If the foam shoe fits: could 50 million Crocs fans be wrong? As the company diversifies its product line and ramps ups to meet demand, it faces legal battles with investors and competitors.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Company overview

It's the beach clog that has taken over the world. From tots walking with their mothers in the mall to the president of the United States captured on camera wearing a pair of black Crocs with black socks, the rubbery boat shoe with the ankle strap has become an icon of consumer culture and fueled a business success story that at times resembles surrealist fiction, with more twists and turns certain to come.

Whether you love or love to hate the clownish foam shoes, the numbers are staggering. Since late 2002, Crocs has sold more than 50 million pairs in a myriad of colors and a growing number of styles.

Or about two pairs per second, 24 hours a day, for more than five years. Enough to make a continuous line of shoes stretching from Crocs headquarters in Niwot to Honolulu and back--three times. And the snake continues to grow.

In five short years, what began as three golfing buddies looking to bring a better shoe to the boating market has sprung a company with revenues forecast to eclipse the billion-dollar mark this year, after an estimated $820 million take in 2008.

Born from a marriage of stink-proof polymer to demand-driven manufacturing strategies--and nourished by the market's love of comfort, perhaps above all else--the company grew faster than even the most fervent of its cult could have ever imagined. Crocs now is the country's second-largest footwear manufacturer.

But it looks like dark clouds have gathered above this ever-expanding mountain of brightly colored clogs. The company's stock (NASDAQ: CROX) took a nosedive in November, shedding half its value--from about $75 to less than $40--in a few days after the release of third-quarter results, prompting a handful of shareholders to file lawsuits against the company, CEO Ron Snyder and other officials.

Competitors also allege that Crocs' own litigious tactics are nothing more than a ruse to cover up the fact that the company's patents are not valid and never were; that patent-infringement litigation is merely a stalling tactic; and that company officials misrepresented the product's origins to quash competition in an emerging multibillion-dollar product category, in the process violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Snyder dismisses such claims, and few Wall Street analysts pay them mind, either. Two years after the largest footwear initial public stock offering ever, the company's fundamentals are truly phenomenal for a growth-stage company: Crocs' operating margins are around 30 percent, nearly three times that of the footwear industry's longtime titan, Nike. Bullish observers look to Crocs' recent prolific diversification into golf shoes, fashion footwear, apparel and other categories for future growth.

And in spite of--or, in some cases, because of--the stock hiccup last fall, most analysts agree Crocs is a solid investment moving into 2008 and toward the company's peak spring and summer seasons.

"It's been phenomenal growth," says Reed Anderson, senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson & Co., headquartered in Portland, Ore. "It was the perfect storm: They had the right product, people wanted it, and they were able to produce it in increasing quantities and broaden their focus."

Anderson is bullish that Crocs' dynamic growth will continue for the foreseeable future, touting Croslite, Crocs' "proprietary closed-cell resin." Celebrated for its marshmallow-like pliability, the trade-secret material, technically not plastic or rubber, fends off microbes that cause foot odor.

"This company has been growing several hundred percent over the last few years, from nothing to over $800 million in sales in four years, and that's what drove the stock to its heights," Anderson says. "And even though their stock has come down a lot, they really haven't missed a beat. Expectations are still very strong, and we think they'll deliver on that."

Snyder says Crocs' ascent has proved manageable because the company laid the groundwork to handle it before it arrived in full force. Thus, an internal corporate motto, "Think Huge."

"Since the beginning, we've always assumed we're a larger company, so we made decisions as a larger company, investing in an infrastructure that was more than we needed at the time," Snyder says. "When the growth came quickly, we were able to avert problems we would have otherwise had. The main problem we've had is not being able to meet demand, but we see that as a very good problem."

Snyder says his experience prior to Crocs in electronics manufacturing has been invaluable. He founded The Dii Group and was senior...