The Short History of Crocs

Croc shoes, the world-renowned, brightly colored phenomenon that originated from a pair of plastic spa shoes, have certainly come a long way! The first manufacturing plant, and the current Crocs headquarters, is located in Boulder, Colorado. However, the Crocs company has rapidly branched out into a worldwide franchise with operating companies in Italy, China, Florida, and Mexico. It all started when George Boedecker took his idea and turned it into 200 pairs of the first Croc shoes, debuting them at a boat show in Ft. Lauderdale. After selling out that day, he realized he had something with a whole lot of potential.

The main selling point for the Croc shoes was the "croslite" material that they were made from, which molded to the wearers foot and provided comfort and multiple orthopedic benefits. Foam Creations, the company that developed and produced croslite, was sold to Crocs in 2004-along with the rights to the croslite material. That was the first of many additions to the company. Next came the addition of Jibbitz in 2006, and a whole new category of Crocs opened up. Jibbitz manufactures shoe accessories, little designs that pop in and out of the ventilation ports in Crocs shoes. This brought another wave of fans to the Crocs franchise, and it continued to grow. In 2007 came the additions of Bite Footware and Ocean Minded, golf shoe and sandal manufactures respectively. Currently, the 5,300 employee team at Crocs manufactures a vast variety of shoe styles, along with accessories and apparel, including a line of purses! To date, the company's operating budget sits somewhere around 168.2 million dollars.

The amazing success of Croc shoes is a testimony to a great design combined with savvy entrepreneurship-the entrepreneurship of George B. Boedecker. Boedecker was involved in business ownership and management for most of his working life. He started out working for Dominos, where he owned and operated over 100 franchises. From there he founded Oregon Food Concepts, a company that encompasses the states of Washington and Oregon, owning and operating multiple Quiznos franchises. He also worked for Quiznos in Canada, where he served as Chief Operating Officer of International Sales and Operations and Executive Vice President from 1996 to February of 2002. That was when he began serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Crocs, which he did until 2006. Currently, he works as the Director of the Anthony H. Kruse Foundation, a company whose focus is on helping others to become entrepreneurs themselves.

Croc shoes are a unique fashion piece-they are famous for their comfort rather than their looks. Interestingly, there are equally heated opinions both in support of and against Croc shoes, but those who actually take the time to try them out are never disappointed.

Matthew Giovanisci writes for Croc Shoes News, a website dedicated to the promotion and benefits of Croc sandals

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