After two limited drops late last year, Crocs’ experimental Ripple shoe is finally getting a wider release date.

The Ripple, Crocs’ inaugural design from its newly formed creative innovation team led by footwear industry veteran Steven Smith, marks a major design moment for the brand. And for the Broomfield, Colo.-based footwear company, the Ripple silhouette represents the next wave of its design story, providing a glimpse into where the brand is headed as it explores molded footwear in fresh, differentiated ways.

“What I’ve been doing is giving the company a more futuristic outlook for what Crocs can be, especially in terms of new construction ideas like the Ripple,” Smith told FN in an exclusive interview at the company’s SoHo store in NYC last week.

“The future can be something different but still has that thread of Crocs DNA and where the brand came from, woven into the structure,” he explained. “And maybe we’ll push the design to make it more comfortable or try new foams and new ideas. And maybe it’s even more of a hybrid, where it’s becomes more sneaker like. They call me the ‘godfather of dad shoes,’ so, who knows?”

And that title is well-earned. With more than 40 years of footwear experience, the footwear industry veteran has created designs including the New Balance 574 and 997, the Reebok Instapump Fury and the Yeezy Boost 700 Wave Runner.

In November 2024, Crocs tapped Smith to join the company as its head of creative innovation, where his team works to develop new footwear models to further evolve the brands’ design language, with the Crocs Ripple being his first silhouette to be revealed for the company.

“I love it. Everybody’s very nice. It’s a great company,” Smith said when asked about how his time with Crocs has been so far. “The company has given me creative freedom, which is unusual for a corporate role.”

Smith noted that in his previous experience, he’s creativity could generate friction in the pathway to new ideas. “In the past, I know I drove corporations crazy because they wanted to have their two sketches down to one and take the path to make that one shoe,” Smith said. “But I would do 20 to 50 sketches, rather than narrow it down, I wanted to think big. That’s what leads to true innovation. So, I think that Crocs is the perfect launch pad for that particular methodology of thinking that I like to take on.”

As for what he believes the future of Crocs could look like, Smith doubled down on the expansion of new ideas in molded footwear.

“The opportunity was amazing for me to come here and work in a molded format,” Smith added. “It’s very liberating because the technique is a blank slate of what you can do versus using traditional constructions of mesh, leather, and so on. And I’m in an environment where I can dream it and propose it. And then it’s up to Andrew [Rees] and Anne [Mehlman] and those guys to decide if it’s the right thing for what they want the brand to be. But at least you put it out there, and it’s like a dream. Why can’t you dream? It’s free to dream.”

The Crocs Ripple, which retails for $90, will be available globally from March 5 at Crocs.com, the Crocs app and selected retailers.

Fresh colorways of the Ripple are expected to drop throughout the year, the company confirmed, with new silhouettes designed by Smith and his team coming in the next 18 months.