Meet Niles, a new reptilian Crocs mascot

A friendly cartoon owl named Duo turned the language app Duolingo into a Gen-Z obsession. McDonald’s Grimace made a purple milkshake a viral trend. And Microsoft’s Clippy mascot has been assisting—and annoying—Office users since the 1990s. Brand mascots continue to reign over the marketing space, and the most recent addition to the universe comes courtesy of the shoe brand Crocs. He’s a 6-foot-tall crocodile (naturally) named Niles, after the river in Egypt, and he already has his own Instagram account. The mascot is a personification of the Crocs logo that has appeared as the button that fastens the brand’s straps to the signature clogs. To tease its new mascot, Crocs posted social media videos of a giant egg with a countdown clock behind it. The egg hatched a week ago. [Photo: Crocs] “After nearly 25 years we decided it was time to take him off the rivet and into real life as a fully imagined character,” a Crocs spokesperson told Fast Company. Niles’s first day out of the egg proved to be an especially busy one. He started his first job as an employee at the company, quickly sharing his experience on social media. “firstt day at mi new job and bein alive wish mi luck…