Dyeing Crocs

Last fall I bought Will an adorable pair of Crocs rain boots. I loved these boots because the color was great, they repelled water excellently and they were super light weight. He wore the heck out of them, rain or shine. They were also light enough that he could get away with wearing them during the warmer months, which was nice, because it kept the bark splinters (from the park) out of his feet, unlike his sandals. Unfortunately his feet grew a ton this summer (from size 6 in April to size 8 in October) and the boots were no longer going to fit him for this upcoming winter. So I reluctantly bought him another pair.


The bad thing about kid's shoes is that they are SO bloody expensive, and they are worn for such a short amount of time. It kills me. So whenever possible I have been buying gender neutral shoes so that I can pass Will's down to Nora. In the case of these boots however, I just LOVED the blue color on him, and didn't necessarily want to put Nora in the same blue color when it was her turn to inherit them. I began wondering if I could change the color somehow, and after a little googling, I found a blog that detailed how to dye crocs with standard RIT dye. I thought this was genius and quickly bought a box to duplicate the results.


I bought a box of scarlet RIT dye and brought a large soup pot to nearly a simmer. I didn't want to get the water too hot, because I had read that boiling Crocs could actually make them shrink. And I didn't want to do that. So I just got the water hot but not boiling, turned off the burner, and poured the dye in. I submerged the boots for 10 minutes, (which was hard to do because the foam wanted to float in the worst way and it took some wrangling to keep both boots totally under the surface of the water) and when I took them out, voila! They were a lovely shade of purple, just right for a little girl. Since that was such a success, I also dyed a pair of Crocs sandals that Will had also outgrown this summer. Now those shoes will get plenty of wear and I won't feel so ripped off so having spent $30 on a pair of kid boots. I ended up buying Will a second pair of larger blue boots for this winter and will probably dye those for Nora as well next fall.