Crocs

I know I know, there are entire websites devoted to hating on these shoes, and I don't know anyone who loves them who thinks they're wearing gorgeous shoes, but I'll only consider ending my affair with Crocs when someone else can figure out a way to prevent my feet from stinking the way Crocs have.  A good friend turned me onto Crocs a few years ago, and fully six months before they really hit the big time.  I remember doing mini sales-pitches all over the country as friends and families would ask me about them.  They're the closest thing you can get to being barefoot, they slip on and off with ease.  And they're very very comfy. I've gone through no fewer than seven pairs of Crocs in the last four years.  My current favorite is a pair of black Mary Jane style Crocs that I actually wore to the Sex and the City premiere at Radio City.  It was pouring pouring rain and I had to wait in a long line that kept having these crazy pauses where we'd all have to stand on those little sidewalk grates for minutes on end and all the fancy ladies around me were getting their Jimmy Choos stuck.  I may not have won any fashion awards for the evening but if there'd been a common sense award it would have been mine.  Crocs have added some great-looking new styles, but sadly my favorite one is in a Mens shoe only and doesn't run as small as my foot would require.  Recently I decided to take a break from Crocs as a day to day show and switched to a kind of high tech hikey/sandaly kind of shoe.  It's a gorgeous pair of shoes and cost as much as three pairs of Crocs.  But after I spent a few days in them I had that Robby Benson moment from the end of Ice Castles--remember "We forgot about the flowers?"--there in the middle of the rink after his blind girlfriend had fooled everyone into thinking she could see until they started throwing the long stemmed roses onto the ice and then her handicap was revealed?  Well that was me.  I forgot about the foot odor!  I thought I'd take a little aesthetic break from Crocs and I walked all over town fooling myself and what slammed me back down to earth was that old familiar funky foot smell that infected pair after pair of Birkenstocks for decades and is now threatening to destroy my high-tech hikey/sandaly shoes.  And honestly?  I haven't even smelled that smell for four years now, so effective have Crocs been in eliminating it.  So, these new expensive walking shoes will have to be demoted to an occasional walking shoe, and I'm off to buy another pair of Crocs.  Sometimes I wonder if they'd consider making a little Crocky insole--a non-stick slip of Croc-rubber that could transform any shoe into an odorless paradise.  And I do wish they'd make some of their new Mens styles--that really look like regular shoes on the outside--for women.  Not quite sure why they keep thinking women want to show toe-cleavage all the time.  But of course beggars (smellers) can't be choosers so you won't get any complaints from me.

RL