Crocs

About

Crocs is a shoe manufacturing company known for their signature brand of foam clogs, which were widely mocked for being tacky and unfashionable after a rise in popularity in 2006.

Origin

In 2002, Crocs displayed their first model of foam clogs at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show in Florida. In 2004, the company Foam Creations was acquired by Crocs for the rights to the foam resin Croslite. In August 2006,The Washington Post^[4] published an article about the growing popularity of Crocs shoes, noting "they've spread like vermin" and that "lots of folks find them hideous." By 2007, the company was selling 50 million pairs of foam clogs per year.^[11]

Spread

In January 2007, the blog I Hate Crocs^[6] was created, which describes itself as being "dedicated to the elimination of Crocs and those who think that their excuses for wearing them are viable." On April 21st, 2009, the Facebook^[5] page "I Don't Care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like a Dumbass" was created, which gained over 1.3 million likes over the next seven years. On October 1st, 2012, Redditor Dompkins posted a screenshot of a joke posted on Facebook mocking Crocs shoes to /r/funny^[7] (shown below).

On April 29th, 2013, Redditor Yoshikabuterimon posted a multi-panel image in which a man describes Crocs as "the universal symbol of a man who has given up hope" to /r/funny^[9] (shown below, left). On September 28th, 2014, Redditor mrroseeffect submitted a photograph of Crocs visors to /r/funny, where it received upwards of 3,600 votes (90% upvoted) prior to being archived (shown below).

In April 2014, Tumblr^[3] user stillslydgn posted a picture of a pair of Crocs wrapped in chains, which gathered upwards of 300,000 notes in the next two years (shown below, left). On June 1st, 2015, Redditor ThatOneChappy submitted a post titled "Why do people hate Crocs?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop,^[10] to which the highest-voted comment replied "The general consensus seems to be that they look utterly horrendous." On January 21st, 2016, Redditor Dectonic uploaded a photograph of several pairs of Crocs floating in a pond next to a "beware of crocs" sign (shown below, right). In 72 hours, the post garnered more than 1,400 votes on /r/funny^[8] (91% upvoted).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References