AT first glance, Crocs and Coach might not appear to have much in common. One is known for its plastic clogs that, while comfortable, will never be beloved by the arbiters of style. The other is famous for deluxe leather handbags that command both high prices and respect from tony consumers.

But when it comes to their shares, Crocs and Coach have been treading a similar path in recent weeks, with both falling sharply after disappointing Wall Street when they announced their latest earnings. The trajectory of Crocs has been especially sharp, plunging 50 percent since the end of October after more than tripling this year. That’s not the only similarity; in both cases, the drop was preceded by heavy selling among corporate officers and directors, including top executives. At Crocs, insiders dumped more than $176 million worth of their shares this year while Coach officers sold $57.2 million.

The last sale by Keith D. Monda, Coach’s president and chief operating officer, took place Sept. 19, when he unloaded 50,000 shares at $50.64, netting $2.5 million. Within weeks, as worries mounted about the entire retail sector, Coach warned that it was “concerned with recent traffic trends in our North American retail stores,” and analysts cut their earnings estimates. By last week, Coach shares were trading at $32.58.

Heavy selling by insiders before a stock swoons doesn’t necessarily mean they knew something before the rest of us found out the hard way — after all, selling (or buying) based on nonpublic information is illegal. Coach says the sales were part of routine dispositions by corporate officers who naturally want to diversify their holdings. A spokeswoman for Crocs declined to comment for this article.