Neat

IHATECROCS on Fox News.

Mission accomplished?

Thanks to everyone who send us a link to article pertaining to the terrible news re: Crocs. If you haven't read it, HERE is a link.

Apparently we were also mentioned on Fox News, which is neat. If anyone has a link to that, I'd appreciate it.

In any case, this won't be a long post because I'm currently in Italy and the only internet access I have is at the library.

Thanks for your emails and good work, everyone. This victory is a bit bittersweet, though. The whole US economy had to tank to bring it about. Poor, poor US economy. And the job loss, of course. It is a shame.

optimism

OK, OK. You're right. It has been too long. I've been doing schoolwork and junk. You know how that is. I'm in my third year of my journalism degree and my 20th year of life. It is a busy time.

Anyway, here is a selection of wonderful mail we've been receiving.

The following is from Coby Klar:

fuck u u fuckin blowjob. i from Korea and i wear crocs. crocs cool!

Klar makes some excellent points. I'll admit that I was almost persuaded by his or her argument.

The following is a supportive email from Holly:

So here is my whole thing. The thing I seem to be reading the most on your website from people who love Crocs is how you have no life to be making this website. Well what kind of life do people who love Crocs have if they have time to

1. Search or find this site in the first place
2. Read what you have to say about hating crocs and last but not least
3. Send you an email complaining about you and the website...

Hmmmmm. Good questions right. Now just as a personal note. I used to be a hard core Croc hater, till one day my mother in law bought me a pair for work. I work in retail and I am constantly on my feet, these actually turned out to be very soothing to them. But I am certainly not going to bash you for having an opinion!

Mary had the following to report:

I'm seeing an increasing number of blog entries from Crocs lovers which describe horrific foot rashes gotten from them, identical to the ones I've been getting: My Crocs are kept clean and I have always worn them exclusively with socks, yet each time I wear any of my many pair of Crocs, my feet break out in clusters of extremely itchy sub-derma blisters which erupt within 2-3 days. These blisters tend to cluster at points where the shoe rubber is in direct contact with each stockinged foot. I also get nearly the same allergic reaction, only somewhat more extreme, precisely where the metal Crocs logo rivet rests against my instep, inside the shoe. If I don't wear the Crocs, I don't get this reaction; in fact, I get no foot problems whatsoever. If I wear the Crocs for so much as a couple hours, the blister rash comes back, always in identical form, and takes a week to get rid of.

Have you heard any other similar reports?

We haven't heard anything other than what you've brought to the table. How about the rest of you guys?

The following is an email from Jaime:

I think you are crazy for posting this website I love Crocs. I understand that you have a great hate for Crocs but you don't need to share that with the world. PS I am 10 years old and seem to be more mature than you, but who's to judge how intelligent a 10 year old is compared to a 30-40 year old like you.


Sincerely,
A Very Smart Ten Year Old

To which we responded as follows:

Neither of us is 30-40. And I fail to see how you can glom how mature we are from the website. Especially considering how incorrect you are about our ages.

But, thank you, Jaime, for writing. We receive little feedback from ten-year-olds. Who do you like for the next American president?

-Vincenzo A. Ravina

That email was sent BEFORE the American election. We now know that Obama won. And on behalf of the Canada-based IHATECROCS, I thank you, voting Americans, for voting in someone who seems intelligent. We'll have to wait and see if he actually does good things for your country, but I am optimistic. Good luck.

And yes, before you ask, it did make me feel like a big man to write a sarcastic email to a ten-year-old. We pick up self-esteem where we can, people.

Anyhow, we're getting down to brass tacks on the whole Spreadshirt sale thing. Tomorrow's the last day. Here be coupon codes:

USD$: NEW29
CAD$: CADNEW29

Keep up the good fight.

You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

2009

Hello everyone and happy new year.

This is just a quick message to let you all know that Spreadshirt (the company that makes our IHATECROCS t-shirts) is putting on a 20.09% sale between now and January 16th. So, if you were planning on buying a t-shirt, don't forget to use the below coupon codes to get some money off your order! The codes only work on orders over twenty dollars, however.

Coupon codes:
USD$: NEW29
CAD$: CADNEW29

Keep up the good fight.

