Somewhere between the gardening clog and the podiatrist’s waiting room, Crocs grew a romantic streak. The Classic Ballet Flat arrived in January, priced at a very reasonable $45, and the internet has been in a chokehold ever since. The premise is gloriously silly. Take the daintiest shoe in the wardrobe, the one built for tiptoeing across a ballroom, then render it entirely in squishy resin foam. What emerges looks like a ballet slipper that spent a summer at the beach and came back with a personality. It comes in a handful of colours, runs from US 4 to 11, survives a rainstorm and takes Jibbitz charms, because of course it does.

The Strap Trick That Sold a Million Pairs

Here sits the detail doing all the heavy lifting on social. That little strap swivels, so one flick of the wrist turns a ballet flat into a Mary Jane. Two shoes, one purchase, zero effort, which is precisely the maths that makes a video go viral at three in the morning. Then there is the fit situation. Anyone with wide feet knows the particular humiliation of forcing a delicate leather flat over a bunion, an experience roughly comparable to the stepsisters and that glass slipper. Crocs skipped the whole ordeal by keeping its famously generous toe bed, adding arch support underneath and letting comfort do the talking. Converts keep filing the same report, which runs along the lines of bewilderment followed by devotion.

Ugly Shoes Won, and Ballet Flats Were Next

Crocs, Classic Ballet Shoes in Blush Pink, $ 44.99

The context here matters. Ballet flats came roaring back a few years ago, all Sandy Liang bows and Alaïa mesh, and the internet promptly remembered that thin-soled slippers are murder on an arch. Meanwhile the ugly shoe revolution had already handed victory to clogs, foam sandals and orthopaedic silhouettes with cult followings. The Crocs flat lives exactly where those two roads meet. Sweet on top, unhinged underneath, and comfortable enough to wear for eleven hours without plotting revenge on your own feet. Naturally the collaborations followed. A LoveShackFancy partnership dressed the style in the label’s Moondance floral print and added optional satin ribbons that lace around the ankle, the first ribbons in Crocs history and a firm nod to the balletcore crowd. Wear them with jeans, a sundress, a polka dot set, whatever. The squeak is part of the charm.