The incredible shrinking Croc

Earlier this summer I noticed that my trusty pair of Crocs seemed to be shrinking on me. At first they were just a little tight, but within a few weeks they were unwearable. It was as if they had lost a full size or two.

I can’t say for sure, but I believe the problem was that I left them out on my deck, exposed to the sun, just long enough to heat them up to the point that the rubber warped and shrunk.

Whatever the cause, I’ve missed having them on more than a few occasions this summer. I know they are pretty goofy looking, but I still find them to be the lightest, cheapest, and most convenient option for several different activities – especially as a camp shoe on backpacking trips.

So I decided to try to fix the problem on my own. I thought, hey, if heat warped my crocs enough to shrink them… maybe I could also use heat to expand them? Kind of like you can do with an athletic mouth guard. Seemed worth a shot, so my first idea was to boil some water and drop the Crocs in it for a few moments. However, I didn’t have a large enough pot to submerge my size 10s in. It was then that I walked by some folded clothes fresh out of the dryer. Bingo!

Don’t tell Jess I know how to use the dryer

I ran the Crocs in our Dryer for about 10 minutes. They were pretty hot when they came out, softer to the touch. It looked like this might work. So I put them on over a pair of socks (to help expand them even more) and wore them for about an hour. Lo and behold, it worked.

My Crocs now fit exactly like they used to.

Buying Crocs

As an aside to this story, I tried to buy a new pair at REI and were told they no longer sell Crocs in adult sizes. This seems to be the case with a lot of vendors right now. I did however, find that Altrec.com still carries several different versions with lots of size options.