Yes, I took out a home equity loan to finance my crocs. Now my home is under water. Thank Jeebus I still have these shoes.

Whether it's crocs or any other, our rush to buy large quantities of cheap crap as soon as new types of cheap crap hit the market speaks rather poorly of our economic judgment as a society.

Whether it's crocs or any other fad item, our rush to buy large quantities of cheap crap as soon as new types of cheap crap hit the market speaks rather poorly of our economic judgment as a society.

All good shoes are ugly. *Feet* are ugly. The whole solution space demands high practicality with little room for aesthetics. Crocs aren't my thing, but I've never understood the animosity towards them. They seem comfortable enough, and isn't that the point?

Can Uggs also go bankrupt, please? It would make walking around downtown (or the U-District, for that matter) much more tolerable.

Aren't Crocs at least cheap, unlike the aforementioned Uggs? Dropping a couple hundred on ugly shoes, that are also bad for your feet, seems like a much worse example of excess.

You know who else wears Crocs? Mario Battali. There's a looker, eh? I'm sure they feel great on your feet. Hell I was a cook for 15 years but one thing I never did was wear my kitchen shoes in public.

I hate the traditional clog-type Crocs, but their newer sandals are great. They're comfortable, but not hideous.

The never should have ventured into the "high heel" market, though. Those things are uniformly ugly.

@9 Sorry. Feet are not ugly. They are a beautiful manifestation of evolution and as sexy as any other part of the body. Look again.

boy, this is all mildly entertaining.

Thanks to Crocs, the plastic island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is bigger than ever!

Way to go, guys!

@17 Lots of ugly things are the product of evolution. The process is as neutral to aesthetics as it is to morality. Usually pretty well designed, at least, but you can't even claim that when it comes to feet. Ask anyone with foot/back problems -- our bipedal stance still has a lot of bugs to be worked out.

@keshmeshi: Uggs are way worse, and I wish them more ill-will than Crocs. I am filled with rage (or at least mild disgust) every time I see someone wearing Uggs in public.

Recently I saw a girl wearing black leggings as pants (rule of leggings: your shirt/tunic/dress/whatever MUST COVER YOUR LABIA, no exceptions), and brown Uggs over them. So terrible.

When I worked in a restaurant I came very close to buying the ballet-flat-style Crocs, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I made the right decision.

Eric from Boulder is sorry to see Crocs from Boulder go under. Boulder is not like Los Angeles or Manhattan -- it's not often that trends that start in our little 'burb sweep the country and the world, and we were/are kind of proud of the Crocs phenom. There's worse things to be known for than quirky ugly comfortable shoes. I have to say,though, that I personally never thought they were in fact that very comfortable. I got caught up in the trend, bought a pair, and I'll go so far as to say that they are the most comfortable pair of plastic sandals I've ever owned. But that's not going so far.

That said, trying to tie it all in to some economic trend is bullshit: If you buy a $30 pair of shoes and then wear them for 100 days spread over two years before giving then to the Salvation Army (and that's what all the Croc lovers seemed to do), that's supposed to emblematic of economic decadence? It sounds to me instead like someone getting a pretty good entertainment value for their buck, with some not-unreasonable footwear thrown in for free.

@21 I beg to differ. I have seen runners do amazing feats of speed and endurance. People move about without any problems on their feet billions of times a day. And people spend billions of dollars adorning their feet. Feet pedal bikes millions of miles a day and dance to a world of music. And much money is spent to get prosthetics that can mimic feet for people who, for whatever reason, have lost theirs.

I completely agree w/r/t Uggs. God DAMN those things are hideous.

@24 ...yes, feet can do some nice things. That doesn't mean they're optimal from a bio-mechanical design or aesthetics point of view. It's just the nature of the problem: they have to support a lot of weight, so they're thick, blocky, often callused. If you don't wear shoes, they're even more callused (not to mention filthy), and if you do, they're probably somewhat damp and smelly. Until we live in a freefall environment, feet are never going to be pretty. (And then they'll just be useless.)

yeah, the downturn may have hastened their demise, but the mistake was croc execs thinking they could not only expand as much as they did, but continue to increase production. it was an obvious fad.

but even if it wasn't, a slower approach would have been wiser. they can't even take the money and run at this point. not in crocs, at least.

@26 You are hopeless but I have enjoyed our discussion a great deal.

FYI to Eric from Boulder @ 23...

Crocs are knock offs of Holey Soles... Holey Soles came out with the idea first, and Crocs stole it.

Crocs was just in a position to mass produce them quicker and flood the market. Comfortwise, Holey Soles are far superior to Crocs, and anyone lamenting Crocs going under can rest assured still get superior style footwear from http://www.holeysoles.com

Werd.

(and btw for all you pundits... most of the folks in Seattle sporting them in CapHill are wearing HoleySoles... They are especially popular amongst the burner community.)

R.C: So for a few minutes I felt bad after learning from you of the superiority (and priority) of BC plastic sandals vis-a-vis Boulder plastic sandals. Then I remembered that it wasn't Boulder's plastic sandals per se that I am irrationally proud of, but the fact that Boulder's sandals became, briefly, a national fad. So I'm cool again, you'll be happy to know. Er, won't you?

The fact that the makers are going bankrupt after selling 100 million of the damn things is a testament to how stupid they were at running a business. Those shoes aren't exactly a buck a piece, and selling them isn't exactly a Microsoft-like business operation.

"...made us lose our minds."

I'm literally a crazy person and I never had crocs. Please don't malign my people.

"Filled with rage"? Really, Aislinn? You allow yourself to be moved to heart-damaging emotion by other people's choice of shoes? In a world filled with war, hunger, brutality and injustice, ugly shoes are what move you to rage?

After reading that article, I want to buy a pair of Crocs. My biggest pet peeve about apparel is the way it always seems to wear out, and then you can't get another one like it because they only sold them for one season, because they think everyone only wants the latest thing. If it's going to last forever and be comfy and never smell, I don't care what it looks like, you can count me in!

Crocs are great all around shoes and is just what the marketplace needs. The companies management and marketing team just don't know what there doing.