Dying Fads: Crocs

It’s funny how new fads pop up, and become the benchmark for how hip, cool, or different a person is.

Usually in fashion a fad comes out, it costs an arm an a leg to get into, and it slowly gets duplicated into a cheap knock off, and then it’s dead. However you still have the people that initially sunk so much money into it when it was new and exciting, so they try to keep the fad going.  It’s a funny cycle.

I have been caught up before in fads, and got a lot wiser when it came to that game.

I remember in the mid/late 80’s when it was all about bright neon everything.  Pants, sunglasses, fanny packs, etc. The 90’s brought you brightly colored pants, shirts, and shoes, like Champions and Patrick Ewings.  Not to forget all those other 80/90’s fad like box haircuts, jheri curls, long glam hair on guys, shoulder pads, doc martins and etc.

What notable fashion fad came out of the mid millennium? Crocs.

Yes, Crocs.

Fashion statement? No. Fashionable? No. Cool? No.  Basically it’s hard to justify wearing Crocs. I have heard they are comfortable, but then again, so are fluffy bunny slippers, and either way you go, they both look bad. Is comfort the new fashion statement?

It’s not like you’re going to go out and see models, hipsters, rappers, and wannabe executives in Crocs. You’re seeing soccer moms, lazy people, stay at home dads, hippies, loungers, and old people in them. Does that make them fashionable? No.  I don’t know how you would find these people fashionable enough to want to be like them.

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It’s funny though how we stereotype though fads though.  Funny enough usually we’re right. A big fad of 2 years ago that is dying to hold on is Ed Hardy stuff.  Ed Hardy came out with some clothes that usually had some tattoo inspired designs on them and they were quickly snapped up by a lot of douchy celebrities and muscians.  It didn’t take long for every wanna be douche to run out and try to emulate this style. Soon you had people running out to buy Ed Hardy shirts, get tattoos, buy fake diamonds, wear sideways hats and get a coke habit.  You’d go to a fancy club, and you’d see dozens of douche clones running around trying to be that “Ed Hardy Guy”.  Unfortunately, as the style progressed, everyone was duplicating it, and Ed Hardy licensed the brand out to everyone.  Now you can find Ed Hardy mugs, lighters, rugs, pencils, knapsacks, placemats, etc.

While the Ed Hardy fad is holding on to it’s last few minutes of popularity, Crocs has been been holding on to it’s last few seconds for a few years. It’s funny to see the stock (CROX) going up though, because it seems that their sales are flat and Crocs have all but disappeared from the mainstream.  A few years back you would see kids with their yuppie parents all in Crocs, but now, where are the Crocs?

If you walk around Chinatown, you will see $5 knock off Crocs that are even having a hard time selling.

How long do Crocs have before they are just a distant memory?  Well Crocs has released a whole bunch of different type of Crocs shoes now, and has opened a bunch of stores.  Will it help? Probably not. Look for Crocs stores closing for good at a mall near you.