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Lots of items look good in a pair of Crocs. Weird things you don’t expect like mini plastic bowls of ramen, pearl butterflies, or, as in the case of Jillian Maddocks, a bunch of pistachio green moss with a cherry on top. Maddocks began selling her rendition of Jibbitz, a Crocs-specific word for charms that stick into shoe holes for decoration, as part of her 323 clothing line. She reused materials she already had lying around. – from moss she uses to make headbands, fake cherries and seashells – and ended up designing charms that make Crocs look like a portable sundae.
“I sold more [Jibbitz] that I sold everything else this year, which is really weird, funny and exciting, ”says Maddocks. She assumes that she sold around 100 pairs in total in the three months they were live in her store before she stopped taking pre-orders to perfect the design.
A number of artists have added Jibbitz to their inventory this year, mostly because of Instagram’s interest in them. The #Jibbitz tag on Instagram has over 105,000 posts where designers show off the way they made their shoes, from Among us Fully padded shoe customizations with chains on top. Some designers design their Jibbitz from scratch, while others want to show off their shoes adorned with pre-made accessories or how they’ve assembled a variety of knick-knacks and Jibbitz to create an all-new Croc.
Pandemic leisure wear is this year and Crocs are becoming the shoe of the moment. The New York Times Crocs’ reported sales rose 48% in September this year, compared to 2019, and Crocs says its revenue hit new records in the third quarter. GQ and The cup found the shoes stylish and cool, and Justin Bieber, Bad Bunny and Instagram-centric designers like Nicole McLaughlin posted their own limited-edition collaborations with the brand. Crocs are even for sale on Grailed, the resale platform, for over $ 100. Clogs might actually be coveted in 2020, mostly in Instagram posts from cool people wearing them and teasing these celebrity exclusive shoes.
It’s the Jibbitz accessories that make the shoes stand out, however, and Crocs says revenue from the sale of charms doubled last quarter. Crocs, the company, considers Jibbitz to be an easy upsell. “The reason we love Jibbitz, besides their high margin, is that they can really create great consumer engagement and they sell clogs,” CFO Anne Mehlman said at a call for results. “It’s our unique way of really doing personalization in a way that resonates with the consumer.”
All limited edition collaborations feature unique Jibbitz, like a flashlight and rope on McLaughlin and glow-in-the-dark charms on Bad Bunny. Crocs also continues to introduce new Jibbitz to its arsenal, including some that promote the Black Lives Matter movement. However, people are still looking for third-party designs to find Jibbitz that really match their interests or to support designers they like. For designers who sell Jibbitz on their own, charms are a more affordable way to show off their designs, especially when everyone wants to be home and comfortable.
“A lot of people who buy with me can’t really afford a pair of $ 800 shoes, but they can afford something that’s a set of $ 40 per shoe they can put on, which makes what they wear really expensive and special, ”Maddocks says. “I feel like that is part of the reason why they are doing so well.”
Carley Holtsinger, who designs under the Sparkle Diva brand, received her first pair of Crocs for her birthday this year and is hooked. She couldn’t stop wearing them, even though they were a bit bland for her liking, so she whipped up her pearly, stringy Jibbitz. They sit on the shoe and produce something like a disco ball effect or seeing earrings dangling on someone, drawing your gaze to them.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, I need to throw some homemade Jibbitz at Sparkle Diva, so it kind of went from there,” she said. “I get so many compliments from all walks of life in them, mostly because people can hear me walking and they turn around and look at my shoes and they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I love this.'”
Holtsinger says her charms haven’t been a huge hit, although her Instagram post showing them is one of her most popular. She sees her Jibbitz as a niche product, really reserved for people who are ready to make some noise with beaded pom poms and draw even more attention to their Crocs. (Crocs doesn’t seem to mind creators using the word Jibbitz to promote their products, but the company didn’t respond to a request for comment on it.)
“I have a few orders, and I certainly had several friends who contacted me and said, ‘Oh my god, I just bought my first pair of Crocs, I’m obsessed’, so I feel like they’re not my most popular product, but it has certainly generated some interest, and I think it’s a fun new thing for me to do, ”she says.
Meanwhile, Susan Korn, a designer known for her beaded bags as Susan Alexandra, posted an image on Instagram of her “tzotchkes shoes,” featuring glued beaded butterflies and other quirks she was wearing. she found people in her studio and apparently loved it. “I don’t believe in soul mates, but I think they are mine,” one person commented. Korn says Crocs contacted almost immediately to discuss a possible collaboration.
“The plan is to… create jewelry for the shoes, and then elevate this very casual and utilitarian shoe into something that almost looks like haute couture, and is really shiny and chic and pretty,” she says. “These are objectively ugly shoes, they are shapeless, have holes, etc., so you have to take something that looks like a potato and make it shine.
These designers, who focus on creating handmade charms to go into shoes, join a legion of designers on Instagram and Etsy who sell fully formed Crocs with prefabricated plastic charms that align more with style. sparkling created by Crocs.
Jadyn Taylor, 17 from Georgia, has gained over 12,000 Instagram followers since June, under the name Cozy Creationz, selling assembled Crocs. She orders the shoes from China, the charms from various places online, the rhinestones from Amazon and puts it all together to make the shoes shine. People order their Crocs so that instead of receiving a boring pair and having to individually customize their shoes, they receive them that are ready to be shown. Taylor says she has sold 200 orders so far.
The pandemic has undoubtedly helped propel Crocs to newer and fresher heights. But when it wears off, will people still want to wear a pair of “objectively ugly” shoes? Maybe if there is art attached.
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