS also make my feet stink to high hell, even though they claim to use some antibacterial rubber. I have no stinkfoot problems with crocs.
50 posted on 07/17/2009 10:21:50 AM PDT by mickey finn
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To: Justaham

It was a hot IPO at one time.

51 posted on 07/17/2009 10:26:40 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: Justaham
Great at the beach, on the boat, at a campsite, in lieu of bedroom slippers, and if you have ever had plantar faciaitis or gout, they are the best things ever. I have the beach sandals and another sandal type pair (fit a little snugger and better for uneven surfaces) and they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn, far more comfortable than shoes costing 4 times as much. Durable, versatile, and practical.

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.

52 posted on 07/17/2009 10:27:29 AM PDT by TN4Liberty (The first amendment doesn't end with "...as long as nobody is offended.")
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To: La Lydia

They’re hideously ugly but they’re GREAT gardening shoes! :)


53 posted on 07/17/2009 10:36:00 AM PDT by SoKatt ("Change" is not a strategy!)
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To: retrokitten
Arnold was a movie character who came to life. In the movies, he always wore a red t shirt, blue jeans and brown boots. When he came to life, he looked in his closet, and there were about twenty pairs of blue jeans, twenty red t shirts, and twenty pairs of brown boots, and nothing else.

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.

54 posted on 07/17/2009 11:01:35 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: Richard Kimball
Doc Marten's survives

Doc Marten's also diversified. There must be 30 times as many Doc varieties as there were 20 years ago.

55 posted on 07/17/2009 11:08:07 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: rwfromkansas
My oldest daughter, the wild one, was one of the first to buy Doc Martens. At that time, the only place to buy them was at the counter-culture goth/emo shops. She wore them every day until the first time she saw Doc Martens for sale at the mall. She never wore them a day after that.

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.

56 posted on 07/17/2009 11:16:04 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: antiRepublicrat
No kidding. Check out the USA Doc Marten site:

http://www.dmusastore.com/c-1-mens.aspx

Not much of the storm trooper/Neo Nazi image there.

57 posted on 07/17/2009 11:20:29 AM PDT by Richard Kimball (We're all criminals. They just haven't figured out what some of us have done yet.)
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To: TN4Liberty

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.


58 posted on 07/17/2009 11:35:04 AM PDT by conservativegranny
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