Crocs moves clogs to back of the store

Search online for “hate crocs” and you’ll quickly see why Crocs Inc. is eager to transcend the clunky clogs it unleashed on an unsuspecting world 11 years ago.

Bloggers have denounced Crocs as ugly and an escalator tripping hazard. On YouTube, a woman cuts a yellow pair into pieces and then feeds them to a blender. A Facebook page is called “Let’s Burn Crocs!”

John McCarvel, Crocs CEO, is all too aware of the Crocs animus and how it complicates his strategy to attract new customers and double sales in five years. The clogs still generate 47 per cent of sales because lots of people like them, especially medical professionals and kids. Yet to hit his target, McCarvel must persuade the haters to buy the company’s other footwear.

That’s why Crocs is telling the world all about its wedges, sneakers and leopard-print ballet flats — and putting Crocs in the back of stores the way grocers do with milk.

“Our milk are those clogs,” McCarvel says. “If someone wants them, make them walk through all the new stuff first.”

McCarvel, who became CEO in March 2010, has been credited with helping revive the Niwot, Colo.-based company and making it profitable again. Still, even though sales rose 12 per cent last year to $1.12 billion and net income was the highest since 2007, investors are wary.

Crocs plans to open 90 locations around the world this year with about half in Asia. That would boost total locations by 20 per cent to more than 500.

A recent catalogue could easily be mistaken for a mailer from J. Crew. On the cover, a preppy couple sits on a wooden boat. Grinning while in a half embrace, their legs dangle over the side, pulling the reader’s eye to their Crocs docksiders. The following pages are filled with strappy sandals and loafers. Clogs aren’t featured until the back.

To succeed, Crocs will surely need more customers like Jodi Karr. The 33-year-old bartender with tattooed arms recently visited a Crocs store in Toronto’s trendy Queens West neighbourhood to buy another pair of navy blue sandals.

“People never think I’m wearing Crocs,” Karr said. “They usually just think about those original clog Crocs shoes. I love these things, though.”