“Hey Dude Country” has arrived in Austin, Tex., at 1709 South Congress Street, representing the brand’s first full-price store.

Crocs‘ sibling — both are owned by Crocs Inc. — has 75 outlet doors, but not one full-price standalone until now. The store, which had a soft launch last Saturday to test logistics and operations, officially opened its doors Thursday.

Hey Dude brand president Rupert Campbell described the location, “very famous for music traffic” and a mix of old Texas and new, as ideal for the brand.

“There’s a lot of traffic here, particularly on the weekends. Tourism is very strong here as well. [The store’s] not in the shopping center area. It’s on the street area,” Campbell said. “And we designed that purposely because we want to be absolutely in the community, and this is what the store is. It’s an old store that we’ve renovated. We have a barber shop next door to us.” The brand largely kept the original façade of the building, a nod to the authenticity of old Texas while updating the interior representing new Texas.

“Our creative director lived here for 15 years, and put everything together in terms of the creative of the store. He talks [a lot about] a younger generation and an older generation coming together, and when they come together, you get magic. And this is what we have in the store,” Campbell said.

The store spans around 3,300 square feet, much larger than its outlet doors so it could provide access to the full range of the brand’s offerings for men, women and kids, as well as offer limited edition collections that will be available only at the Austin store. The store also will have access to products launched online, but are not offered at the brand’s outlets.

“We’ve created this icon store because we wanted to be at the heart of Hey Dude country, where we know the consumer loves us,” he said, adding that focus groups and insights learned from studies pointed to the South as being the brand’s “heartland.”

What also makes Austin ideal is the two groups of tourism in the area, the first is from the early start of summer and throughout the season, and the second is in the autumn when football season starts. The location also sees traffic volume over the holidays for the Christmas period, the brand president said.

Those traffic stats means the location should get footfall from both established fans of the brand and people being exposed for the first time.

“The U.S. is our No. 1 market. We want to stabilize the business and bring the business back to growth which is everyone’s plan,” he said.

In the Crocs Inc. first quarter earnings report on April 30, the company said Hey Dude revenue fell 12.3 percent to $154 million. Direct-to-consumer revenue rose 8.6 percent to $71 million, while wholesale sales were down 24.7 percent to $83 million. Crocs CEO Andrew Rees said in a conference call that the brand continues to “deliver against” its three-pillar strategic plan.

Data from Charm Io for the period from April 2025 to March 2026 showed that Hey Dude made the top 10 U.S. TikTok Shop shoe performers coming in at second place with $32.5 million in revenue. Hey Dude was beaten out of the top spot by its sibling Crocs at $52.4 million.

Campbell isn’t looking to build other full-service locations for Hey Dude just yet. “What we want to do with this store is immerse ourselves with the community and build from the grassroots up a love of the brand in Austin. We want people from around the U.S. to come here and see and feel and immerse themselves in the brand, and we want to get this store right,” he emphasized.

The store’s opening also includes the launch of the cheekily-named “Hey Dude Country Club” program. Campbell candidly acknowledges it as the brand’s way of a “parody” on the notion of a country club as Hey Dude’s customer base is “laid back.” The marketing spin elevates participants as “brand ambassadors” instead of loyalty members. And while the membership program includes the usual range of special offers and discounts and invites to special events, it does go one step further to foster member participation — what Campbell describes as a “two-way conversation” building community from the grassroots up.

“They will be able to help us scope how the brand moves forward. We’ll get them to get involved in product creation, what the product looks like and how we get product to market,” he said. “We’ll be able to test things early with this community [and] we’re going to use them as a baromet for some of the things that we do.”

A special tab on the Hey Dude site will feature content and events notification, as well as enable the member community to interact with each other and the brand.