People who wouldn’t have been seen dead in Crocs, the hybrid monstrosities designed by three boating enthusiasts, have given in to their perfect practicality.

Croc and Frog - Etsy UK

Crocs, the most infamous of these shoes, turn 18 this year, and the pandemic has been good for their health. We have seen a surge in demand for our icon, the Classic clog,” says the company’s vice-president of lockdown sales. These venomous creatures hide just beneath the sand, eyes peeking above to survey the surrounding landscape for potential prey. Newly coined as amphibious shoes, they are not in themselves new, but along with the floafers (a loafer that floats), GQ-approved Hoka One One Hopara sandals, a new collaboration of wipe-clean sandals designed by super-stylist Lotta Volkova for Adidas, and later this month a neoprene pair in orange and red from a collaboration between Palace skateboards and Adidas, they have emerged as the sandal of now.There is an impulse right now to attribute every hat, shirt and shoe to some form of pandemic-fuelled uncertainty.

Frog Charms for Crocs - Etsy UK Frog Charms for Crocs - Etsy UK

Tevas, launched in the 1980s as little more than a velcro watch strap attached to a flip-flop, were designed to be worn on rafting trips in the great American outdoors. But, as is the case with anything that purports to make our lives better, we democratise it, commodify it and thus it goes mainstream. For their AW20 show, Balenciaga flooded Paris’ Cité du Cinema film studio – and front row seats – with water to highlight climate change, and put models in galoshes and waterproof shoes. Bathers often succumb; if stung, your best bet is to plunge your feet into very hot water and keep them there for as long as possible. If clothes help us define how a crisis has changed our lives – see Zoom shirts, slipped on for meetings like flak jackets, and tracksuits replacing white collars as acceptable office wear – then these shoes are very much a sign of the times, representative of the way in which comfort and practicality have overwhelmed convention and fashion.

Affordable, comfortable and versatile, the amphibious shoe-wearer is paying to feel something like being barefoot. They also allow for the sort of flexible lifestyle that the current situation – and weather – demands of us.