Granny's Freaky Gardening Clogs Are Summer's New Lo-Fi Shoe Obsession

Traditionally, garden clogs haven’t had a home on fashion’s center stage. Made of heavy-duty rubber or feather-light polymer foam, these durable slip-ons are designed to stomp on dirt, splash in puddles, and sidestep earthworms. They serve as the soft-spoken, conventionally unattractive cousins to the trendy jelly sandal: while Chloé’s PVC kitten heels shine as the stars of Parisian street style, garden clogs remain the unsung heroes of your grandma’s mudroom. They represent the most humble, down-to-earth shoes available before one resorts to going barefoot.

Yet against all odds, in a fashion landscape full of twists and turns, garden clogs have stepped into the limelight as a top summer 2025 shoe trend. More than just the Barefoot Contessa’s shoe of choice for pruning her hydrangeas, the green-thumbed mule has become a way for fashion folks to connect with nature and connote easy living—much like how the barn jacket tren and best fisherman sandals make city dwellers feel transported to the English countryside or cast out at sea, their iPhones and inboxes out of sight and mind.

“They make me feel multifaceted—a reminder that great style comes from living a full life,” says Georgia Weeks, a New York City–based influencer marketer with a penchant for Plasticana’s $62 Gardana clog, made of hemp and recycled plastic. They’re shoes to help you touch grass without actually getting your hands dirty—a provincial fantasy come to life.

Plasticana’s low-profile, unisex slip-ons—which even strode down Bode’s Fall 2020 runway—have become an unlikely staple in trendy NYC neighborhoods. “I swear I see, like, three people a day wearing this shoe,” reports Marie Claire editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike. One of them might be Weeks, who wears hers “to wine bars with friends, while gardening, on rainy days—even just running out the door.”

Another equally popular pair is the Crocs Dylan clog, offered flat or on a two-point-two-inch platform. In a prior interview with Marie Claire, Crocs reported a 60 percent surge in on-site Dylan sales after Meghan Markle wore the affordable $55 shoes on Netflix’s With Love, Meghan, and they are currently Google’s most-searched clog of the season. It is an impressive win considering the gummy polymer shoe is up against trendy boho clogs from Chloé, Hermès, Miu Miu, and more. And believe it or not, high-fashion garden clogs do exist; Proenza Schouler collaborated with Sorel last fall on chunky $375 waterproof clogs, which Bella Hadid promptly took out for a spin in West Hollywood, styled with a leather jacket and itsy-bitsy bike shorts.

Authentic, affordable, and down-to-earth gardening clogs stand out far above the rest. Maureen Nicol, a model, entrepreneur, and creative director who rotates between pairs from Plasticana, Gardenheir, and Danskos, believes it's due to their authentic, no-fuss, no-frills nature. “I juggle three part-time jobs, I’m a mom to a five-year-old, and I’m currently working on opening my own brick-and-mortar business. I need shoes that can keep up with me—regardless of the weather or the outfit—and my garden clogs have become a no-brainer because they offer comfort, ease, and durability. As we speak,” Nicol adds, “I’m packing for a work trip to New Orleans, and my clogs will absolutely be my travel shoes.

Garden clogs are not a shoe that will please everyone aesthetically; on TikTok, users affectionately call the Plasticana pair “potato shoes” (the murky, brown-speckled shoes are a close stand-in for an Idaho spud) and spoof that they belong in starter packs for artsy, earthy-crunchy types who drink unpastuerized whole milk and embark on six-month pottery residencies. But their frumpishness is part of their appeal, explains Carson Salter, co-owner of the Brooklyn Heights boutique Salter House, the first store to stock the Plasticana Gardana clog and the brand's largest importer in the U.S. “Some people call [the Plasticana Gardana clogs] ugly. The hemp content gives them a speckled amber tone that is definitely more earthy than polished," says Salter, who’s been selling—and selling out of—the shoe since 2018. "But clogs as a shape are fundamentally basic—and always have been—so where others see ugly, we think they're perfect."

As a freakish, ugly-on-purpose, controversial shoe trend, garden clogs make for a more interesting choice—hence why contrarian dressers are swapping their trendy new sneakers for mules that resemble a spud. "They're practical, but I also think a little rebellious in their wink to anti-fashion," says Alan Calpe, a self-confessed "garden nerd" and co-founder of the brand Gardenheir, whose Italian garden clogs are another NYC favorite. Debate all you want about how garden clogs look, but no one can dispute the practicality and easy support that these squishy shoes offer. “At almost 40, life can be hard enough—I just want comfort and ease wherever I can find it,” says Nicol. As a shoe meant to make the labor of planting perennials and hoeing weeds easier, garden clogs have that in spades.

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