Can Crocs Be Dangerous To Your Child?
Posted August 13, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
They’re some of the world’s most popular footwear, but your kid’s Crocs could be almost literally a walking injury waiting to happen.
Just take the story of four-year-old Toronto boy Duncan, who loved his purple pair more than any other shoes he had, that is, until they almost cost him a toe.
“They got stuck into the escalator,” Duncan recalls of the fateful day his favourite footwear failed him.
Duncan was at Sherway Gardens with his family, coming up an escalator when suddenly one of his Crocs got stuck between the moving stairs and the stationary wall. His mother quickly figured out what was happening, but not before his shoes were forever ruined.
“I dropped my shopping bag and ripped his foot out,” recalls Duncan’s mother, Karen Goodfellow.
“There’s no question in my mind that his big toe or the next toe would have been caught or ripped right off.”
Duncan’s mother says the Crocs’ soft, thick foam led to the slip-on getting caught in the escalator, and says she was told by shoe store staff that the colourful Crocs commonly get caught in just such a manner.
When Crocs executives were contacted about Duncan’s situation they wouldn’t address the issue directly, but issued the following statement:
“Crocs shoes are completely safe. The popularity of our shoes has helped draw attention to a long-existing issue that we think is very important – escalator safety.”
Meanwhile, young Duncan won’t be getting a new pair of Crocs, and his mother has him back on closed-toed sneakers.
“As a schoolteacher and as a mom if we can tell other parents to keep their kids safe then it’s worth the effort,” Goodfellow said.
She added that effort may include trying to get escalators signed with a notification regarding the allegedly dangerous connection between moving stairways and the popular footwear.
