Wu, Jasmin. “Ugly Is in: How Crocs Have Taken over Teen Footwear, and Sent the Stock Soaring.” CNBC, 15 July 2019, 2:35 pm, www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/ugly-is-in-crocs-have-taken-over-teen-footwear-and-boosted-its-stock.html. 

      In this article by Jasmin Wu, she talks about how Crocs are the 13th most popular footwear brand amongst female teenagers. She goes into more detail about explaining how crocs were something some of us wore as little kids. Insight to this was shown from a 16 year old girl that lives in San Francisco. The 16 year old girl, Bibiane Huang, said how she started off with a Dora inspired pair of crocs when she was a little girl. As she grew older she went back to crocs because they provided everyday comfort that most shoes do not provide. Jasmin Wu also got across to explaining how crocs have played an important role on the stock market. People find the shoe ugly and unattractive but with sales of crocs being up 30% over the past year it’s hard to believe an opinion like that. Teenagers like trends that are rebelling, against society’s norms, and that are authentic. 

      My insight on this article would be that it responds to my research question. Not only does it have a good response but it also gave me personal experiences some teenagers have when wearing a fashion trend such as this one. It gave me a chance to feel somewhat of the challenges they face when wearing an odd but fashionable statement piece. I don’t agree on the opinion about how crocs are ugly. “She estimates that more than half of the girls in her school also have a pair of what Time Magazine once called one of the “worst inventions.”” I just think it’s a statement piece that anyone can have in their wardrobe. It represents your personality and what you favor. You could even add your own personal touch to crocs. This is mentioned in the article when it says “ The shoes also allow teens to express their individuality with Jibbitz, or charms that they can attach to the top of the shoe.” So crocs are not all that bad that people make them out to be

    Two quotes that I found interesting would be “The ugly trend in footwear was really started and rooted in Balenciaga.” and “Recognizing it could make a high-fashion splash, Crocs and Balenciaga collaborated to design a collection of brightly colored clogs with 3-inch high platforms that clomped down a Paris runway last year.” The first quote made me learn something new and where crocs may have even originated from. As for the second quote, I honestly thought that the company just wanted to make a platform version of the regular crocs but instead did a partnership with Balenciaga. It’s really just a means for expanding their audience and income.