Escalator Injuries

• In 2008, a 4-year-old boy wearing Crocs received severe, permanent damage to his foot while on an escalator in Atlanta's airport. A 3-year-old broke three toes on an escalator while wearing the same type of shoes. Clearly, Crocs, kids and escalators don't mix. As of 2008, at least four families filed lawsuits against the Colorado shoe company, alleging injuries to their children from wearing Crocs on escalators.
  
  

Company Response

• According to a 2008 CBS News report, Andrew Laskin, an attorney for two of the families, said the shoe company blames the dangers of any soft shoes while riding escalators and parents not properly watching very young children rather than the Crocs themselves. The concerns prompted an engineering director from Crocs to write to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission claiming that the company investigated these safety issues and found that the shoes posed no particular risk for either adults or children.
  
  

Static

• Blekinge Swedish Hospital, in southern Sweden, announced the possibility of banning Crocs, claiming the shoes cause a buildup of static electricity. They said hospital staff may transfer the charge from wearing the shoes to medical equipment, causing malfunction. Besides equipment problems, static electricity may contribute to the spread of infection in hospitals where the plastic in equipment is prone to accumulation of static charge. Bacteria travel through such fields and can therefore transfer directly to patients or cause infection indirectly by touching surfaces.
  
  

Support

• Some consumers have concerns that Crocs don't offer enough support. However, a major reason many hospital workers like Crocs is the comfort and support offered by the shoes. Some Crocs models from the Rx lines of models such as the "Relief" and "Cloud" lines contain extra support for people with various foot ailments such as bunions. These lines have extra space and antibacterial properties that help protect against infection, making them good choices for diabetics as well. Harold Glickman, DPM, former president of the American Podiatric Medical Association, told a WebMD writer that he recommends them to his patients "all the time." Consumers need to purchase those from the Rx lines to gain these benefits, however.