Crocs, Inc. is an American retailer with a focus on manufacturing, designing and distributing casual footwear including clogs, slides, boots, flip flops, and sneakers. The company was founded by three friends, Scott Seamans, Lyndon Hanson, and George Boeddecker Jr. in 2002 who joined hands over their mutual love for water and a comfortable and innovative shoe idea. The trio came across a lightweight boating shoe created by Foam Creations, a Canadian Brand and were instantly drawn with the uniqueness and practicality of the shoe. Later they acquired the rights to create a shoe using Crosslite, the same material Foam Creations was using to make their shoes.
Cut to now, with a worldwide customer base, crocs has been selling more than a 100 million shoes every year. Crocs shoes have become a go-to choice for medical professionals, restaurant employees or others who have to be on their feet all day long. Along with that, they are also now being considered ‘fashionable’ for the first time since their inception and being recognised by big fashion houses all over the world.
Croslite & Bio-Based Options
The predominant material in Crocs’ clogs — more than 81% — is Croslite, a proprietary resin designed for durability and sourced predominantly from fossil fuels.
- Croslite is responsible for 35-40% of Crocs’ emissions, its largest single source.
- Crocs has committed to sourcing 50% of its Croslite from bio-based options by 2030.
- Two alternative sources are tall oil, a byproduct from paper mills, and used cooking oil.
Sustainability Journey
While Crocs, Inc. puts innovation and comfort at the heart of everything they do, they also have a strong sense of corporate responsibility. Time and again, they have come forward to help those in need. Under their ‘Crocs Cares’ initiative, they’ve donated millions of shoes to countries in need. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Crocs did its share under their ‘A Free Pair for Healthcare’ initiative offering a free pair of shoes to healthcare workers.
A Step Back
Crocs launched a program in October 2023 to take back used shoes in 10 U.S. states, to keep old footwear out of landfills and explore new ways to reuse the material. An estimated 22 billion pairs of shoes are thrown out annually while roughly the same number is produced, according to industry stats. Crocs’ program, A Step Back, will:
- Accept shoes in any condition.
- ‘Gently used’ ones will be donated to Soles4Souls, a nonprofit that works with entrepreneurs building secondhand apparel businesses.
- Those that are ‘well-loved’ or ‘unwearable’ will head back to Crocs, where product designers will experiment with ways to reuse the materials.
- The program will also produce metrics to help it better understand the social and operational challenges they face.
Change is Afoot
Crocs, Inc. is committed to reducing its environmental footprint, uplifting communities, and creating a welcoming environment for everyone, rooted in a culture of sustainability, governance, transparency, and accountability with the following initiatives:
- The Shoe for the Future: Crocs is pioneering the use of biobased Croslite™ material developed in partnership with Dow, using their ECOLIBRIUM™ technology to transform bio-circular waste and by-products into a shoe that has all the comfort one expects from their shoes, but with less emissions. By 2030, they are all set to achieve 50% bio-based content within their Croslite™ compounds. It is also to note that 100% of their biobased resin is ISCC PLUS Certified.
- Already Low Footprint: Crocs’ inherently simple approach to design, the materials they use, and how their shoes are manufactured mean that their Classic Clog already has a low carbon footprint and they intend to lower it even further by focusing on innovating materials and creating efficiencies throughout their value chain.
- Bags & Boxes: One of the biggest ways Crocs has reduced the impact of their packaging is to limit using shoe boxes wherever possible. More than 80% of their shoes are sold without a box and the durability and general lightweightedness of the shoes makes this possible. They’re also transitioning all of their global product polybags to 100% post-industrial recycled content while constantly working on innovative packaging solutions that use more recycled materials and consider reuse opportunities.
- Still 100% Vegan: Since 2021, Crocs has eliminated all animal derived materials from their products. They are also the proud winners of PETA’s 2022 Libby Award.
- Old Crocs, New Life: Crocs, Inc. loves the idea of giving their shoes a second life with a firm belief that within a circular economy, reusing or redistributing products helps to minimise environmental impact associated with new production. They’ve given a new life to over 300,000 pairs of shoes in the past year.
