Crocs seems to come and go in terms of their popularity with the general public. They never seem to hit middle ground—they’re either the coolest things you can put on your feet, or they’re deemed hideous and a sure-fire way of attracting ridicule.
At the moment, certainly amongst 16–25 year-olds, Crocs are the bees’ knees. Not only are young people citing them as examples of colourful, cool and effortlessly comfortable footwear, there’s currently a trend to dress your Crocs up with trinkets—‘Jibbitz’.
Crocs, by design, have holes on the tops of the shoes. Jibbitz can be threaded through these holes, like you would charms on a bracelet. Apparently, the 13 holes on Crocs can house 26 Jibbitz. As you’d imagine, there are Jibbitz in every design, shape and colour, and it’s through their choice of Jibbitz and how they’re arranged on their Crocs that many wearers are expressing themselves.
But how suitable are Crocs as footwear?
To be fair, in terms of the age group that’s preoccupied with adorning their Crocs with Jibbitz, whatever we say will likely be ignored anyway! Crocs do have some good points: their design allows air to circulate around the wearer’s feet. They have a decent thickness of sole, and fans of the footwear wax lyrical about how comfortable they are to wear. For people suffering from swollen feet, Crocs may give them some relief. They’re easy to slip on and off, too, which makes them good for people who can’t bend very well, or who have limited mobility.
The downside of Crocs is that they offer nothing in the way of support. There’s nothing to bolster or prop up the arch of the foot, which can result in the plantar fascia, the ligament that absorbs any impact to your feet as you walk, being stretched. The fallout of this is a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, which can be extremely painful at its worst, when the sufferer tries to stand, walk, or put any weight on their feet.
Crocs have a strap that’s intended to help the shoes stay on your feet, but a proportion of wearers choose to flip this strap over to the front of the shoes, where it serves no purpose other than additional decoration. Though the strap, when worn at the back of the heel, isn’t the most secure, it will reduce how often the shoes may slip off your feet accidentally. However, even when the strap is where it should be, it offers no actual support to the heel. This renders Crocs no better than flip-flops in terms of offering stability to wearers. Without stability, the risk of tripping or falling or losing your balance increases.
Most Crocs lovers wear socks with the plastic footwear. However, there are likely as many Crocs wearers who don’t. Putting your bare feet in Crocs, because of their material, will cause your feet to sweat after a while. This may then cause your feet to move in the shoes, resulting in blisters, not to mention a questionable odour as the sweat molecules break down.
Some people wouldn’t wear Crocs if they were paid to do so, which shrinks the audience this article will resonate with. If you’re a fan of the unique footwear, though, we’d say this: you can have too much of a good thing. Crocs are fine for slipping on quickly if you’re going on a short walk in summer, for the beach, or for pottering around the garden, etc. However, we wouldn’t recommend wearing them for hours on end, day after day, across all terrains.
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