Woman Wins Halloween With Giant Crocs Shoe Costume

A Georgia woman is scaring up a treat on social media with an early contender for the best Halloween costume of the year.

The Spooky Season may be associated with scary movies and scoring candy by the bucketload but past indiscretions around Halloween have proven to be a source of considerable regret for a large proportion of the public.

In a survey of 2,000 adults conducted by OnePoll, 45 percent admitted they harbored regrets about wearing Halloween costumes in the past that are now considered inappropriate or offensive.

Emily Sullivan, 28, from Athens, has no such qualms of course, unless, that is, you're especially picky when it comes to footwear.

Sullivan is an avid fan of the Spooky Season and has made a habit down the years of creating hilariously inventive costumes to mark the occasion.

"I absolutely love everything about Halloween," she told Newsweek. "I always make handmade costumes because I like to stand out from the norm and make people laugh."

Last year she dressed up as a giant bottle of hand sanitizer in a get-up that left her friends in stitches, so the pressure was on this time around.

"This year I knew I had to step up my game because I took home first place in a costume contest last year," Sullivan said. "When I was brainstorming what I should be this year, my brother walked in wearing Crocs and I just knew that was it. I was going to attempt to make a Croc."

Few types of footwear are as divisive as Crocs. In a 2021 survey conducted by CivicScience, 30 percent of respondents said they owned or were planning to buy a pair of crocs. However, the same study found that 46 percent of respondents felt the shoes were "ugly," with a further 23 percent admitting they had issues with the style.

These conflicting opinions made them the perfect fodder for Sullivan's costume. However, turning her dream of a costume into a reality proved something of a nightmare.

"I started early because I wasn't entirely sure how the idea would come to life," she said. "I worked on it on and off for about two weeks using cardboard, hot glue, duct tape, black spray paint, and a lot of patience."

But while the process of making the giant black Croc outfit was testing, to say the least, it's been worth it. Sullivan shared a video of the results to TikTok, with the clip quickly catching fire.

At the time of writing, it's been viewed over 20 million times, with fans flooding the comments section to hail the outfit as the best Halloween costume of 2022.

"It's perfect," one viewer wrote, with another christening it a "crocstume." A third declared: "This is iconic," while elsewhere, a fourth fan commented: "You've won all the costume contests...this is awesome and so creative."

Sullivan said she was not expecting the video to blow up in the way it has on social media.

"I was shocked! I think it did well because there are a lot of dedicated crocs fans out there, but I also think they appreciated the creativity and a good laugh," she said.

Although some may be on the fence, Sullivan said she is "definitely team Crocs" and would encourage others to get a pair.

"When they first came out, my dad and I got matching bright orange ones. At first everyone was making jokes about Crocs, but now I think people realize how light and comfortable they really are," she said. "They're the best!"