Crocs shares surge after Justin Bieber teases a collaboration with the iconic 'ugly' shoe brand
- Justin Bieber appeared to tease a collaboration with Crocs on Instagram on Thursday when he posted a photo of an orange pair of Crocs in a pool.
- Crocs commented on the photo with a single green heart, but did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
- The photo was enough to send Crocs' shares soaring by more than 11% on Thursday afternoon.
Crocs shares soared on Thursday after singer Justin Bieber teased an apparent collaboration.
Bieber posted a photo of a pool with two Crocs floating in it on Instagram on Thursday. The photo was captioned: "Soon."
Crocs responded by posting a single green heart as a comment. The brand also reposted the photo to its Instagram Stories.
Representatives for Bieber and Crocs did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
Within three hours, the Instagram post had been liked more than 670,000 times.
The single photo was enough to send Crocs' shares soaring by more than 11%, trading at a peak of $47.81 this afternoon. Shares dropped slightly to $45.19 before market close, but still rose 5.8% for the day.
Crocs has recently been teaming up with stars to roll out new, celebrity-approved footwear. Earlier this week, rapper Bad Bunny's $60 glow-in-the-dark Crocs sold out mere minutes after launch.
Crocs' business has been boosted by the pandemic. With sales of dress shoes dropping a whopping 71% year-over-year during the second quarter of 2020, people stuck at home are embracing comfortable footwear.
Even before the pandemic, Crocs won over Gen Z customers who embraced the "ugly" shoe trend.
"Our goal is not to make the haters love the brand," CEO Andrew Rees told Business Insider in 2019. "It's to exploit that extrinsic tension because it creates opportunity, it creates PR, it creates media, it creates interest. It creates a whole lot that would cost you a fortune to buy in other ways."