Sheri Schmelzer: Earning Millions from Crocs Decorations
July 23, 2008 by Lyve Alexis Pleshette
Filed under Briefs, Success Stories
Crocs are the very popular resin clogs dotted with holes and comes in every color, from pinks to blues to yellows to blacks. They are ugly shoes, but both adults and children love them. In fact, the company grew from $1 million in revenue in 2003 to a projected $322 million in 2007.
Given the tremendous popularity of croc shoes, Sheri Schmelzer decided to ride the wave and offer products that would allow users to customize their croc shoes.
A stay at home mom, Sheri and her three daughters had an idea in 2005 to personalize and decorate the holes of their crocs (they owned 12 pairs at the time) with unique charms made from rhinestones and clay that would fit in the holes of the shoes. Hence, Jibbitz was born.
Jibbitz croc charms come in a wide variety of designs, ranging from superheroes like Spiderman to sports to Scoop the Digger to beer mugs. Sheri is the chief designer, while her husband runs the business as CEO. Her business sold about 300 designs of charms for crocs and she was able to sign up more than 4,000 retail outlets. In December 2006, Crocs the company bought Jibbitz for $20 million with Sheri and her husband remaining on board.
Sheri proves that inspiration for successful businesses are everywhere — you just have to look closely. While others merely see the holes in Croc shoes as plain holes, Sheri saw the business potential of those holes — and earned her millions.
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I told a lady this story about Sheri decorating clogs and she was really pleased that I shared it with her. She sent me a $20 gift card for my favorite morning breakfast stop.