When these three best pals poked a bunch of holes in their shoes

They were clueless it would become a fashion footwear craze worth $3.6 billion.

They had been friends for quite some time. In fact two -- George Boedecker and Lyndon Hanson -- attended high school together.

And then all three, including Scott Seamans wound up at one of the college campuses that make up the University of Colorado.

After graduating, they each took different jobs … one in marketing, one as an executive and one a mechanical engineer.

Yet they also kept in touch with one another.

And one of their favorite activities was going on boating trips. That was easy enough for them to do because both Scott and George had sail boats, which they kept at a Miami Beach marina. In fact Scott had made enough money from his previous job to afford a 78-foot sailboat named Hannibal.

So one summer back in 2002, these three best pals decided to sail on the Hannibal to Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico and then on to the Florida Keys. The trip would serve as their mini-vacation.

But it was a trip with a dual purpose: One was to cheer up Lyndon’s life, which had just fallen apart over the past six months. His wife had filed for divorce, and he’d lost his job marketing computer hardware. On top of all this, his mother recently died of breast cancer.

At the time he was also homeless and slept on the sofa of another friend’s house who had also recently separated from his wife. Although it was a difficult time for both, they made the most of their situation. In fact they dubbed their home “Dejected Man House.”

The other part of the trip was a chance for Scott to show off a new pair of boating shoes he had just bought.

But he had done something quite odd to the shoes … he poked a bunch of holes in them.

Now you’d think as an avid boater, Scott would have his share of boating shoes. He did but he hated typical boating shoes. Scott found that most were uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time … they often got quite stinky when wet … and if they fell over board, they sank straight to the bottom of the ocean.

So he figured by making holes in his weird, shaped shoes, they’d be lightweight, airy, slip-resistant, comfortable and most of all, could float in the water.

However when he showed the shoes to Lyndon and George their reaction wasn’t what he expected. In fact they told him they were downright the ugliest shoes they’d ever seen.

But Scott convinced each one to give the shoe a try. And boy oh boy … once they stepped in it, well you could say it was love at “first feet.”

Clog Cobbler with Swiss Cheese Holes

Scott took to boating while attending the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. In fact he spent one full semester boating through the school’s Semester at Sea program.

While he was a skilled engineer, Scott was more like an inventor. That’s because for more than 14 years he ran his own company designing and manufacturing professional photography and medical related equipment.

He also held a number of patents for his work in materials engineering and process development. He sold his company in 1996, gaining the free time and financial wherewithal to indulge his twin pastimes: skiing and sailing.

It’s from his engineering work that he discovered a Canadian company called Foam Creations.

The company specializes in making products such as medical equipment like orthopedic backrests, toilet seats, stadium seat covers, protective sports gear like knee pads and swim boards, etc.

One product in particular they made were good olé fashioned clogs. But they didn’t actually make the clogs out of wood like how the Dutch did. And they didn’t have the traditional pointed toe. Nor did they hand paint flowers on them either.

Original Dutch clogs

Instead they were made of the same material that was used in all of their products, Croslite. It’s not plastic or rubber. It’s more like a foam resin that forms itself to a wearer's feet (because of body heat) and is also impact absorbing. People liked them because they were comfortable to wear.

However the problem was not enough people LOVED the shoes. To be downright honest, the company wasn’t selling very many of their modern day clogs.

But Scott loved them. And as he prepared for the “best buds” upcoming trip to Mexico and the Florida Keys, he turned the pair of clogs he owned into his version of a boating shoe.

How did he do it?

First, he punched a bunch of holes in the top of the clog … 13 to be exact.

The holes kind of resembled that of Swiss cheese, but he did it so that excess moisture could easily escape, which meant they wouldn’t stink up the boat’s cabin like traditional boater shoes did when they got wet.

Plus, the holes would keep your feet dry, acting as a source of ventilation.

Then he added a strap to the back so that the clog wouldn’t fall of your foot.

After making all the adjustments to his clog boat shoe, he was ready to show it his friends.

So Strange, So Ugly, So Good

Now that George and Lyndon had tried the clog boat shoes on for themselves, they wanted a pair.

But our best pals started to wonder out loud  … if we like them, would other boaters feel the same way?

