It's a rainy Wednesday evening in New York City. Valentine's Day lingers across storefronts and shelves, but neither love nor romance are in the air—at least not the type accompanied by a cheesy card.
Over at 543 Broadway in New York's SoHo neighborhood, about 40 people from different walks of life have come together for a couple of hours. All of them share an affinity for creativity, but what—or better yet, who—has brought them together is Steven Smith, the veteran footwear designer. His decades-spanning design resume made him a household name well-before some of us in that room were even born, but his latest venture—Head of Innovation at Crocs—is his focus tonight (for the most part).
The event, hosted by Crocs SoHo, was touted as "The Art of Sketching With Steven Smith" and commemorated the launch of Crocs Ripple—the designer's future-forward slip-on teased over the last six months. To many attendees' surprise, Smith actually expected us to sketch in Crocs-branded notebooks.
He invited the room to place a unique footwear concept on paper that lived at the intersection of purpose, feeling, and idea, sharing that his design process had historically been informed by fit, form, and function. His work on YEEZY brought a fourth "F" into the mix: fashion.
Even though Smith is happy about his role at Crocs and his resume includes iconic silhouettes like the New Balance 574 (1988), Reebok Instapump Fury (1994), and Nike Air Spiridon Cage 2 (2003), his work with the artist formerly known as "Kanye West" is an inescapable topic of conversation for two reasons: 1. It's been the most visible and recent, 2. The Ripple bears semblance to the ever-divisive YEEZY FOAM RUNNER (2020).
When asked if he believed Crocs Ripple could've existed without the success of the laceless YEEZY, Smith dismissed the idea and inverted it, exclaiming that FOAM RUNNER owed its success to the blueprint laid out by Crocs since 2002. According to Smith, Ye wanted to compete with Crocs in the slip-on category.
"Game on. Bring it. Let's go. I'll kick your ass," said Smith while recalling a recent visit to a New Balance store during which he saw a laceless slide-like design from the brand. His words weren't exclusively for the Boston-based brand; in fact, he had more to say about the Swoosh than any other competitor.
"I blame Nike for the seasonal thing because they brought it from the garment industry," expressed Smith. In contrast, his time at New Balance was rooted in a certain "promise to the customer" to only release product when things could be new and better than their predecessors.
"There was a moment where the profiteers took over and the product people had to take a back seat...you can see Nike suffering from that now...down to where they're trying to eat our lunch with...the Nike Mind. What a bullshit story!" exclaimed Smith to an eruption of laughter. "Like, 'Oh, we have one doctor who said it's therapeutic.' One?...I can get one quack anywhere to say something's right or wrong, you know? I want to see real science if you're going to make a claim like that."
(For the uninformed, Nike Mind is a new product franchise the brand has developed in neuroscience findings. According to official product messaging, the footwear platform, designed for pre-game and post-game, "helps athletes feel calm, focused and present" with the help of 22 anatomically-mapped foam nodes on the sole of each shoe. When engaged, they "activate key pressure point areas connected to sensory regions of the brain. The nodes in the Nike Mind footwear interact with receptors on the bottom of the foot to amplify underfoot sensation, providing a unique sensory experience with every step.")
The Mind 001, which is a sort of slide, has been extremely popular amongst mainstream audiences. Launch colorways have swiftly sold out, with the 2026 alias Market Report finding that sales fetched an average of 81% above the model's $95 MSRP.
"What's wrong with saying, 'Oh, it feels good...gives [you] a massage?' That's perfect," said Smith.
Marketing, however, is an ever-important part of the footwear business, as reiterated by the veteran on multiple occasions throughout the night.
"If you have good storytelling and marketing, you've done half the job for the company," said Smith as he reviewed one attendee's shoe sketch.
You would've been understood had you walked away from the evening thinking the Crocs Ripple designer had always been as vocal in public settings, but he shared that his time at the Swoosh forced him to get comfortable with pitching his work to rooms: "Nike is all about the show...they beat the introvert out of me."
Beyond being a celebration of Ripple, which was finished in about nine months (half the time a more traditional footwear style requires), the night was about disseminating information by someone who's been at it for almost 40 years and at the highest level.
"I want you to kick my ass," said Smith when speaking about design portfolios he's presented with. "You should always make someone wish they made what you made."
Before the evening ended, Smith shared an anecdote about the Sony Walkman throughout the '90s. Despite operating in completely different product categories, footwear brands were put on notice when the Japanese institution and similar companies dominated the consumer space because this meant people had a choice to make: 'What to spend my only $150 on?'
Athletic footwear, then, had to seem worth it enough to consumers to get priority over the latest in electronics. This, Smith said, inspired designers to explore new frontiers and for companies to wholeheartedly back innovation.
This is what's widely missing in the space at the moment, but, Smith emphasizes, not Crocs. It's the whole reason he even signed on in December 2024. Whether or not he makes history to the same degree as he has with prior institutions has yet to be seen, but one thing is certain: Steven Smith will continue to be his unapologetic self and care about design in a way that was the norm when he entered the industry in Spetember 1986.
The "Moonlight/Neon Ocean" Crocs Ripple launches globally via Crocs.com on Thursday, March 5. The shoe is priced at $90.