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I must confess I have a weakness for shoes. Well, shoes, clothes, and fashion in general. But definitely shoes. As a child, I was homeschooled in the Phoenix, Arizona oven. Due to the heat and the fact we were at home all day, I rarely wore shoes as a child. We never wore shoes in the house or yard; only when we went out (as in get in the car to drive somewhere). As a result, I have naturally wide, healthy feet that are strong with good arches. Most Americans have narrow, weak feet resulting from too much shoe usage during childhood. I have difficulty finding shoes that are both cute and comfy (ie wide enough), because manufacturers are designing shoes to fit everyone else.
No longer. I have found my first love: Crocs. Now before your heart jumps into your throat and you give me the lecture about how hideous they are and how allowing my future children to wear them is equivalent to child abuse, let me say that I share your passion in respect to the original crocs pictured below:
For years, I heard people say not only how comfortable they were, but how they brought significant relief to various hip, knee, feet, ankle, and other leg pain people had experienced for years. Even folks wearing pricey orthotics discovered that Crocs had a greater pain-relieving effect, and were wildly less expensive.
Despite this, I could not get past the utter ugliness of the Clog Croc. There was no way my fashion sense would consider them, no matter how nice they might be in other respects. My husband has long ago submitted to my sense of fashion to arrange for his wardrobe, so for years, he complied with my insistence to never allow the frightfulness above on our peds.
Then, while shoe shopping in Glendale Galleria in Southern California a few years ago, we discovered these canvas Santa Cruz Crocs.
We bought two pairs, one in a neutral brown, and another in navy. As our super-cool-fashionista-So-Cal friends said when they saw Benjamin wearing the Santa Cruz Crocs: “Wow, those don’t look like Crocs.” Yup, that’s what I’m going for folks.
Then a couple years later, I was at Academy shopping for some last-minute items for our annual anniversary camping trip. I needed water shoes, because the Frio River we were camping near was shallow with a rocky bottom, and to walk up and down it, you need water shoes. On previous camping trips, I had destroyed a pair of New Balance tennis (waterlogging undid the glue that held the sole to the body), and a favorite pair of flip-flops (the intense pressure of the rushing water yanked out the thong piece that goes between your toes). Looking in Academy’s shoe section, I spotted these chocolate brown Olivia Crocs:
They weren’t completely my definition of cute, but they fit, they were solid rubber, and had a thick sole. I concluded I would allow myself to own these as boating/camping/water shoes, especially upon comparing them to standard mesh water shoes which are more hideous than Crocs could dream of being.
By the following summer, I was a devoted Crocs fan.
1. Water: I used them almost exclusively for any outdoor water experience. The soles are thick and sturdy, the shoes stay on your feet well, they have great traction, and they rinse right off when you’re through. After boating, I take them in the shower with me and my swim suit to rinse us all off.
2. Mud: I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent scraping hard, caked-on mud from between the traction ridges of the soles of my tennis shoes or sketchers. Sticks, butter knives, and toothpicks have given up their lives to the hardened mud, yet the shoes will still never be the same. The last time I did that, somewhere around the second hour of scraping and the third box of destroyed toothpicks, I determined to never wear any shoes except Crocs where there was a chance of mud.
3. Cooking: Then I began refusing to cook if I wasn’t wearing them. Our house has stained concrete floors, which are beautiful, but unbearably firm if you stand on them for hours at a time. When I prepare a large meal, I stand for two to three hours at a time. I used to pay for it the entire evening and following day with aching legs and feet. No more! Crocs saved me from this fate! Now I have a barely noticeable tired feeling after hours of standing on concrete.
4. Walking: If we plan to window shop, visit a cute town in the Texas hill country, or do any activity that will involve walking and being on my feet for over four hours at a time, none of my other shoes will suffice. Perhaps my super thick gel new balance tennis, but those don’t go with the cute outfit I want to wear on such an occasion. My Crocs do.
5. Custom Fit: The all-rubber Crocs reshape to your foot. I lent one of my sisters my Olivia Crocs, which are size 9. She is a size 9 extra wide, and when she first put the shoe on, it felt too narrow and too long for her. After she wore them a week, they had reshaped to her foot, and fit her perfectly. Then my other sister borrowed my Olivia Crocs. She is barely under a size 10, and the first couple days she wore them, she just slid her toes in, and stood on top of the heel strap since it wouldn’t go around her heel. After a week of wearing them, they had reshaped to her foot, lost all the width, and even when not on her feet, they looked long and narrow. Craziness! So even though Crocs are sold only in whole sizes, as long as you can get a size pretty close to your own, they will reshape (this only applies to the completely rubber ones).
I now own four colors of Malindi Crocs, which are much cuter than the Olivia because of the tear-drop cut-outs in the toe (black, brown, navy, and plum)
And believe it or not, I even resigned myself to my husband owning two pairs of the Clog Crocs, because the alternative was even uglier water shoes for various water and mud experiences. So far, they don’t have any attractive men’s Crocs that are solid rubber, so the original ugliness was the only option. And after discovering how useful my all-rubber Crocs were for water and mud, I could not deprive him of this experience.
He also owns a pair of Santa Cruz in a dressy dark brown suede,
and Crocs flip flops (not this exact pair, because these are Ocean Minded, but some very similar).
I have on my wish list the new Casey wedges
and the new Marnie flats,
Both will be better for winter than the sling back Olivia and Malindi styles. For Benjamin’s winter wish list, I have the new leather version of the Santa Cruz, the Denton:
Benjamin is pretty rough on his shoes, because of the active work he does, so his Santa Cruz canvas only lasted about six months before he had worn a hold through the toe. I’ve been waiting for Crocs to come out with a leather version of the same style, which would be sturdier than the canvas fabric (although I’m still tempted to buy him another pair of the canvas, because they go with most of his wardrobe, and they are so dang cute on him!).
I never buy Crocs at full price, because they frequently have sales and coupons. I check slickdeals.net which posts sales and coupons for lots of items, and wait for the right price for the pair I’ve had my eye on.
If they keep coming out with more super-cute styles, I think they may soon be the only brand of casual shoes I own! I still wear heels to work (I don’t like the styles of Crocs YOU brand, and they are way too expensive) and tennis shoes when I run. My husband owns a pair of dressy black leather shoes and a pair of cross-training gym shoes.
Outside of that, we are fast becoming an exclusively Crocs family. And I NEVER thought that would come out of my fashion-conscious mouth!
