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Teddy Allen: They Have the Hots For Crocs
Shreveport Times, Jul 15, 2006
The Crocs Situation …
It must be addressed. Too many people with feet are walking around in holey rubber-looking, clog-like shoes dyed every color of the rainbow, and then some.
To ignore it would be like ignoring Grandpa drunk and shirtless and speaking in slurred pig Latin every night at the supper table. “Ass-pay hem-tay (hic) aters-tay, lease-pay!”
It would be unhealthy to pretend it’s not there. And Crocs, those “shoes” running rampant across our planet’s terrain, are definitely there, here and everywhere.
To put it bluntly, America has stepped in something. And that something is a big pile of Crocs.
You have seen the Crocs. Everywhere you step, they’re stepping. Or being stepped in. First introduced four years ago this month by three Colorado entrepreneurs as a slip-resistant outdoor shoe that wouldn’t mark up rich people’s boats, Crocs now come in about a dozen styles and 20 colors, cost between $20 and $60, and apparently have more fans than The Rolling Stones, Elvis, The Beatles and chocolate. Not bad for a clothing item that looks as if it were designed by Fred Flintstone.
Fad? I think not. A pet rock is a fad. Feathers in cowboy hats. Arsenio Hall. Those are fads. Crocs seem on the fast track to becoming a foot staple, much like toes.
How bad has it gotten? One of my obstetrician friends tells me a baby was born last Tuesday in Natchitoches wearing a pair. I think he said they were lime green.
I am not a sandal person. I grew up in a nonsandal-wearing town where people wore work shoes or work boots and took them off only long enough to either bathe or be baptized. Had I grown up in Biblical times, I’d have been the only one walking through the olive grove in Nikes.
But I’m not so proud as to withhold credit where credit is due. Testimonies are legion. Nurses wear them. Construction workers, after hours. Grandma and Grandpa. Tiny kids. This is a shoe that is quickly stepping over all socioeconomic (is that a word?), racial, ethnic and gender boundaries. No hemisphere I know is safe: I’ve found on the Web a Crocs feature story in a paper in South Africa. My guess is even as we speak, an Eskimo is cleaning whale blubber off his pair of lavender “beach” Crocs. For all I know, a Croc is wearing a pair, (or, I suppose, he’d need two pair, but you get my point. It’s a popular shoe).
Technically, I understand Crocs are made out of a resin that “softens with body heat” to take on the shape of your foot. They can be bleached and not fade, are easily washable to cut down on odor, have holes that allow for ventilation and a versatile strap that allows the wearer to go either true shoe or slip-on. Your hip Croc disciples often swap straps for a multi-colored look, giving them a shoe in school colors or in the colors of their favorite punk rocker’s hair.
I don’t know if I’ll join ‘em, but I know I can’t beat ‘em. Who can beat happy feet? It’s the champ shoe of the year, undefeeted. Though why we’re surprised with Crocs’ success, I really don’t know. People pay a lot of money for new jeans and shirts with holes in them. It was only a matter of time before the same thing happened with shoes.
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