Salehe Bembury is on a roll.
After delivering collaborations with New Balance and Anta, Bembury — the FN 2020 Designer of the Year — has joined forces with Crocs. Bembury announced the partnership via Instagram on Wednesday, sharing a teaser video that shows a foot imprint in a mound of sand that features Crocs logo with the budding designer’s name below it.
Bembury didn’t go into further detail about the collab as he simply captioned the post with a crocodile emoji. Bembury is the latest big name to team up with the brand. Bad Bunny released a glow-in-the-dark collab in 2020, and Post Malone dropped his latest collaboration with Crocs in 2019. Justin Bieber has also partnered with the label.
It’s been a busy past year for Crocs. Despite the retail industry taking a major hit due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, sales soared for Crocs and the brand became more popular than ever as shoppers began leaning on more comfortable attire while quarantining and working remotely amid the global health crisis. Crocs was the only footwear label to show sales growth in March — the height of the pandemic — out of the top 30 tracked by market research firm The NPD Group Inc. The momentum continued into the fall, as searches for the clogs jumped 41% in Q3, according to fashion search engine Lyst, and revenues rose 15.7% in the same quarter. Crocs was also honored as Brand of the Year at the 2020 FN Achievement Awards.
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As for Bembury, the designer is also maintaining velocity. In January, Bembury teased another iteration of the New Balance 2002R on Instagram. The image shows the shoe covered in a blue and green colorway with a white and green midsole adorned with orange speckles. Like with Crocs, Bembury offered the simple caption: “Water.” At the time of publication, neither Bembury or New Balance offered details of the release of the shoe. Just last week, Bembury teased yet another New Balance collab, revealing a New Balance Test Run Project 3.0 on social media. The look included multiple prints, patterns and colors with Bembury’s name spotted on the shoe in neon yellow.
Bembury was the talk of the town in 2020 as a result of the new-look New Balance 2002R bearing his name. The outdoor-inspired sneaker featured hues that were nostalgic to Antelope Canyon in Arizona. The shoe dropped on Oct. 23 and quickly sold out.
