Hard on the heels—so to speak—of our story about sneaker customization at Keds Studio last week comes another spotting in the world of customized footwear: Sneakart, a site that lets users personalize sneakers from any brand via specially designed removable stickers.
Still in beta, UK-based Sneakart offers users the opportunity to customize their sneakers via Sneakskin, a super-thin, flexible, durable and waterproof graphic film that can be applied to white, light-coloured and metallic shoes. Printed with non-toxic ink in the UK, Sneakskin is 100 percent PVC-free and can be peeled off and replaced at will. It's available either in sheets of individual stickers or in 22-by-29-cm sheets of patterns that the user can cut to fit the areas to be covered; either way, one or two sheets is typically enough to customize one pair of shoes, Sneakart says. Sneakart offers a wide variety of patterns and designs ranging in price from about GBP 4.95 to 5.95 per sheet, but users can also create their own artwork and upload it to the site. They can choose either to keep their design private, for their use only, or to make it public and offer it up for the use of others as well. The motivation to go public is considerable: each time a public design is purchased, Sneakart credits the designer's account with 10 percent of the sale price, available either as a credit toward further Sneakart purchases or via direct payment. Sneakskin peels easily off its backing paper for application, and sticks on shoes with regular daily wear for a few months. Sneakart donates 10p from every order it receives to Street Kids International, and it has also offset its 2008 carbon footprint twice over through PURE's renewable energy projects in India, Brazil and China.
There's no doubt customization is a good thing, but rewarding consumers for their customer-made innovations just may knock this one out of the park. Next, how about helping to bring this concept to other types of shoes, handbags or even cellphones and personal gadgets? (Related: New sneaker brand relies on crowds for design.)
Website: www.sneakart.com
Contact: www.sneakart.com/bin/WebObjects/SneakArt.woa/wa/contactPage
Spotted by: DawnRae Knoth
Most street-style fashion blogs serve their readers primarily as sources of inspiration, but a new London-based blog has added an e-commerce twist to let readers click on looks they like and purchase them on the spot.
Stitsh, which launched earlier this year, offers up galleries of photos of real men and women on the London streets wearing a wide variety of looks and styles. In addition to having subjects sign photo releases, Stitsh's photographers also find out about the clothes they are wearing and hunt them down in retail stores, forging e-commerce partnerships wherever possible. Users of the site, which is ultimately much like a blog version of shopping magazine Lucky, can then just click on items they're interested in and be taken to stores where those items—or very similar versions—can be purchased. Photos are arranged by gender, and items are also tagged for easy searchability.
“The way I shop is I look at what people are wearing,” Stitsh founder Dom Fendius told Women's Wear Daily. “When the street-style blogs came online, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could buy the clothing worn in those photos?”
Stitsh is partially funded by ads, but it also works on a commission model, WWD reports. Specifically, each Stitsh reader who clicks through to the site of an online retailer such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, House of Fraser or French Connection and buys something there earns Stitsh a commission of up to 12 percent. Some stores will even pay Stitsh the commission for shoppers who return to buy something as much as 30 days later, according to WWD. Stitsh currently covers just the streets of London, but Manchester, Stockholm and New York are reportedly in the works. One to partner with or emulate in other parts of the world...?
Website: www.stitsh.com
Contact: dom@stitsh.com
Spotted by: Susanna Haynie
Earlier this year we wrote about Ndeur, a Canadian company that offers high-end customized shoes, and now a new partnership with customization portal Zazzle is bringing similar capabilities to the iconic world of Keds.
Keds Studio, which just launched a few weeks ago, lets consumers design their own custom Keds Champions classic canvas sneakers by picking colours and adding graphics, photos and text. Users of the Zazzle-powered application begin by selecting the style they want—slip-on or lace-up, for women or kids—along with the size. They are then prompted to choose from a wide selection of colours and designs for each of several different sections of the shoe, along with trim details including stitching, binding, lining and gore. They can upload their own artwork, graphics and text for instant drag-and-drop addition to their shoe design. Alternatively, an assortment of premade designs from artists including Sarah Singh and Gen Art are also available; each month a new designer or artist will be featured through a series of limited-edition designs. Keds Studio is available on both the Zazzle and Keds (from Stride Rite) sites. Priced between USD 50 and USD 60, the customized shoes are produced within 24 to 48 hours of ordering and will reach consumers within one to two weeks. Shipping is available internationally.
Of course, it's one thing to let consumers design their own shoes, but the next logical step in the customer-made trend is to help them sell their creations as well. Sure enough, users of Keds Studio can do just that through the Zazzle marketplace. A simple "Post for Sale" button on the application makes it happen, and Zazzle's "Name Your Royalty" system enables consumers to set the price of their shoe designs above the original price and earn the entire mark-up in profit. Now *that's* really letting customers have it their way! (Related: New sneaker brand relies on crowds for design.)
