On October 20, 2026, Crocs will sell a shoe with a tumbled leather upper, a moccasin toe and a bungee toggle, designed by a Bulgarian-born Central Saint Martins graduate who has spent eight years making Asics look strange and expensive. It is called the VAALS, it comes in Black, Kelp and Yellow Sand, and it is a Crocs collaboration that does not lean on a Jibbitz gag or a celebrity's name.
Hypebeast's Joyce Li carried the official reveal on October 14. The shoe first walked at Kiko Kostadinov's Fall/Winter 2026 menswear show in Paris back in January, where Sole Retriever's Zach Harris noted it had no name, no price and no date, just three leather colourways: triple black, brown and olive green. Nine months later it has a name and a date. The price, for anyone outside Japan, is still a question.
Who Kiko Kostadinov Is, and Why Crocs Called Him
Kostadinov was born in Bulgaria, moved to London, finished his master's at Central Saint Martins in 2016 and showed his first collection in January 2017. The footwear story started almost immediately: Asics shoes for Spring/Summer 2018, reworked Camper hiking boots the same year, a stint as creative director of Mackintosh 0001 from November 2017, and the ongoing Novalis line with Asics, formally announced in 2023. The LVMH Prize made him a semifinalist in 2019. Lately the guest list has widened again, with a second Levi's project in 2024 and a Fox Racing capsule in 2025. He designs like an architect who got lost in a sports shop, and that is a compliment.
Crocs needed that. Its collab list is long and loud, and most of it is a Classic Clog with something glued on. Not this. The VAALS has its own shape. Two small archive nods survive, both in the moulded strap: Hypebeast points to the Genna, an old Crocs silhouette, and the Japanese outlet Mastered adds the Crocband. The rest is pure Kostadinov.
What the Shoe Actually Is
Picture a work shoe that fell into a river. The toe is long and nearly square, wrapped in saddle stitching done in thick thread; Mastered calls it a mock-toe built on a rectangle, and that is fair. Tumbled leather, grain left showing. Sandwich mesh round the ankle so your feet can breathe. The TPU band wraps the side of the shoe, a toggle bungee replaces laces, and a pull tab sits at the heel. Underneath: a rugged rubber outsole over Crocs' LiteRide footbed.
Jim Mangan, an American artist, shot the campaign near Crocs' headquarters in Boulder, Colorado. Red Rocks sandstone in the background. Charles Haertling's 1969 Mushroom House underfoot, its white roof doubling as a runway for Kostadinov's Autumn Winter 2026 tailoring. Nobody smiles. It may be the least Crocs-looking campaign Crocs has ever paid for, and the shoe is better for it.
Price, and the India Route
Crocs has not published a global retail price. Just Fresh Kicks lists it as TBA and says so plainly. The only confirmed figure comes from Japan: Mastered reports ¥34,100 including tax at the Kiko Kostadinov Tokyo store and the brand's online shop. At the open.er-api.com rates for October 15, 2026 (¥158.31 and ₹95.25 to the dollar), that is about $215, or roughly ₹20,500. Treat it as a ceiling for the Japanese market, not a quote for India.
The good news for Indian buyers is the shipping page. The Kiko Kostadinov webstore lists India as a delivery destination and states that pricing includes all duties and taxes with no additional fees on delivery. That removes the usual 49 percent customs surprise that kills most imports. Pick India in the store's shipping selector and prices switch to rupees, so the number you see at checkout should be the number you pay. The three colourways sit at kikokostadinov.com as Coming Soon, with Yellow Sand marked Exclusive. We found no Indian stockist, and we would not expect one. Crocs India's own catalogue, read by Zoutons on August 18, 2026, had the Classic Camouflage clog as its cheapest adult pair at ₹3,497 against an MRP of ₹4,995.
Some scale. The collab clogs on our own shelf, the Batman Batmobile Classic Clog at ₹7,997 and the Futura Laboratories pair at ₹7,999, already cost more than twice that entry clog. The VAALS, at the Japanese price, is more than double them again. Different category entirely: a designer shoe that happens to have a Crocs footbed inside.
Verdict: Buy Kelp, Skip the Flip
Three opinions. First, Kelp is the one. The olive leather with the tonal band reads like a boot from the Alps and hides scuffs; the Black is handsome but disappears on foot, and Yellow Sand needs an outfit built around it. Second, there is no resale story here and you should not invent one. The shoe has not released and no secondary market exists, so any premium you are quoted is a guess. Buy it to wear it. Third, Indian weather is on its side: a leather upper with mesh vents and a rubber sole is a better October-to-February shoe in Delhi than any clog.
Styling is simple. Wide trousers, cropped slightly, so the oblong toe shows. A plain overshirt. Nothing with a logo. The shoe is the statement.
Crocs spent a decade proving an ugly shoe could be loved. The VAALS is the brand's first serious attempt at proving a Crocs shoe can be beautiful, and it took an outsider to do it. If you want the Crocs that are actually on Indian shelves this week, see our Crocs page. Sources: Hypebeast, Mastered, Just Fresh Kicks.
For the full map of which Crocs collabs you can actually buy in India, read our Crocs collab buying guide, and for how the brand got here at all, the rise of Crocs from ugly to iconic.
