This is Kind of Obsessed, a column about all the stuff our team is really, really into right now.
Before Internet virality, there were simply word-of-mouth fads. There were Pogs, yo-yos and Pokémon cards; now there’s The Old Guard, whipped coffee and TikTok dance moves. None of it is built to last, but sometimes a fad or a viral sensation shows some durability and becomes a trend. That seems to be happening with Crocs, the spongy, holey, shoes-slash-sandals that are somehow popular with the cool kids again two decades after their inception.
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I was 11 when Crocs first showed up on the rack at our local sports equipment store. I’ll admit that, even at that age, I aligned with the shoe’s critics; they seemed ugly and floppy, and besides, Teva sandals were already my open-air footwear of choice. But I bought some anyway — a red pair, two or three sizes too big, all that was left in stock — because my best friend had a pair and claimed they were “the best.” Because fads.
I rarely wore those Crocs and gave them away before that summer waned into fall. But Crocs came back to me nearly a decade later when the packing list for a months-long wilderness course called for a pair of shoes to wear at camp. I brought an old pair of running sneakers, which served the purpose just fine. But one of my instructors packed some hole-free Crocs as his camp shoe, and when he proclaimed them “the best,” I jealously agreed.
His reasoning, after all, was difficult to debate: Crocs are ideal for camping because they’re lightweight, waterproof against the wet ground, and you can clip them to the outside of a backpack or unceremoniously shove them down into the last remaining space available inside. After a long day, it’s nice to get out of your wet, dirty, sweaty hiking boots and into a roomy pair of shoes or sandals, and Crocs serve that purpose beautifully.
For some hikers who are more hardcore than I am, even Crocs are too heavy to carry on the trail. But the funky kicks have proven more than once that weird-looking shoes made of foam have their place in society. I’ve known cooks, teachers and retail workers who all swear by Crocs as the ultimate footwear for their professions.
