• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

Just when it looks as if Crocs is losing its clunky-rubber footing, the company seems to be focusing on marketing as the problem. Women’s Wear Daily reports that Crocs, which revealed its third straight quarter of declining North America sales, has hired Carly Gomez as the new CMO of Crocs. Gomez held the same role at Fabletics.

Crocs has also tapped Amondo Redmond, currently the head of marketing for North America at Foot Locker, to be the CMO of Heydude, the company’s struggling teen-focused brand.

The moves were announced by Terence Reilly, who rejoined Crocs in May as chief brand officer.

Crocs has long been a marketing powerhouse, cultivating a weird-but-cool vibe with partnerships ranging from other brands, like Levi’s, Taco Bell and McDonald’s, and celebrities, like Post Malone and Luke Combs. It even works with high-end designers, like the U.K.’s Mowalola Ogunlesi. The company just announced a multiyear partnership with the NFL and recently tapped Millie Bobby Brown from “Stranger Things” as its newest global brand ambassador.

Still, Crocs  has tariff headaches, with significant production facilities in Vietnam. And while the company continues to grow rapidly outside the U.S., with sales in China up 30% in the latest quarter, the shoes seem to be losing their edge at home. North American sales fell 6.5% to $457 million. And revenue at Heydude fell another 3.9%, to $190 million.

Amondo Redmond and Carly Gomez 

The financial performance was in line with analyst expectations. During the earnings call webcast for investors, company executives boasted that new marketing efforts for Heydude are having an impact, with brand awareness up 35%. It is also expanding its outreach to women, forming new partnerships, including a collaboration with Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Company execs describe the current environment as concerning, with cautious consumers cutting back. “They are faced with current and implied future price increases,” said CEO Andrew Rees, on the call, “which we think has the potential to be a further drag on an already choiceful consumer.”

As a result, the company now predicts sales will fall between 9% and 11% in the coming quarter.

Observers didn’t take that news well, sending the company’s stock price 25% lower just after the announcement. Barron’s, which headlines its coverage “Is America’s Ugly-Shoe Craze Ending?,” noted “there are signs that trend—or at least Crocs’ hold on the proudly ugly-shoe market—is weakening.”