Mass Customization of Shoes

Businesses are trying harder than ever to attract a larger market in a fast, efficient and least costly way. Some companies try brand extensions that appeal to different demographics, some companies try to generalize their products and some have created their own unique methods. Each strategy has its strengths and weaknesses, but probably the most successful form of production in this current age would be Mass Customization. Mass Customization can be defined in one way as creating products using computer aided manufacturing systems to build custom designed goods. Many companies are using this strategy to appeal to a wider market in a cheaper way. By using the qualities of mass production, providing the economically efficient side and adding it to a customization system, this way of production has for lack of a better phrase “the best of both worlds”. One of the best examples of a company that uses Mass Customization to its full advantage is Dell. By allowing customers to fully personalized and customize their computers to their needs by using the parts they make in bulk, customers appreciate the individualism but the manufacturers aren’t making waste of products they don’t need. Two other companies that are taking advantage of this system are Nike and Puma.
Customers, who buy clothing, shoes and other apparel, shop to find products that show their individualism and personality. Each of these shoe companies use their websites to give their customers the experience of creating their own personalized shoes using special mass customization. Nike calls their experience NikeID while Puma uses Mongolian Shoe BBQ. Each of these sites is very different in their use and experience for the customer. Puma is more aimed at the trendier customers who appreciate unique fashion. NikeID is more obviously aimed towards athletes and using your design to “customize performance”.

On the Nike home screen they choose to feature a specific shoe, right now it is the Zoom Kobe. When you enter NikeID, the site prompts you how to start the customization by choosing a shoe. The Nike site has over 150 customizable shoes for users to modify and create. But not only can you customize your footwear but you can also customize sport apparel and gear as well. In turn a customer can create his or her own work out or athletic style all on one site. When using the site I was first confused as to how to customize a show of my choice. They make it so easy to create the Zoom Kobe by making it the featured look that they forget that not everyone wants or needs that specific shoe. It took me a few too many minutes to get to the women’s shoes, which was kind of frustrating. Nike does get points for the sleek and “cool” look to their sight. For athletes it touches on the power that they want in a shoe. The colors are bold and bright but there is no room for patterns or neat designs in the program. Another bonus point is that you can choose to make your shoe a different width for the left or the right side individually, which Nike has always been known to provide a very good selection of wide shoes. What is nice about the process of creating you shoe using NikeID is that it monitors your progress. It tells you how many steps (things you can customize) and as you choose each option it acts like a checklist. This is fabulous because it helps make sure its customers don’t miss out on all the ways they can customize their shoe. Nike prides on the variety of different athletic wear they provide for every kind of athlete and mass customization in their NikeID site enhances that value immensely. Puma being a more casual shoe takes on a different approach.

Puma created a fictional shop called the Mongolian Shoe BBQ. Their idea behind it is that by choosing your own “flavors” you can create a shoe that fits your personality. They are trying to reach the more trendy and hip crowd by using the “everyone has a different taste” concept behind their site. On the site it explains the relevant history of the Mongolian BBQ and how the soldiers used to use their own flavors to customize their meals. Using this same idea, Puma has created this magical kitchen for shoes. In terms of visual presentation compared to the NikeID site, it is much more details and has a much more fun and playful feel to the site. They do not have as many options as Nike, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. In terms of ease of use this site hits it on the nail. At the BBQ it takes you through the different steps of creating your own flavor. With only three types of customizable shoes it can be restricting but they also let you choose from premade designs if you don’t want to create from scratch (NikeID does this as well). When designing this type of shoe you can tell that it not about what the shoe does for your performance but more about what the shoe looks like. You can choose from cool looking patterns and examples of shoes that optimize the more trendy, young type of customer looking to design a fun look shoe.

When going through each site it was hard to decide which one I preferred more. Being an athlete having the overwhelming amount of styles was amazing and knowing that I could customize them (once I found them) was comforting to know. In the Puma Mongolian BBQ I had a blast trying out all the different patterns they had available and I appreciated the shoe more as a work of art and something to show off my individualism. I’m not a fan however of the look of the basic shoes and I think introducing a couple more style would enhance their site and give people more options. Mass customization is clearly working for these two companies and their sites only get better and more improved as more people use them. Nike and Puma are not the only brands of their kind to do this, but they do it well. If I had the money I would have bought all three shoes I designed!