While Crocs is known for its Classic Clog shoes, the company continues to bolster its category expansion strategy.
“We really want to focus on winning with more consumers,” Lucy Thornley, Crocs’ VP of global trends, design and product, told FN at a recent Crocs event in New York. She noted that sandals and closed-heel styles remain a priority. “We’re thinking about winning with bold expression in terms of the form, everything has to have inherent comfort, and of course, we really want to enable self expression.”
Part of that, for example, is offering customers year-round Cozzzy sandals.
“The reality is that the consumer is deciding when they wear these products. So something that we might say is more for Fall/Winter, because it’s got a liner, that just enables self expression,” said Thornley. “We want to make sure that we’re providing those options.”
Other important factors for Crocs product is color and height. The Classic Mega Crush Clog and the Crush sandal are popular among fashion-forward consumers, seen in variety of colors and components. These extra details offer Crocs the ability to elevate the product outside of its core line, the exec said. Plus, there’s the new Brooklyn collection that is a further departure from Crocs classics. Here, consumers will find ’90s aesthetics in platform slides with molded crocodile texture on uppers, as well as in its Glossy Fisherman sandals, which adds some modernity to the popular jelly shoes of that era.
Crocs is also investing more into the recovery space with the new Mellow collection. The sandals here can be seen in slide and flip-flop form with deep, cupped footbeds. Notably, Jibbetz hole are missing and that was purposeful, said Thornley. “As we think about extending our sandal collection, we know sandals is just such a big market with so many different consumers. Some people might not want that aesthetic. Here we wanted to focus on simple, modern design,” she said.
On the flipside, Thornley is also doubling down on the streetwear-obsessed fan with Crocs’ Echo collection. Including a slide, clog, and an upcoming boot version, the line features molded innovation in neutral colorways.
In addition, the company has launched a new shopping experience for more personalization opportunities. Available now, Crocs has teamed up with 3D e-commerce platform Obsess to launch a virtual Jibbitz shopping experience. Here, customers can create their own unique pair of Crocs with Jibbitz charms. The store features five virtual departments, each themed for a different Jibbitz assortment type, including letters, food, animals and more. Shoppers can add up to 26 different 3D charms to a clog model and then proceed to purchase the physical version of their custom product.
The Jibbitz Experience is available via mobile and desktop web.
