Can the Crocs empire strike back with Star Wars partnership?

Crocs, that shoe, sorry Clog, brand that no one would ever admit to wearing in daylight, have created a strangely timed and odd brand partnership with Star Wars.

I’m not sure what Star Wars gets out of it apart from huge amounts of money. I only see upsides here for Crocs but they are the ones that need it.

Clearly between now and December 2015 when the next Star Wars money making prequel-sequel (I lose track) opens we are going to see a million Star Wars brand partnerships hitting the streets.

The Crocs one is not an obvious one creatively even if it is from a targeting point of view. The brands to me do not align and the creative does nothing to reassure me that this partnership does anything for the Star Wars brand.

Clearly aimed at kids Crocs have persuaded Star Wars to let them introduce Stormtrooper Clogs and light(saber) in the dark clogs all branded with different Star Wars characters. Can you imagine how quickly the Empire would have fallen if all the Stormtroopers wore Crocs clogs?

They would have been falling over their feet and their enemies would have been laughing their socks off, which of course no one wears with Crocs.

The light-in-the-dark-when-you-move clogs will undoubtedly become as annoying as those squeak-when-you-move trainers that some clearly deaf parents like to inflict on other people if not themselves in shopping malls.  Gimmicks abound with this brand partnership, none of which I think reflects well on Star Wars.

Even the design of the boxes that the Star Wars Crocs come in have been specially designed with collectors of the Star Wars brand in mind. It all looks very cool and in line with the brand until you remember they’re still Crocs inside the box.

There are Jedi elements, Darth Vader, Lightsaber, Stormtroopers and R2D2 ones all emblazoned on the Crocs as well as huge Star Wars logos. The partnership has no subtleties about it but to be fair it does have to fight for space amongst the many other Star Wars brand partnerships flooding the market in the run up to what is already the most over hyped film ever made.

Some of the copy is simply cringe worthy, “the greatest clogs the galaxy has ever known”, really?

Crocs though have nothing to lose. Having fallen in value from being a $6 billion company to being a $1 billion company, closing stores and cutting jobs. Crocs have everything to gain with any brand association that could bring new customers into their stores or reignite the passion of older ones to return.

Star Wars benefit from being featured in point of sale in all stores globally and of course having kids wear their brand everyday reminding them of their brand loyalty and that new film.