Big Ideas, Big Bucks

Sheri and Rich ran with the idea and realized there were a lot of Crocs roaming the streets with no accessories. From that first flower, Jibbitz were born. "It was such an obvious idea," Rich says. "My kids were playing with [them], and I thought, 'If my kids like it, every kid's going to like it.'"

Jibbitz—the playful name Sheri and Rich gave these decorative designs—started out simple. Sheri says she began buying things like peace signs, happy faces, hearts and rhinestones at craft stores and gluing them onto cufflinks. Then, she'd stick the cufflinks into her children's Crocs and send them off to school.

Once her children started wearing their fancy footwear in public, orders began rolling in. Jibbitz quickly took over the family's basement. Then, Sheri launched a website, and after just two weeks, she was overwhelmed with requests for Jibbitz of all shapes and sizes. Retailers caught on and began ordering hundreds at a time.

Although Sheri and her family glued Jibbitz night and day, she soon realized they couldn't keep up with the orders themselves. They moved their business from the basement into a huge warehouse. Within 12 months, Jibbitz were being sold in more than 3,000 stores.

As fate would have it, it was Sheri's daughter, Lexie, who really took the family business to new heights.