I hate to say it, but it's time we all embraced Crocs shoes

A mum has insisted it's time we finally accept the obsession with the bright, plastic, holey shoes our kids love so much. Yes, that means adults too!

Shona Hendley

3 min read

November 10, 2023 - 12:18PM

Lifestyle

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When I saw recent pics of Aussie actress, Margot Robbie in Perth this week, I envied her seemingly casual, yet simultaneously glamourous style.

There was the white linen dress and matching sneakers at Cottesloe Beach one day, and then at a bar to promote her gin brand, Papa Salt, donning black flared pants, a Prada tee, and bright yellow Crocs the next.

Wait. What? Did I just say Crocs and enviable style in the same sentence? Well technically no, I didn’t but it seems that it might be time that I do because, in another blow for 2023, all fashion signs point to ugly shoes being the must-have footwear trend.

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Is it time we all embraced Crocs? Image: iStock

Crocs have become "cool"

Now, I am no fashionista but for a good decade or so, or however long Crocs have been in existence, I can't say I have ever been a fan.

Not only are they just outright ugly, but they don’t seem like they’d be that comfortable (I think it’s the chunkiness) and Aussies are thong wearers, why are we adding this hideous option to a nearly perfect item of footwear? And why on earth are legitimate fashionistas (yes, you Margot) behaving as if they are cool?

But it’s not just her Robbie flaunting around wearing her designer wear and Croc combo Justin Bieber, Drew Barrymore, Diplo, Bad Bunny and even supermodel, Heidi Klum have embraced the Croc trend too.

These are all high-profile people who are very aware that they could be snapped by paparazzi at any time, choosing, perhaps even due to the suggestion of an actual stylist, to wear these shoes, in public.

While I can't say too much about Justin Bieber’s fashion decisions, I have always appreciated Drew Barrymore’s and Heidi Klum’s which leads me to a very jarring conclusion: I may, we all may, wow this is hard to write… have to embrace Crocs!

Crocs are everywhere!

Now I could blame these celebrities for getting Crocs out there in the public sphere and subconsciously influencing the general population of shoe buyers, but it seems that the main cause isn’t one individual, instead, like many sh*t things in the world right now, Crocs’ surge in popularity was too generated by the pandemic.

According to the New York Times stock prices have soared 167 per cent since January 2020 and their sales have increased by 200 per cent since 2019; in 2023, the shoemaker shared with its investors that revenue in the Asia-Pacific region had increased more than 30 per cent, with Australia leading the pack.

And they aren’t just on the feet of casual pool goers, they are everywhere, marketed for everyone and for every occasion. Along with the original clogs, there are slip-ons, workwear, and even boots. Boots with holes. Yes.

While I can't say that I have owned or will ever own (even if I am forced to accept the trend) Crocs, I have had to attempt to stop judging people for wearing them.

While I used to once whisper to my husband, a disparaging comment about a Croc-wearing individual who dared to wear the shoe outside of a pool deck or beach, I now just judge them internally. And that my friends, has been hard.

Crocs are convenient for little ones who want to get their feet wet. Image: iStock

Ugly shoes are not just for kids

But it isn’t just Crocs. Birkenstocks and ballet flats are also having a moment. And now with little ugly shoe reprieve, this makes the Croc trend even harder to grapple with and my disdain even harder to internalise

The ugly shoe trend has become so extreme that now we are even accessorising them. Yes, I am referring to another horrendous trend, the Croc charm, AKA Jibbitz.

While at my daughter’s swimming competition a few weeks ago, I noticed that it wasn’t the younger kids who were flaunting their Crocs and abundance of Jibbitz adorning their nearly every rubbery hole, but teens, the age group that had once been a leader of the style charge.

To be honest, it was at this moment that I really knew I had a problem, that the popularity of Crocs had run as rampant as COVID-19 and that it was time for me to come to terms with it. And now it would seem with Barbie herself embracing Crocs, that the writing is very clearly on the wall: ugly shoes are in, common sense is out and all of us are going to have to embrace it, or if you’re like me, never look at another person’s shoes ever again.