At the 2026 Baird Global Consumer, Technology and Services Conference, Patraic Reagan, Croc Inc’s EVP and CFO, discussed HeyDude’s turnaround prospects and Crocs brand’s international momentum and North American DTC strength. However, he particularly called out how changes in marketing tactics are helping the Crocs brand rank as the top-selling footwear brand on TikTok Shop for two straight years.
“We feel like we’re well-positioned with some of the products that we’re bringing to market. We continue to invest in innovation. It’s a priority for us,” said Reagan. “However, it doesn’t do us much good to bring that great new product, innovative product to market if we’re not telling those marketing stories effectively.”
Among the changes Crocs has made is investing in digital and social marketing, particularly in marketplaces like TikTok. Said Reagan, “From an agility standpoint, we’re learning, and we’re learning quickly in terms of how to engage and communicate with that consumer.”
The move includes taking advantage of more viral moments, such as those triggered by the release of unique collaborations with the Crocs brand.
Relatedly, HeyDude over the last week has been earning significant social media buzz by calling out that HeyDude had been banned from collegiate hacky sack leagues and GHSA (Georgia) hacky sack events.
“For those of you who’ve got kids of a certain age, hacky sack is back in a big way,” said Reagan. “And there are some tournaments going on. Apparently, some of our shoes are designed to give an unfair advantage. We didn’t design them like that.”
He added, “But we’re seizing on the moment in a way that Crocs Inc. is good at seizing on viral moments, and it’s making a fun kind of play in terms of being banned from hacky sack tournaments. So, we’re just having a little bit of fun with it. But it’s all really pointed at kind of keeping the brand top of mind for our consumers.”
More broadly, Crocs, Inc. has pulled back “quite a bit” on spend in performance marketing, a lower-funnel tactic in which marketers pay for clicks or purchases, to focus more on storytelling to drive impressions.
“It’s an expensive way to drive revenue,” said Reagan of performance marketing. “And we’ve kind of repositioned that into telling more of our product stories and more of our brand stories.”
He said the marketing shift is being led by Terence Reilly, who last May assumed the role of EVP and chief brand officer. He most recently led HeyDude for Crocs, Inc., and previously served as global president of Stanley, and earlier in his career, led Crocs’ marketing.
Said Reagan, “If you’re familiar with Terence and some of his work – you may not be – but probably many of you got a very expensive Stanley coffee cup or beverage holder, and Terence was really the mastermind of bringing that to life. And he worked with Crocs before. He’s now back. We’re happy to have him, and he’s really driving some very focused and very cutting-edge marketing stories to help us with product.”
The Baird presentation followed Crocs Inc.’s late April earnings and sales guidance raise after it reported first-quarter results that exceeded expectations. Sales in the quarter slid 4.0 percent on a constant-currency basis, as a 10.2 percent gain in direct-to-consumer (DTCC)) was offset by a 12.5 percent decline in wholesale channels.
Reagan said DTC was expected to benefit from favorable new product offerings faster than the wholesale channel, driven by social and digital channels. Said Reagan, “We knew that the wholesale channel was going to lag because that’s just kind of how the marketplace works. That’s not to say our wholesale partners aren’t important. They are critically important to us. We aim, and we leverage our wholesale partners to make sure that we’ve got our product, both Crocs and HeyDude, available to our consumers without friction in terms of having to find us.”
The CFO noted that the Crocs brand, as expected, has seen a jump in its at-once business from wholesale partners following positive reviews of newer products.
International outperformed for Crocs Inc. in the first quarter, expanding 2.3 percent on a constant-currency basis compared with a 6.4 percent decline in North America.
Reagan said strong growth is still expected in the years ahead for international, which already accounts for half of Crocs Inc’s revenue. The international team, according to Reagan, has “done a really good job in terms of planting the seeds of international growth,” with Crocs Inc. directly controlling distribution in most developed markets, including France, Germany and the UK, while relying on distributors with local know-how in markets such as Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Said Reagan, “In all those marketplaces, we’re still in very much a nascent place of marketplace development. Just a nice little data point for you all is China is our second largest international market, but it accounts for just 4 percent of our global sales.”
He added, “So there are a lot of people in China. There are a lot of feet. Our product plays really well to that consumer. The price is well-positioned given where we are from a consumer standpoint. And so we’ve got a lot of runway internationally with both brands.”
Providing an update on HeyDude’s turnaround, Reagan said the brand is expected to meet expectations and return to growth in the second half. Said Reagan, “That’s on track. The data points and the proof points are out there, and we continue to feel exceptionally confident with that.”
He noted that HeyDude saw “really strong growth” following Crocs Inc’s acquisition of the brand in early 2022 but continues to undergo a “rightsizing” to rebalance inventories in the marketplace. Said Reagan, ‘Like a lot of acquisitions, there are some growing pains.”
Reagan said Crocs Inc. still believes HeyDude has a “much, much larger” total addressable market (TAM) based on its style. He also noted that the brand is well-positioned in the marketplace, with annual sales of $700 million. Said Reagan, “There’s not a lot of $700 million footwear brands. So, we’re already at scale. And we’re at scale, profitably. HeyDude’s been profitable from day one and continues to be profitable for Crocs.”
Finally, Reagan said HeyDude continues to augment its leadership team, including last November’s appointment of Rupert Campbell, former president of Adidas North America, as brand president. Said Reagan, “He’s taking the reins and is making key investments in that team from a product innovation and merchandising standpoint. So, really kind of building out the core of that leadership team.”
The Crocs brand also moved to streamline inventory in the second half of 2025 amid broader economic uncertainties but is seeing a continued focus on innovation and increasingly diversified offerings paying off early in 2026.
“Within the clogs category, which is a growing category globally, we’re diversifying within that space,” said Reagan. “We’re the market leader by a significant margin. We drive the innovation. We drive taste in that space. And so, we’re really kind of driving continued innovation there. And that’s one of the reasons why it was so important for us to get the marketplace in a good spot as we turned out of ’25 and into ’26.”
Outside of clogs, Crocs has found success in sandals, which have become a $500 billion business across the Crocs brand and HeyDude. Said Reagan, “From a footwear perspective, there aren’t a lot of companies that have $500 million in sales overall. So really from a size and scale standpoint, the innovation that’s going on from a product perspective in that space has really been helping to drive growth.”
Images courtesy HeyDude/Crocs, Inc.
