Love ‘em, or loathe ‘em, Crocs (CROX) are back, baby! Whether it’s thanks to Love Island contestants rockin’ Crocs (and driving a snappy 300% surge in Google searches), or Fashion.com announcing Crocs to be the new ‘It’ shoe for ‘22, you might start to see a lot more of the funky footwear around this summer. 😎

And what better time to celebrate a fashion icon than Croctober?! 🐊 This month marks 20 years of Crocs, with the company teaming up with Roblox (RBLX) to build a ‘global Metaverse experience’, of course. The colourful-clog company has grown a lot over the decades, and today teams up with some of the biggest brands and celebs in the world for special collaborations. These collabs are sometimes bizarre, but still regularly sell out faster than hot donuts, or original recipe KFC Crocs. Light-up Diplo Crocs! 🍄 And whatever-the-heck-these-are Crocs. 😯 The company also has licensing partnerships with mega-brands like Disney (DIS), Nintendo and Nickelodeon (PARAA, PARA).

But the clever clogs at Crocs have also been able to achieve something other shoe companies like Nike (NKE) regularly struggle with: customisation. Crocs makes additional money from selling little bedazzling charms that let you personalise your Crocs to your sole’s content. The charms (called Jibbitz) have turned Crocs into the Pandora bracelet of footwear. The appeal of charms and limited edition collabs helped the company to sell 103 million pairs of shoes worldwide in 2021, bringing in US$2.3 billion of revenue.

And the company has more fancy footwork ahead. Earlier this year the Crocs completed a US$2.5 billion acquisition for comfy-cool sneaker company, HeyDude. HeyDude sells shoes that look a little like Allbirds (BIRD), and Crocs hopes the addition will bring them diversification beyond relying on pizza-themed slides. 🍕