Sneaker designer Steven Smith is now Team Crocs.
Crocs named Smith, a footwear industry veteran with a resume that includes YEEZY, adidas, and Nike, its new Head of Creative Innovation. The designer will work in-house full-time for Crocs and insurgent slipper brand Hey Dude.
According to a press statement, Smith’s role includes “pushing Crocs, Inc. forward” under his creative direction. As the Head of Creative Innovation for Crocs and Hey Dude, he will create new footwear models and “evolve the brands’ design language.”
Crocs’ product offering has certainly expanded beyond its signature foam clogs. Lately, Crocs has entered the sneaker race with its own trendy kicks, like the beautiful hiking-ready Quick Trail Low and the wonderfully weird Juniper sneaker created by similarly in-demand sneaker expert Salehe Bembury.
Smith’s Crocs gig comes just after a controversial firing from YEEZY in August.
He’s behind some of the industry’s most influential shoes, having designed several innovative shapes now recognized as wildly prescient sneakers.
To be specific, Smith created the sought-after YEEZY Boost 700 Wave Runner — an ahead-of-the-curve “dad shoe” of sorts — and Reebok’s Instapump Fury. He’s extremely hardcore on the dad core, having designed New Balance sneakers like the 997, 1500, and 574, the latter of which is arguably the Boston-based brand’s most classic running shoe.
Smith is now bringing over 40 years of disruptive sneaker imagination to Crocs’ impressive collection of foam classics, demonstrating the company’s desire to keep on innovating.
Smith, who says he has a “penchant for taking design to new places,” will start his first day at Crocs bright and early on December 2, though there’s no guarantee that his first designs will begin rolling out in 2025 — it takes a long time to make the perfect shoe, as Smith well knows.