Crocs Can Bite! Do they Pose a Serious Safety Risk?

As far as I can tell only two kinds of people wear Crocs sandals – rotund, boisterous celebrity chefs represented by Mario Batali and kids.

Why Mario wears Crocs is beyond me but then again, I guess open toe footwear is in line with a certain je ne sais quio mentality from a guy who wears shorts in a professional kitchen. Kids wear Crocs because they make sense for a lot of reasons – they’re grippy on wet surfaces, are light weight and anti-microbial not to mention totally intriguing to kids in the same way Heinz Green Catsup is.

And parents seem to have no problem buying Crocs for kids despite their…um…unique…styling. It’s amazing how “honey I shrunk the kids” sizing can make even something fugly exceedingly cute. I count myself among that group of parents. And so far so good…but a Noodad reader aleted me to an article in yesterday’s Hartford Courant that had us contemplating pulling the footwear from rotation.

Seems that the Japanese government has issued a consumer warning and asked Crocs to redesign the footwear that is extremely popular there. The Japanese Trade Ministry has collected several dozen complaints of foot injuries suffered by kids on escalators – everything from cuts on feet and ankles to lost toenails to severed toes…all, the ministry aledges, because the combination of little toes and very fleixble and grippy rubber footwear makes feet suciptible to getting jammed in between escalator stairs.

You can read more about it here.

My son wears his Crocs around the pool and to childcare…not the mall. I think his Crocs are appropriate for Grandma and Grampa’s pool deck…childcare, maybe. Anywhere else, um, no. My wife agrees. So for us, this Crocs vs. escalator issue is a non-issue. What about for you? Judge for yourself but now you know…and knowing is half the battle, right?!