It has occurred to me lately that people today are in the business of making up words and that business has become very profitable for some. This particular word was made up by Sheri Schmelzer. Sheri has developed a line of products for croc shoes and needed a name for the adornments. 

She came up with the name Jibbitz.  She had been inspired by a movie dialogue between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, when Meg says to Tom, “I’m such a flibertigibett.” That quickly became her nickname. When she needed a name for her business she morphed that nickname into Jibbitz.

Jibbitz is not a company to snicker at. It is one that was sold in 2006 to the Crocs shoe company for $20 million dollars.

Sheri Schmelzer was just playing with her children one day and came up with a fun afternoon activity for them, that of decorating 12 pairs of crocs. They got out all kinds of crafty items to fill the holes in the look alike crocs the family owned. By the end of the day all those look alike shoes suddenly had personality. They were delighted. That was the beginning of making hundreds of objects to decorate those cute shoes. With her husband’s help, her decorations were patented and began selling on the internet.

Now there are more than 3,000 objects available to consumers to adorn the tops of crocs. From Mickey Mouse to Winnie the Pooh and Pirates of the Carribean, there are hundreds of ways to make a croc cute. What a great money making idea.

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