Ugly Shoes Empire Expanding: Crocs Goes Into New Merchandise Territory (CROX)

Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) is going into many new horizons with its brand.  It almost sounds impossible if you are not a fan of the brand.  Many people love Crocs, but many think it is one of the ugliest brands on the market. If you love those rubber shoes, how about wearing new accessories, apparel, and eyewear with the Crocs logos on them?  The data comes from a press release, otherwise we might wonder if it was reported by The Onion.

• The first non-footwear Crocs-branded products included a line of adult and children’s socks from Sock and Accessories Brands, which launched in the holiday 2011 season.  These will also be available in Europe.
• Crocs has also signed up with Accessory Exchange for it to produce Crocs-branded accessories for men, women and children. These will include hats, bags, backpacks, socks and gloves for Crocs retail stores and the Crocs.com website.
• In April 2012, the Crocs brand will extend to children’s apparel through an agreement with the A Group in 46 countries. Crocs-branded sunglasses and sunglass accessories also will launch in May 2012 in a deal with Eye King, LLC to produce sunglasses for adults and youth for retail and wholesale distribution in the U.S. and Canada.
• Crocs Professional Footwear Division is in a partnership with ICER Brands to “build on the loyal following of medical professionals with the introduction of Crocs-branded scrubs. This new medical gear is available now through specialty stores and online.” 
• Paramount, a sports licensee, recently kicked off Collegiate and MLB licensed footwear for the brand.

OK. so let’s get this straight.  Medical scrubs, baseball shoes, eyeglasses, hats backpacks, and gloves… All with the Crocs label on them.

This just sounds bad on the surface.  As far as investors are concerned, if it grows the brand and captures new sales that were previously uncharted then it is a win.

200 million pairs of shoes sold is probably a better judge than us calling Crox one of the ugliest brands that there is.  After all, opinions greatly differ and the sales results probably speak louder than critical words.

JON C. OGG