You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

Hatemail from Newsweek readers

The best part of getting mail is getting hatemail. It is fun! I will tell you, I am most commonly accused of not having a life, which is always funny to me. I appreciate hatemail, because I am not a very angry person and I imagine that it must take a lot of work to get all worked up and angry at someone you have never met and probably never will meet. It's all very curious. I appreciate the effort of these hatemailers.

Here is a strange one from Michelle. She's civil and appears to agree with us.

Wow,

I can’t believe there are people that have the time to “talk about shoes” –
But, since I happened across your site – thought I would speak my mind.

Crocs are just another example of society’s acceptance of the ridiculous.
With the public at large revering cartoon characters, bad behavior, and just
plain lowering the bar for expectations, is it a wonder that Crocs would be the
epitome of fashion?

Please – don’t waste the internet on anymore stupidity.

Alex, on the other hand, is not coy about it:

how can you be so stupid? i don't like them either , but waste your fucking time doing that.
you must be very miserable, go find a pussy and do something for yourself.
don't be ridiculous, who are you to judge people , if you are the one in the video ,you need to look at yourself in the mirror and do something about you own look, ASS HOLE!

That is just harsh. But it gets harsher! Here is one from "T Gackt":

Nice blog you FUCKIN STUPID ASS DIPSHIT!!!
GET A FUCKIN LIFE!!!
My entire family wheres Crocs. They fuckin rock!
YOU FUCKIN SUCK SHIT!!! WHO GIVES A SHIT ASS FUCK ABOUT FASHION YOU FUCK!!!
FUCK YOUR FUCKIN BLOG!!! FUCK FUCKIN YOU!!!

The poor guy seems to be having problems with his shift key. Maybe it sticks. Here is a perplexing one from Jason:

You are a bunch of idiots to come up with such a stupid website. Jealousy is an ugly emotion. I love the fact that the company is smart enough to advertise on your website , You are nothing more than advertising for Crocs. This is more than a fad and if you would be smart enough to try a pair on you would also understand why smart people were Crocs. Were do people like you have time for creating such stupid websites.

1. I can't imagine what we are meant to be jealous of. Croc-wearers? No. Crocs, the company? Not particularly. I mean, if offered the chance to make millions just by encouraging people to wear stupid shoes, I'd probably go for it, actually. You heard it here first, people. If offered millions, I am willing to sell out.

2. Crocs doesn't advertise here. There's some kind of algorithm that picks up words on the site and picks stuff to advertise. Naturally, it picks Crocs.

3. I have tried on a pair. I found them to be strange and cumbersome. You're right, though. I've never tried to actually become a pair of Crocs. I really never knew that smart people were Crocs. I'm glad they got a chance to regain their human forms, anyway.

4. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LEARN THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHERE, WERE AND WEAR. I hate errors like that more than I hate Crocs.

Moving on... An email from Travis!

What is wrong with you people? Have you ever been out of the country? Clogs have been around for some time now, so, how do you deem it necessary to think that we need to abolish something that other people like? I don’t like them either, but its not my business to dictate who wears clogs, nor is it yours. That is why we live in a free country and get to decide on what ugly thing we wear next.

A lot of people who write in to our site don't believe in freedom of speech, just the freedom of being able to wear ugly shoes. Also, he asks whether I have been out of the country. My answer is 'Yes, a great many times.' To Italy, to Austria, to Switzerland, to London, England, to New York City, to Tunisia, to Peru, to Boston... And I've been to many of the provinces in my own country (Canada). I fail to see the relevance of the question.

Sarah really tears into us:

Hey. You guys should just shut up!! Just because you don't like crocs, doesn't mean that everyone else should go along with you!!. And it is definately not important enough to make a stupid website about it or have a FACEBOOK group!!! I like Crocs. They are comfortable and you can pass them off as tennis shoes in gym class because of the strap!! You are just idiots!! You don't have to like crocs. You are entitled to your own opinions, but you don't have to be so public and pushy about it. I have to go buy some more Crocs for school. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

See you never!!

I'm sorry that I was so pushy as to force you to visit my website, click on the email link and have you email us. My bad, as the kids say.

Michael has this to say:

U stupid noobs r so stuped! Crocs are the best shoes ever!U suck for making this website.

And if you thought that was the tersest hatemail, check out this one from Coby:

go fuck yourself,, fuck you..

Anyway, thanks to all of you who sent hatemail! It was all very amusing.



