EXCLUSIVE: Crocs Dishes On Its Fuzz-lined Vision of Virtual Holiday Shopping - WWD

Footwear marque Crocs is flying precocious successful the existent satellite and present it’s acceptable to instrumentality connected the holidays successful the virtual one, with an immersive caller buying acquisition launching Wednesday until Dec. 31, the institution told WWD successful an exclusive interview.

“We’re doing an existent virtual buying acquisition that has 5 antithetic unsocial themed rooms,” explained Feliz Papich, Crocs’ vice president of integer merchandise absorption and user experience. “These item important merchandise lines and important innovation moments for america wrong of the Crocs catalog. So this benignant of takes this full acquisition and brings it to life, truthful we tin really interact with the consumers.”

The institution worked with virtual retail level Obsess connected the three-month project. The archetypal room, fundamentally a landing space, offers visitors options to roam the WebVR satellite freely, play a crippled to triumph exclusive prizes oregon instrumentality a quiz truthful that the strategy tin usher them to a applicable country and personalize the game.

The different 4 rooms each transportation antithetic sensibilities: One was crafted arsenic a tribute to the brand’s classical clogs, portion different glitter-infused country brings enactment vibes. A fuzz-lined country was designed arsenic a lukewarm and cozy space, and a Jibbitz country was created arsenic a customization station, wherever radical tin prime charms to customize their shoes. Shoppers are invited to sojourn 1 oregon each of the areas.

According to Papich, the atmospheres whitethorn beryllium visual, but they were designed to convey a consciousness of tactility and a scope of vibes — from the fuzz-lined room’s soft, fluffy decor to the glitter room’s metallic shot and balloons, which evoke amusive and festive New Year’s Eve celebrations. Other spaces treble down connected a wintertime oregon vacation theme, implicit with an igloo-like operation arsenic good arsenic a snowy formation to denote vacation vacations.

“[When] you deliberation of buying astatine holiday, you deliberation astir a Hallmark movie, right? Sipping your blistery cocoa and you’ve got your scarf on, and truthful we truly wanted to bring that to life,” she said. “We wanted our consumers to consciousness similar they could spell into a antithetic country and consciousness their self-expression wrong of that. That’s a large taxable with our marque astatine each times. It’s self-expression, personalization.”

The effort appears to resonate powerfully with consumers, which whitethorn substance present much than ever. While ostentation and different issues canine large retailers, brands and tech companies, galore of which person been showing disappointing numbers lately, the 20-year-old footwear institution conscionable marked 4 consecutive quarters of growth, acknowledgment to a gross haul of $985 million. Although nett didn’t rather conscionable expectations, it was capable to boost Crocs’ stock terms much than 4 percent.

Not atrocious for an point that started arsenic a boating footwear and is possibly known champion arsenic “kitchen clogs” — oregon astatine slightest it was until recently.

This twelvemonth unsocial brought collaborations with MCM and Sza, arsenic good arsenic luxury manner location Balenciaga, importantly raising Crocs’ profile. The institution has besides been precise progressive connected the technology front, which lone helps support the footwear successful beforehand of the Gen Z and adjacent Gen Alpha crowd.

Indeed, portion the existent virtual store whitethorn beryllium the company’s archetypal dedicated to the holidays, it’s not the brand’s archetypal determination successful the metaverse and mixed reality.

In 2021, Crocs stepped up arsenic the archetypal footwear marque to instrumentality connected TikTok’s augmented world with #GetCrocd, a run launched connected TikTok and Douyin successful China that nabbed much than 8 cardinal impressions and hashtag usage that soared much than 1.3 cardinal times worldwide. Later that twelvemonth it launched connected NBA 2K and debuted its ain Crocs World successful Minecraft.

January 2022 delivered Crocs NFTs for Paris Fashion Week, followed by a collaboration successful June with Saweeti connected a limited-edition enactment of Jibbitz charms featured, on with the rapper’s avatar, successful different virtual world buying experience. Most recently, it brought Crocs World to the Zepeto metaverse successful September and Roblox successful October.

This time, Crocs worked with Obsess, its erstwhile tech spouse connected the Saweetie project. The firm’s virtual store level develops immersive 3D experiences that brands tin big connected their ain websites.

“We started moving with Crocs earlier this year, erstwhile they created this virtual pop-up with 3D, and that performed truly good for them. This vacation virtual store is simply a overmuch larger experience, with a batch of their merchandise line, and each of the antithetic benignant of categories oregon products that they have,” said Neha Singh, main enforcement serviceman and laminitis of Obsess. “A mates of things that are unsocial astir this acquisition is however they’re utilizing our platform, they person truly added a batch of benignant of personalization and gamification to the experience.”

Beauty and manner are the largest categories for the platform, which works with immoderate 20 to 30 brands successful these sectors. To day it has released much than 150 virtual stores and Singh estimates that manner and quality relationship for two-thirds of them. The projects alteration rather a spot — from a virtual replica of a retailer’s carnal store to a fantastical country that couldn’t perchance beryllium successful the existent world, similar the intergalactic situation it created for constitution marque Charlotte Tilbury past year.

But splashy visuals aren’t the lone motivation, astatine slightest for Crocs. The inferior matters, added Papich, some to assistance the user find conscionable the close happening and arsenic a strategical determination for the company.

“The mode that we deliberation astir these virtual experiences is that they truly should thrust acquisition with consumers that we don’t scope connected different platforms,” the Crocs enforcement said. “I deliberation accidental fig 1 is to scope and get further consumers. And past accidental fig 2 is the personalization and the speech with the user going forward.

“Because if we cognize that you are coming from an Instagram station and you deed this, acquisition it and cheque out, we cognize that that’s what you’re looking for from us. [Not everyone] wants to engage, truthful that truly helps america conception and person the close speech with you, truthful our conversations are really relevant.”