Update, October 19: One day out. Kiko Kostadinov's own site now has product pages up for all three VAALS colorways, Black, Kelp and Yellow Sand, under a "Kiko Kostadinov x Crocs VAALS 20 October" banner. None of them can be bought yet and there's still no clear U.S. price, so tomorrow is the day to check back. Proof that Crocs can do quiet.
Kiko Kostadinov just put a Crocs silhouette on Paris Fashion Week, and it looks nothing like a clog. The Kiko Kostadinov × Crocs VAALS is a hybrid shoe built from tumbled leather, sandwich mesh and an archival Genna TPU band, with a LiteRide footbed underneath. Hypebeast reports it drops October 20 in three colorways — Black, Kelp and Yellow Sand — through kikokostadinov.com, the designer's London, Los Angeles and Tokyo flagships, and global retailers.
The shape first showed on Kostadinov's Fall/Winter 2026 menswear runway in Paris. The toe is oblong with wrapped saddle stitching, the upper mixes real tumbled leather with breathable mesh, and that custom-moulded TPU band nods back to Crocs' old Genna tooling. It's the kind of collab that only works when both sides actually mean it: Crocs gets a fashion-house cut, Kostadinov gets the comfort tech his runway crowd will actually walk in.
The campaign does half the selling. American artist Jim Mangan shot it near Crocs' Boulder headquarters, against the sandstone at Red Rocks and Charles Haertling's organic architecture. The hero frame is just feet on red rock — Yellow Sand next to Black — which is exactly how this shoe wants to be worn: outside, not on a white seamless.
Our take: after Oakley Ellipse, Kostadinov is collecting utility brands the way some people collect watches. VAALS is the wearable one in that run — less runway prop, more daily shoe. If you've ever wanted a Crocs that doesn't announce itself as a Crocs from across the parking lot, this is the closest thing yet. Price hasn't been listed in the first reports.
The details: Kiko Kostadinov × Crocs VAALS in Black, Kelp and Yellow Sand. Out October 20, 2026 via kikokostadinov.com, flagships in London / LA / Tokyo, and select global retailers, per Hypebeast. Price TBA.
At ONENESS: No exact VAALS SKU on the floor yet. For more from the brand, browse Crocs at ONENESS.
Photos from the Jim Mangan campaign for Kiko Kostadinov × Crocs, via Hypebeast.
Source: Hypebeast.