You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

Email from Newsweek reader Stacie, former Crocs employee

In the second installment of our recurring feature called 'Emails from Newsweek readers', I bring you an email from Stacie:

Call me slow, but I just stumbled onto your website today as a link from the Newsweek article. Anyhoo, I love it! Long story short, I worked at Crocs 2+ years ago and it was hands down the worst job I have ever had.

My two previous jobs I had been at for 5 and 5 1/2 years, I lasted a mere 7 weeks at Crocs. I started there as the Art Director which was a new position in the company. Needless to say, it was a cluster from day one. The environment was complete chaos. Everyone running around trying to capitalize on opportunities and doing things half-assed. My supervisor would dump a ton of work on me, then leave early to go running. My average day lasted anywhere from 14 - 17 hours including working over the weekends to meet impossible deadlines.

The ethics of the company were questionable as well. The saying in the office was "you worked at Crocs because you were either related to someone or sleeping with someone" and that was true. The CEO's wife and daughter worked there and the daughter was the completely clueless footwear product manager. The web guy's wife was related to one of the owners. One of the vice-presidents was dating a girl in the Rx division...so on and so forth. It was literally enough to make you sick.

I was there about 3 weeks when I realized I had made a terrible error in judgement and desparately needed to get out. Luckily, another company that I had interviewed with offered me a position which was my saving grace. Just showing up to work at Crocs made me physically ill. I'm am glad that I got out and yes, for more reasons than the fact they are ugly-ass shoes, I too HATE Crocs!!!


-Stacie

Good times! Thanks for writing!

You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

Emails from Newsweek readers

I'm announcing a new regular feature we're going to have here on IHATECROCSDOTCOM. It is called, 'Emails from Newsweek readers'. We got a lot of emails from them, and some of them are interesting and fit for our site. As long time readers know, I had my Gmail account hooked up to a ticker tape machine in the drawing room in the east wing of the manor ages ago. In the past few days, I have seen the drawing room fill with ticker tape from floor to ceiling. I've had to install a new ticker tape machine, though I installed it outside, near the croquet field.

Anyway, I thinking I'll be posting one new great email every few days until we run out of amusing emails.

To start us off, here's a great one from Daniel:

Greetings,

I'm an English teacher in South Korea. Generally speaking, I have a pleasant disposition with my students. Some of them I even like.

One day, I found myself filled with an odd, irrational disgust directed at a particular student, a kind and well-meaning girl named Suhjin. I'd always enjoyed her, she tries hard and participates, but I couldn't shake the feeling that, for some reason, I now despised her.

The feeling persisted. It wasn't an odor. Nor was it dehydration or a few nights of bad sleep. No matter how I felt, seeing her suddenly filled me with an intense revulsion.

A week or so of this, and suddenly I began to feel the same way about another student. And then one of our other teachers on staff. At this point, I saw the connection.

I'm not what you would call fashion conscious, and Korea is usually behind the times with everything Western, so I'd never heard of Crocs. All I knew was that I suddenly realized what was going on. It was the teacher, a short fellow named Henry. "What. The hell. Are those?" I asked, pointing to his feet.

He was wearing what I would later discover were called "Designer Crocs," dark-toned, slimmer at the heel, and padded with a faux-suede fur-lining. The rest of his outfit? Business slacks, dress shirt, and tie. "What are you wearing?" I asked. My disgust with him reached profound levels.

"They're Crocs!" he said proudly.

I physically recoiled. "My God," I thought. "He's lost his mind." When Suhjin came to class, I realized that she was sporting a neon orange pair. I suddenly saw them everywhere.

Let me be clear: I INSTINCTIVELY, and SUBCONSCIOUSLY hated these things before I was even aware they existed. I perceived them the way you might perceive, say, the sound of a humming refrigerator. Or the feel of your own tongue in your mouth. Something you know is there without realizing you know. I perceived them, and my body reacted with innate horror and hatred. I thought, for the longest time, that maybe something was wrong with me. Maybe I was just wired wrong. You know, how some people, for some reason, simply can't stand the taste of pizza or think prune juice is tastier than Pepsi.

And then, saints be praised, I found your website. Thank you for letting me know that there are others like me out there. The only thing that bums me out now is the knowledge that, since Seoul is usually a year or two behind the states with things like fashion and movies, long after you all enjoy the demise of the Crocs, I'll still have to put up with them.

Fight the good fight.

--Daniel

Thanks, Daniel!

You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.