After growing up with no parents and being passed around the foster care system, Doogie Sandtiger never learned to tie his shoes.
“Nobody ever taught me. Everybody assumed I knew. I didn't,” Sandtiger said. “I was very shy as a kid. I didn't like reaching out to people for help. I didn't ask for help on how to tie my shoes. I was too embarrassed.”
He went from Velcro to jelly shoes throughout the ‘90s, which he says were luckily in style.
Once he was in high school, Velcro shoes put a bullying target on his back. He needed an alternative.
Then, he was walking around his neighborhood one fateful day and noticed a random lady in her garden wearing bright lavender Crocs.
“I thought they were kind of silly, quirky,” Sandtiger said. “Weird like me.”
Sandtiger said he’ll never forget how the color popped against her garden. He bought his “first pair that day.”
And that wouldn’t be his last. He now owns 3,803 — that’s as of Tuesday, when CPR News spoke with him.
The popular shoes, created in 2002 by George Boedecker Jr. and Lyndon Hanson in Boulder, were initially created for boaters, something that was nonslip and lightweight. Needless to say, their popularity left the pier. The company is now worth almost 5 billion dollars.
"Our amazing fans throughout Croc Nation are at the heart of what makes our brand unique," a spokesperson for Crocs told CPR News in a statement. “We applaud this display of fandom and look forward to sharing more styles that ignite excitement throughout our community. Congrats, Doogie, on your growing collection!"
As the shoe company expanded its stock and styles, Sandtiger expanded his collection — and subsequently his online presence. He shares his stash on Instagram under the handle doogielish. Bullies online started to call him the Croc King, putting him, for a moment, back where he started. But he decided to reclaim the moniker.
“I was like, ‘That's actually really cool. I like it. I don't care if it's silly and kind of a caricature, I'm going to run with it,'" he told CPR News.
Going for Guinness
When Sandiger was in and out of school, still in the Connecticut foster system and depressed, he created a list. He marked it with goals like graduating high school, visiting the pyramids of Giza, and getting a Guinness World Record. Before he could even read, Sandiger had seen the bright, massive, colorful books full of people accomplishing world records and great feats.
“These people are like superheroes,” Sandpiper said. “I remember saying, ‘I want to be a superhero.’”
But he initially felt lost.
“I’m not good at anything. I’m an average human being," Sandtiger said. “Then a lightbulb went off. I’m pretty good at collecting Crocs.”
In 2019, Sandtiger looked into what it would take to get the record. According to the rules, a collector has to have at least 1,000 of their collected items. At the time, Sandtiger only had around 800.
“I took that as motivation. They said, ‘Hit us up when you hit a thousand.’ I said, ‘Alright, bet,’” Sandtiger explained. “I'm going to hit them up when I have way more than that. I want to destroy that record or destroy the minimum.”
After he crossed the minimum, Guinness reached out, asking if he was ready to submit for the record. But he held off, a precocious decision. Guinness reached out again. This time, his collection had grown to more than 3,500.
Sandtiger was ready to check that childhood goal off the list.
And Guinness said they’d feature him in their 70th edition book.
“That, to me, was the icing on the cake because when you submit a record and you pass it, that doesn't automatically put you in the book,” Sandtiger said. “That's actually two birds with one stone. I have two separate bucket list items. One is to set a record, and then one is to eventually make it in the book. And they picked me the first year I set it. So I was like, 'That is insane. Of course I'm going to do it.'”
However, Sandtiger had one more thing to figure out. When a Guinness record is put on a plaque and in the book, the location of the collection is included.
Sandtiger said that he wanted that location to be meaningful.
While he had been moved around Connecticut during foster care, he was kept in the same school system in Wethersfield, Connecticut. So, he decided he and his Crocs were coming home.
A local museum, The Keeney Cultural Memorial Center, opened its doors for the Croes to live for 11 days while Sandtiger's collection was counted and documented.
It took 13 hours. The final count: 3,569. Voila, the record and the book were his.
On Sept. 2, he’s being honored in Wethersfield with his own holiday, “Croc King Doogie Day,” — which will be celebrated on the same day annually. Sandtiger plans to donate the plaque to the museum. He said the holiday isn’t just about some “weird dude collecting Crocs,” but about bringing attention to the cracks in the foster care system and how kids can go a long time without being taught basic skills.
“While you're bouncing around, people are trying to figure out where you fit in and where you're going to go,” he said. “When you're going to different temporary placements, a lot gets lost along the way. There's not a lot of continuity of care. Each placement (doesn’t know) what you learned at your last placement.”
Now, home and with his world record, Sandtiger said he continues to consider that ‘placement’ in his life.
“I'm still figuring out my place in this world, still following my bucket list. Even now in 2025,” Sandtiger said. “I still cross things off my bucket list all the time, and I'm still adding new things to it all the time as new goals and new things exist and as my life continues to grow.”
Sandpiper will celebrate with his homecoming … and continue to buy Crocs.
