Crocs Won 2020

Crocs has had notable collaborations with other brands since 2017, when it helped Balenciaga send its models down the runway in the foam clogs. Its string of memorable collaborations with musicians kicked off the following year with the first set of Post Malone shoes.

“Post was the first really broad collaboration that everyone was talking about,” Ms. Poole said. “He’s the marmite. People love or hate him.” (Ms. Poole, who grew up outside of London, was referring to the deep brown vegetable extract that British people inexplicably love.)

“Crocs is marmite as well so we like pairing up with other marmite brands,” she added.

Collaborations have become a fashion staple over the last decade. Pioneered by the streetwear brand Supreme, which broke ground by working with fine artists including George Condo and Takashi Murakami, such collaborations pile fan bases on top of each other, creating a built-in demographic for what is often limited-edition merchandise.

“Ten years ago it wasn’t common,” said Angelo Baque, the head of the clothing line Awake NY and the former creative director of Supreme. “Now, if you go on Hypebeast, there’s 40 collaborations to announce a day. I think that everything is fair game in terms of collaboration. I don’t think there's anything that’s sacred.”

To fans of Bad Bunny, the near-instantaneous unavailability of the new Crocs felt like sacrilege. By Tuesday evening, more than 1,300 people had signed a petition asking that more of the shoes be released, and blaming “bots,” software programmed to speed-buy limited merchandise, for snapping up all the wares. (A spokeswoman for Crocs, Melissa Layton, said that bots are on the brand’s radar, and that the company is “doing everything we can to mitigate that bot action.”)

Mariela Benavides was one of those who signed the petition, writing, “I’m signing this because the bots did me dirty I just wanted to vibe with my crocs man.”