Hey Dude!: Crocs footwear now shipping from giant North Vegas facility
After a slight delay, the shoe brand Crocs Inc. has started shipping its popular Hey Dude shoes from a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in North Las Vegas.
Crocs announced in 2022 plans to open a giant distribution facility at Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas and scheduled it to open by late 2023. Operations didn’t officially begin until January and the delay was due in part to the company focusing on getting through the holiday season before opening the new facility, a Crocs spokesperson said via email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. About 400 employees are working at the facility.
The facility is serving as the main center for the company’s national shipping of Hey Dude casual footwear and other branded products, but there are plans to use it to ship other Crocs products in the future, said the Crocs spokesperson.
“As Crocs Inc. continues to see long-term, durable growth, we needed a larger facility to support increased demand for products,” the Crocs spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Crocs received a tax abatement worth $8.6 million from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to bring this facility to Nevada. In its abatement application, Crocs said it expects to employ 325 full-time employees with an average salary of $27 per hour over the first five years of operation.
It seems Crocs is already exceeding expectations on its employment numbers since about 400 employees are working there now, and that number could increase to 1,200 depending on future business needs, according to Crocs.
Crocs also said in its tax abatement application it would invest $85 million in the distribution facility. In its most recent quarterly earnings release, Crocs said it expected to spend $125 to $135 million on capital expenditures in 2023 and these expenses would be “primarily related” to expanding its distribution capacity and on the facility in North Las Vegas.
An official grand opening event for the Crocs facility could happen by the end of March, the Crocs spokesperson said.
Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on X.
