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People Started Buying Crocs During the Pandemic. They Can’t Stop.
The New York Times
March 27, 2023
Like Peloton, Etsy and Zoom, Crocs saw its business boom during the early days of the
coronavirus pandemic. The company’s aesthetically questionable but easily slipped-on clogs
were the perfect footwear for Americans puttering around their homes, gardens and kitchens
during quarantine.
But while many people got off their exercise bikes, cut back on D.I.Y. arts projects and resumed
in-person meetings as a sense of normalcy returned to the world, they have kept their Crocs on.
Maggwa Ndugga of Raleigh, N.C., bought his first pair in 2020 and now has five. And he is
spreading his enthusiasm, giving his parents and sisters each a pair for Christmas.
“They’re not the most appealing things to look at,” Mr. Ndugga, 25, said, but they offer support
to his flat feet and can be worn whether he’s working at his standing desk at home, running
errands, hiking on the weekends or lifting weights.
“I roll into the gym with my Crocs on and everything, and people ask, ‘Aren’t you going to
change shoes?’” Mr. Ndugga said. “No, this is how I’m going to live life for now.”
Fans like Mr. Ndugga — along with celebrities like Questlove, who has been known to sport the
clogs at award shows — have helped Crocs emerge as a rarity in the business world. It is a
pandemic winner whose success might outlast pandemic shopping behavior.
The stock prices and sales of Peloton, Etsy and Zoom have dropped since their sharp rises in
the pandemic, but Crocs’ stock has soared 167 percent since January 2020. The company’s
annual sales have increased 200 percent since 2019.
At a recent conference in New York held by the wealth manager UBS, Andrew Rees, the chief
executive of Crocs, said he often heard from the investment community that “Crocs was a
pandemic beneficiary and it’s going to return to its norm.”
“There is very little chance of that happening, quite honestly,” Mr. Rees told a room of investors
and analysts.
Crocs said in November that it expected revenue from its namesake shoe line to reach more
than $5 billion in three years, a nearly 90 percent increase. It sees its adjusted operating
margin staying around 26 percent even as other consumer companies are feeling a squeeze in
their profits.
Of course, the company, which is based in Broomfield, Colo., might not reach these goals.
Fashion is notoriously fickle, and footwear is a category that relies on the popular apparel of
the moment, such as the latest jean cut.
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But the reason for the optimism, company executives and analysts say, is a steady stream of
new products and shrewd marketing, especially on social media, where Crocs has cultivated a
devoted customer base. It has 165,000 followers on Twitter and even more on TikTok
(920,600), Instagram (1.6 million) and Facebook (6.9 million).
Over the years, the brand has developed a distinctive online voice through its use of emojis
and memes, making shoppers feel that its aim is creating a community rather than just getting
people to buy more clogs.
The company is adept at seizing cultural moments, as it did when it tweeted about Questlove
wearing black Crocs on the Oscars’ champagne-colored carpet this month. And during the
pandemic, it drove customers to its mobile app with the promise of discounts, which it called
Appy Hours.
“It’s not like people haven’t heard of using social media to create brand awareness and brand
relevance, but this management team is just doing it better,” Jay Sole, a retail analyst at UBS,
said.
Crocs has steadily become more popular among Generation Z shoppers, a coveted
demographic for any retail brand. In the fall, teenagers ranked Crocs No. 5 on a list of footwear
brands, according to a biannual Piper Sandler survey. In 2017, it was No. 38. Hey Dude also
cracked the top 10 in the most recent survey.
The more obsessive customers collect Crocs, which often sell for $49.99; it’s not uncommon for
someone to have a dozen pairs or more.
Adreanna Alleyne, who has at least 60 pairs, is the kind of loyal customer Crocs is counting on
to spur future growth. Her 8-year-old son is now hooked, too. He owns 20 pairs and recently
received a pair from his father, who lives in Kuwait. (Ms. Alleyne and her son have a long way to
go before catching up to Doogie Lish Sandtiger, whose 2,100 pairs of Crocs are reputed to be
the most.)
This type of customer loyalty is cost-efficient because a company has to spend more money
and time on marketing to win over a new shopper.
“The chance of them buying another one is high,” Mr. Sole said of customers who buy into
Crocs’ community aspect. “That means you don’t have to remarket to them.”
Crocs’ sandal business had $310 million in sales in 2022, and the company is projecting $400
million this year. Mr. Rees says he and his team have more work to do overseas, noting that
sandals are a $30 billion global category. They hope to increase sales in India and countries
throughout Southeast Asia, where many people wear sandals year-round. Currently, North
America accounts for 60 percent of all sales for the Crocs brand.
Hey Dude has its own devoted following. On average, a typical customer owns four pairs of its
shoes. The brand has expanded under Crocs by tapping into the company’s marketing
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resources and relationships with national retailers. It is on track to reach $1 billion in sales this
year.
Crocs faces the risk that the cultural winds can shift away from them. Customers could start
falling in love with another type of shoe. But analysts say its management team has shown that
it can pinpoint consumer behavior and use those insights to sell even more shoes that
customers like.
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READING COMPREHENSION
1. Why does the writer describe Crocs as “aesthetically questionable”?
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2. Why did Crocs become popular during the pandemic?
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3. Why is it difficult for a fashion company to be continuously successful?
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4. How has Crocs used social media to keep its sales high?
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5. Summarize the article.
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WORD LIST
1. Aesthetically: in a beautiful or artistic way
2. Appealing: attractive or interesting
3. Emerge: to appear by coming out of something or out from behind something
4. Rarity: something that is very unusual
5. Outlast: to live or to stay energetic and determined, longer than another person or thing
6. Soar: to rise very quickly to a high level
7. Beneficiary: a person or group who receives money, advantages, etc.
8. Namesake: a person or thing having the same name as another person or thing
9. Margin: the profit made on a product or service
10. Revenue: the income that a government or company receives regularly
11. Notorious: famous for something bad
12. Fickle: likely to change your opinion or your feelings suddenly and without a good reason
13. Apparel: clothes being sold in a shop
14. Shrewd: having or based on a clear understanding and good judgment of a situation,
resulting in an advantage
15. Optimism: the quality of being full of hope and emphasizing the good parts of a situation, or
a belief that something good will happen
16. Cultivate: to try to develop and improve something
17. Devote: to give all of something, especially your time, effort, or love, or yourself, to
something you believe in or to a person
18. Distinctive: easy to recognize because it is different from other things
19. Adept: having a natural ability to do something that needs skill
20. Seize: to take something quickly and keep or hold it
21. Coveted: strongly desired by many
22. Biannual: happening twice a year
23. Obsessive: unable to stop thinking about something; too interested in or worried about
something
24. Spur: to encourage an activity or development or make it happen faster
25. Reputed: famous
26. Cost-efficient: providing good value for the amount of money something costs
27. Project: to calculate an amount or number expected in the future from information already
known
28. Pinpoint: to discover or describe the exact facts about something
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WORD PRACTICE
Aesthetically
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Appealing
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Emerge
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Outlast
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Soar
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Notorious
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Optimism
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Cultivate
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Devote
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Distinctive
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Adept
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Seize
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Coveted
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S[ir
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Reputed
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Project
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Pinpoint
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