How Salehe Bembury and Crocs Borrowed the Best of Sneaker Culture to Create the FNAA Collection of the Year
On Nov. 29, Salehe Bembury and Crocs will be honored with the Collection of the Year at the 37th annual FN Achievement Awards. Below is an article from the magazine’s Nov. 27 print issue about their Pollex collection.
The Salehe Bembury x Crocs Pollex Clog is not a sneaker. That much is obvious upon looking at the foam shoe molded to feature swirling ridges and irregular holes.
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But in just two years, through a combination of Crocs’ penchant for simplicity and comfort and Bembury’s often-cheeky design language, the silhouette has become one of the defining wearable objects of the decade — garnering a place in the hearts of even ever-discerning sneakerheads and spawning a Pollex Slide spinoff.
“Salehe Bembury’s Crocs Pollex collection hits on all the things consumers are looking for these days — comfort, affordability and a sleek aesthetic,” said StockX merchandising director Drew Haines. “[It] was one of the first forays into a streetwear-style aesthetic for Crocs, and it has had an undeniable impact on the brand.”
Crocs president Michelle Poole told FN the partnership was built on a mutual interest in challenging the status quo. “One of our core values is imaginative innovation,” she said. “Salehe has brought a fresh perspective and enabled us to connect with new consumers.”
When the first Pollex Clog released in December 2021, Crocs was already into its contemporary boom. (That year, FN named its Classic Clog the Shoe of the Year.)
Bembury, for his part, was also on a rapid ascent as the most in-demand independent shoe designer in the game (as evidenced by his FN’s Designer of the Year honor in 2020). Having worked behind the scenes at Payless and Yeezy, he gained recognition for establishing Versace as a player in the luxury sneaker game.
During this concurrent period of piling up accolades, Crocs reached out to Bembury to offer him free product. He countered by proposing a collaboration unwittingly featuring a children’s model. Crocs then suggested he create his own silhouette — making Bembury the first outside collaborator to develop a whole new mold instead of adding to an existing one.
“I immediately did the Grinch smile and Birdman hand rub and said yes,” Bembury told FN last month on a Zoom call from his Los Angeles headquarters, referencing memes featuring the Christmas villain and hip-hop mogul.
The result saw the foam clog take on an amalgamation of three of Bembury’s own fingerprints, a motif that’s been a throughline throughout his designs. The shoe’s last was slightly altered to shave down the toe pitch and ward off what Bembury said has led some to describe the Classic Clog as a “clown shoe.”
Ventilation holes were arranged carefully so as to keep the pinky toe and its immediate neighbors obscured. After seeing models wearing footwear on high-fashion runways, Bembury determined these were the most unattractive of toes — and he didn’t want them appearing in Instagram photos of the shoe and turning people off the whole silhouette.
Bembury credits the late Virgil Abloh with helping him to consider how his designs will look on-screen and not just in real life. For instance, Abloh chose Off-White’s logo, in part, because it fit perfectly into Instagram’s requisite square posts in the early days of the platform.
“When we were creating the Pollex Slide, I was often talking about how the pattern on the top and bottom needed to be exactly like the Pollex Clog, as if we just sliced it off, because people are going to put those pictures right next to each other on Instagram,” Bembury said.
Bembury also had Pollex Clog spinoffs in mind from the start, and both he and Poole teased the potential of another Pollex diffusion model arriving in 2024. And, of course, there will be more colorways of the Pollex Clog and Slide to come — continuing a trend that’s seen instant sellouts and exorbitant resale prices give way to better accessibility for all amid continued demand.
Given the success thus far, it’s no wonder Bembury and Crocs extended and strengthened their relationship this year as part of a new deal that gives him the title of creative director for the Pollex collection. But if there’s one thing Bembury is most proud of, it’s that the Pollex Clog has inspired its wearers to go outside, particularly those who are Black and have historically been shut out of outdoor activities.
Bembury got into hiking when he moved to Los Angeles in 2015, and it’s informed his design choices ever since. He routinely shares posts from other Instagram users showing where they’ve taken the Pollex Clogs.
“It gives the product more power,” Bembury says. “A lot of times people are just buying sh*t because it’s cool or because it has a logo on it. But if you are buying something because you feel like it’s going to positively influence your life, that injects so much more significance.”
For 37 years, the annual FN Achievement Awards — often called the “Shoe Oscars” — have celebrated the style stars, best brand stories, ardent philanthropists, emerging talents and industry veterans. The 2023 event is supported by sponsors Authentic Brands Group, Birdies, Caleres, Crocs, FDRA, Nordstrom, Saucony and Vibram.
About the Author:
Ian Servantes is a Senior Trending News Editor for Footwear News specializing in sneaker coverage. He’s previously reported on streetwear and sneakers at Input and Highsnobiety after beginning his career on the pop culture beat. He subscribes to the idea that “ball is life” and doesn’t fuss over his kicks getting dirty.
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