After thinking it over for a bit of time, the three men concluded that perhaps the clog boat shoe was so novel, so strange looking, so ugly, that people might just want to try them on. And once they did, they’d fall in love with them too.

While none of the men had any experience in the shoe industry, George Boedecker did have plenty of business experience. His story is quite impressive. In three decades, he had transformed himself from a kid who’d legally separated from his parents at age 17 to a multimillionaire franchisee of Domino’s and, later, an executive for Quiznos sandwich shops.

He had enough money to get their operation started. Lyndon Hanson was a marketer, so he put together the plan on how to distribute the Canadian shoe in the United States.

The trio even brought in family and friends to get their shoe manufacturing business up and running. Heck, they even hired the captain of Scott’s boat, Ron Oliver to be part of their five-man team.

Then they leased space at a warehouse in Miami. To keep expenses down, they often lived on either Scott’s or George’s boat. But let’s be real … this gave them plenty of  chance to go sailing, which was after all, one of their favorite hobbies.

The three men set a goal of selling around 25,000 or 30,000 pairs of shoes a year. It would provide a nice extra income. Heck, it also gave them an excuse to travel from Colorado to Miami on a regular basis.

They were now ready to debut their clog boat shoe, which they named the Beach to the world. So the first place they picked was the International Boat Show in Fort Lauderdale. They set up an exhibit to showcase the shoes.

One of the original Beach Crocs in pink

Oh my gosh, their booth was swarmed. They had made 200 pairs for the event and quickly sold out. But the shoes weren’t all being bought by boaters. In fact the three men had no clue that their boat shoe had much wider appeal.

To their surprise, restaurant and hospital workers were buying them. Pretty much anyone who stood on their feet all day at work wanted a pair of these goofy looking clogs with Swiss cheese like holes.

It’s at this exact moment, the three best pals knew they had something.

When Crocs Attack

Now if everyone wanted a pair of their shoes, they could no longer call them The Beach. They had to come up with something that was quirky enough yet also represented a shoe for all people. Even children. In fact many people told them they ought to make the same shoe for young kids.

That was a perfect idea. As they tossed around new names, one that seemed to fit best was Crocs. Why that one? Because of a crocodile’s versatility on land and in water. The same with their shoes … used for both water and land.

In 1999 the three officially formed a company known as Western Brands. During their first full year on the market, 76,000 pairs of Crocs were sold, generating $1.2 million in sales. Just one year later, Western Brands sold 649,000 pairs, resulting in revenues of $12.3 million.

In 2003, the trio showed off their new shoe at the first footwear exhibition, the March Shoe Market of the Americas. Again, Crocs were a big hit with attendees.

Here they realized that Baby boomers with swollen feet and fallen arches liked the way Crocs felt on hardwood floors. Middle school trend-setters loved the variety of bright colors. And gardeners dug the fact that you could hose them off.

In June 2004, Western Brands purchased the exclusive rights to the foam resin from Foam Creations. They also applied for patents including  "breathable work shoes and methods for manufacturing such shoes," and three design patents covering various ornamental aspects.

By 2005, they had sold more than 6 million pairs of shoes and reached $108.8 million in sales. That same year, Footwear News named Crocs its brand of the year.

They also changed the name of their company from Western Brands to Crocs, International.

Crocs old logo alongside the new logo

Crocs has sold more than 720 million pairs of shoes since its inception back in 2002.

That’s a whole lot of foam shoes. Plus, Crocs are sold in more than 90 countries worldwide, making those big numbers possible.

And the hits just keep coming: In 2021, Crocs posted record revenue of $625.9 million, a 73% increase from the same period in 2020.

They’ve become so popular that even celebrities such as Justin Bieber, John Cena, Whoopie Goldberg, and Nicki Minaj wear them. And they often post pictures of their Crocs on social media outlets.

But that’s not all. The three best pals have launched several other brands under Crocs, International including their newest comfy shoe … HEYDUDE.

Combined sales of all brands recently reached $3.6 billion in 2022. Talk about achieving record success … all from an idea to poke some holes in a pair of shoes.

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Awesome Quotes by Awesome People

“In a world full of pebbles, dare to be a diamond.”— Matshona Dhilwayo

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