James Moore: Crocs makers bitten, but they will survive

Outlook It wasn’t all that long ago that the makers of Crocs were aspiring to be the biggest reptiles in the footwear world.

The ubiquitous plastic clogs even had Donald Trump purring about them on the US Celebrity Apprentice, with Piers Morgan and team told to come up with a marketing campaign around donating shoes to kids in Third World countries (he lost).

A bit like Morgan, the Crocs brand is now on the wane, with the company suffering from having got too big for its boots. It’s not the clogs, that by are turns fiercely loved and loathed, it’s the company’s expansion beyond them.

Crocs now produces a bewildering array of shoes, many of which don’t excite any reaction at all beyond a weary “meh”, and that’s terminal for a fashion brand. Crocs bit off more than it could chew so now it’s got to shrink.

The bad news for the haters is that the clogs aren’t going anywhere.