On September 10th, somebody will be standing outside a Foot Locker before it opens, waiting for a pair of shoes he has no intention of wearing.
That’s the day Crocs drops its first-ever Yu-Gi-Oh collaboration: four clogs — Yugi Mutou, Seto Kaiba, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician — running seventy to ninety dollars apiece. On paper, it’s a completely ordinary collab. Nostalgic IP, novelty footwear, built-in fanbase. Nothing here should be interesting.
Except for what comes with the receipt. Buy a pair in person, at select retailers, and you get a bonus: a brand-new Yu-Gi-Oh trading card that has never existed before this drop. Nine thousand made worldwide. About thirty-five hundred in the US. It’s called “Crocodile” — Level 3, 1300 attack, 1300 defense, artwork of a cartoon crocodile smiling and waving in a pair of white Crocs. And the flavor text, the little line of lore printed on every Yu-Gi-Oh card, reads: “Thirteen stripes on its belly. Thirteen holes on its feet.”
