Crocs were once the punchline. The shoe you mocked… right up until everyone started wearing them anyway.

We talk about how Crocs went from cultural joke to business comeback story of the decade. After selling hundreds of millions of pairs and then watching their stock fall off a cliff, the brand looked finished. Ugly, unfashionable, and very much not cool.

Then something interesting happened.

Under new leadership, Crocs stopped apologising and leaned all the way in. They embraced the ugly. Used humour instead of hiding. And suddenly collaborations with Post Malone, Balenciaga, and even KFC made Crocs culturally unavoidable.

We unpack how that shift took Crocs from a market value of around $1 billion to more than $6.5 billion, with stock prices soaring and relevance fully restored. Not because they changed the product, but because they changed the story.

Do we personally love them? Absolutely not.
Do we respect the strategy? Begrudgingly… yes.

A lesson in brand confidence, cultural timing, and why sometimes the smartest move is to stop trying to be liked.

About Simon and Danielle:

Simon and Danielle are both business owners, based in the East Midlands, who met through mutual business contacts and who share a love of all things business.

Simon runs Skylight Media – Award-winning experts in Website Design, E-commerce & Marketing running since 2003.

Danielle runs Goldspun Support – a multi-faceted support service for fractional directors and small business owners across the globe, running since 2009.

Since they first met Simon and Danielle have spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about the subjects that interest them – usually over a drink in the pub – and they decided that now was the time to bring these conversations to a wider audience and invite them to join the chat.

Both Simon and Danielle are successful business owners in their own rights with big plans for the future but will never lose their love of talking all things business… and the pub.