Crocs slip on a new design

The Future. Crocs selected respected designer Salehe Bembury to create a new design for the brand — the first time the company has ever let someone update its clog. The fresh design could fulfill Crocs’ ambition to expand its brand and capture the sneakerheads driving shoe sales through the roof these days.

Updated comfort
Crocs hope to mold a new classic.

• According to Fast Company, the company has partnered with Salehe Bembury — who has made sneakers for Yeezy, New Balance, and Versace — on a brand new version of its injected-molded foam clogs.
• Bembury called the original Crocs clog “an iconic silhouette,” of which there are “only about 10 iconic silhouettes [in all of shoes].” So his challenge was to build on top of that and create something “polarizing.”
• The resulting shoe is closer in shape to a sneaker and looks like something out of David Cronenberg’s sci-fi classic, eXistenZ.
• The mold even includes Bembury’s fingerprint in three places (which he jokes will probably get him implicated in a crime in the future).

The Salehe Bembury x Crocs Pollex Clog runs $85 and will be out on December 14.

Stepping it up
The Pollex Clog is admittedly made for the hypebeasts. Crocs president Michelle Poole said that the company doesn’t have an “awareness problem” but a “relevance issue.” Everyone knows Crocs, but now the company wants to convince more people to wear Crocs. Bembury’s resume makes him a great fit to reach that goal.

But love them or hate them, Crocs are having a hot moment. Sales were flat-footed for a decade but jumped in 2019 and 2020. And this year is proving to be just as successful, with the company reporting growth around 65%.

I’d like to think it’s all because of the ranch dressing clogs the brand made in collaboration with Hidden Valley Ranch. Now that’s some drip.