A runner just completed a fast 1/2 marathon wearing Crocs for running shoes according to Runners World Magazine.

The next running shoe you are going to buy is not likely to be this brand of shoe, but somebody just ran a fast half marathon wearing only but Crocs.

I have always recommended crocs due to their low cost and supportive footbed.

The original Crocs were used for gardening and their design was worn by many.   The company has grown way past the original design which this runner had used to place 12th this past May. Benjamin Pachev crossed the line in a staggering time of 1:11:53, finishing in 16th place. His father, Sasha crossed the line a few minutes later, with a finish time of 1:17:26.

Prior to that, he also ran the Utah Valley Half and you can check out his dad’s video footage here of him running in nothing but Crocs.

Sasha, Benjamins father contacted me with some additional details.  Apparently, Sasha and Sara, his spouse originated from Russia and now have a family of 12.

With regards to their relationship with Croc’s, this came directly from Sasha who Emailed me with some corrections.   This was taken directly from his email

We started running in Crocs in 2010 after noticing that they were as good as racing flats for speed, but a lot easier to put on unlike racing flats did not give us blisters, were a lot cheaper, and created a shock effect by their appearance on our feet and our unexpected ability to race competitively in them. After achieving a measure of success we attempted to form some kind of a partnership with the company on multiple occasions, but it went nowhere. The last time we tried was 2019, and we were explicitly told by their VP of marketing that they were not interested in promoting Crocs as an athletic shoe. In the meantime, Benjamin kept getting faster and is now running at the level where his performances could start a major shift in the running shoe market and become a threat to companies like Nike.

We realized that this creates a crazy opportunity for us. We started buying CROX stock with our own money. Then we continue to race in Crocs as we normally do and do what we can to publicize our performances. A story of somebody running a pro-quality time in Crocs when properly presented will go viral. This drives the sales of Crocs a lot more than a world record in the best Nike shoes drives their sales as Crocs are a lot more of a general use shoe. Potentially other elite runners join the fray. Then Crocs sales go through the roof, and so does their stock price. It becomes the next Google or Amazon. In the process, we make some undeserving executives very rich, but we do not care. We make a bit of money for ourselves, but more importantly, we get to have some fun driving up the stock price of a publicly traded company. So yes, what we did in a sense is a publicity stunt, but not exactly – we are simply doing a bit more work to publicize what we do anyway.

So there you have it; the full story of the Crocs and the Pachev’s. They used the shoes as an affordable alternative to expensive running shoes.   Too bad the executives at Croc’s did not seize the moment.   On the other hand, the Pachev’s did.  Good job guys.

Check out the full article on Runners World using this link

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a36406163/5000m-wearing-crocs/