[iLoveOncall]

Crocs became popular recently but for a decade or so you would be made fun of by ANYONE if you wore them.

It seems that the company survived long enough for them to become popular, but that's not the case with a lot of products (Google Glasses is an example I have in mind).

Having a great product at the wrong time is having a bad product.

[wyre]

Crocs became fashionable shortly after they released a $1200 collaboration with fashion house Balenciaga, but there is also high correlation with the popularity of crocs and the proliferation of chunky sneakers and silhouettes. Fashion is cyclical and Crocs were able to create an iconic and affordable product and lasted long enough for the fashion cycle to reach them.

Interestingly, Balenciaga released a collaboration with Vibram Five-Fingers and to little surprise toe shoes are still unfashionable (although more acceptable now than when I wore a pair a decade ago I think).

[Karrot_Kream]

Not just that but they leaned into their Jibbitz acquisition and emphasized how customizable Crocs are. Most of my millenial cohort uses Crocs as comfy, functional shoes, but I've seen a lot of Gen-Z who go out of their way to customize their Crocs and make them stylish. I have to admit I catch myself wondering whether I should customize my own Crocs.

Also +1 on the chunky sneaker/silhouttes trend. Crocs with stylish charms on them look a lot like the chunky sneakers that are pretty "in" these days.

[LarryMullins]

> Crocs became popular recently but for a decade or so you would be made fun of by ANYONE if you wore them.

I believe they were selling like hotcakes that entire time. Popular but unfashionable, like cargo shorts.

[atdrummond]

Company almost went under for a time: https://socialfactor.com/blog/how-crocs-came-back-from-the-b...

[asdff]

From what I remember it was either kids who were too young to pick out their own clothes who had them, and then also adults who stopped caring about what their clothes looked like. If you were in the age between those two points in life, you avoided them like the plague. My thesis is that these young kids simply grew up continuing to wear crocs, now they are in their early 20s and the marketing focus is on them now.

[teawrecks]

Something tells me you've been defending your foot fashion choices for a long while now ;)

[LarryMullins]

Hah, no. But I do confess to once owning cargo shorts..

[klondike_]

I have seen crocs used as standard footwear for inmates in US prisons. I'm sure the institutional market was keeping them alive for a while.

[cglace]

Crocs were popular when I was in high school (early 2000s). Of course, you wouldn't consider them fashionable back then, but many wore them.