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Crocs’ Popularity Has Outlasted the Pandemic

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,” Ndugga, 25, said, but they 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?’” Ndugga said. “No, this is how I’m going to live life for now.”

Fans like 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, 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,” Rees told a room of investors and analysts.

Last month, after announcing that quarterly sales rose 61 percent, Crocs said it anticipated another record year of growth. 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).

“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 Gen Z shoppers. In the fall, teens ranked Crocs No. 5 on a list of footwear brands. In 2017, it was No. 38.

Adreanna Alleyne, who has at least 60 pairs, is the kind of customer Crocs is counting on. She likes the look of the sandals and the wedges, is active in a Crocs Facebook fan page and sees the brand as a way to connect with others.

“My Crocs are part of my self-care,” said Alleyne, 33, of Roanoke, Va. “I’m not going to give up my therapy because the economy is going to crap. You go in for the shoe, but you stay for the community.”

BUSINESS

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2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://timesdigest.pressreader.com/article/281522230342440

New York Times