Website: www.keds.com/text/kedsstudio
Contact: www.zazzle.com/mk/welcome/first/contactus
Spotted by: Anita Windisman
Offline and online, consumers are ever more adept at presenting their public image or, as Tom Peters put it, crafting The Brand Called You. While they can carefully control the clothes they wear, the brands they use, the photos they upload to Flickr and the witty repartees they Twitter, it's more difficult to judge whether the image they're trying to project is really what others see.
Friends, family and online pals aren't objective enough, so who can they turn to for an honest image appraisal? German consumers can now upload a few pictures to checkyourimage.com, and have impartial strangers evaluate their appearance, solving dilemmas like: "My wife says I look boring, I think I look professional and modern." "My boss says I come across as cool and distant. I think I look reliable and friendly." "Does my long, red hair look good on me, or would I look better with a short, blond cut?" The website points out that just as brands routinely use focus groups to test a product's image and appeal, anyone can benefit from an honest appraisal by a crowd of strangers.
checkyourimage.com offers a variety of test options. Every month, it offers one free trial question. Users can upload their photo and have 30 people answer a question. This month, it's "Do I look naive?", and next month they can enlist strangers to answer the all-important "Do I look intelligent?" Those willing to pay for the service can choose from a Basic Check (EUR 25 for 50 image testers answering 10 standard questions), an Optimal Check (EUR 49 for 50 testers answering 20 questions that the customer selects from a database), and a Business Check (EUR 490 for 1,000 testers answering questions defined by the customer).
Once the pre-selected number of testers have responded, clients can log on to checkyourimage.com for a full report. To ensure a good mix of ages and well-balanced male/female ratio, the company asks its (German) testers for personal details when they sign up. And since the results are only visible to clients, the appraisals are private and don't turn into "hot or not" contests, which would likely be the case in a more open and transparent set-up. checkyourimage.com is currently German-only, but the concept is ripe for international expansion!
Website: www.checkyourimage.com
Contact: info@checkyourimage.de
Spotted by: Susanna Haynie
Last summer, SANS—a small New York fashion label—launched an intriguingly simple shirt known as the Square Shirt. It made the rounds on fashion and design blogs, and subsequently sold out.
The label has moved on to new collections (including socks with carefully placed holes), and no longer sells readymade Square Shirts. Instead, they've released the pattern so that customers can make their own. The straightforward pattern means that anyone who can use a sewing machine can fabricate one. After buying and downloading the digital pattern, customers print, cut and sew their own. SANS, which is known for creating cool clothes from organic materials, suggests using a worn garment or remnant piece of fabric. The pattern is priced at USD 6, which includes an original SANS label sent by post to add that branded finishing touch to the shirt.
We like the notion of a brand taking one of its iconic pieces and instead of retiring it after the season is through, recycling it as a DIY project. Which appeals, of course, to the growing number of consumers who like to make things, and also gives anyone a chance to own something that might have previously been out of reach (SANS sold its Square Shirts at around USD 85, and in limited edition runs). While few products are as easy for consumers to reproduce as SANS' simple shirt, the notion of releasing a product's design is definitely worth exploring.
Website: www.sans.name
Contact: one@s-a-n-s.com
Catering to design-conscious urban cyclists who'd rather not sacrifice style for safety, a group of Danish designers has created a bicycle helmet with interchangeable covers.
Copenhagen-based Yakkay sells a simple shell helmet (dubbed "Smart One") that's tucked away under one of ten different covers. The helmet retails at DKK 599 (EUR 80 / USD 120), and the covers are sold for DKK 299 (EUR 40 / USD 60). While chin straps betray their true nature, the helmets otherwise resemble hats and caps worn for fashion, not protection.
Yakkay states that the number of seriously injured cyclists with head injuries is around 2,500 per year in Denmark (on a total population of under 5.5 million). And that's in a country where motorists are accustomed to cyclists, and where most roads have separate bicycle lanes. As more consumers across the world hop on their bikes to reduce their gas bills, carbon footprints and waistlines, the market for innovative cycling products and services should grow at a healthy pace. One to tap into! Easy way to get started? Ask Yakkay about regional distribution opportunities. (Related: Stylish fire protection kits.)
Update: please don't email Yakkay about international distribution. They wrote to tell us that they have a plan in place for their international launch and are currently receiving too many distributor requests.
Website: www.yakkay.com
Contact: info@yakkay.com
Spotted by: Lori Webb
Booking beauty and fitness appointments by phone can be an irritating chore, what with the muzak to be endured, the difficulty of finding convenient appointment times and the potential for coworkers to overhear too much about one's personal hygiene. Paying full price makes the burden doubly irksome, so New Yorkers could only have been pleased recently to witness the launch of Lifebooker.
Lifebooker is like a personal concierge that lets users search, browse and book discounted appointments at the top health and beauty spots in New York City for free. An extensive array of beauty and health services are listed on the site, which has forged partnerships with local establishments through which they set up profiles including business descriptions and complete service menus. Each spa, salon and studio posts real-time appointment availabilities on Lifebooker as well, allowing users to search through them dynamically online. Users simply enter the criteria they seek (service type, date, time and neighbourhood), click the “Find” button and Lifebooker produces an up-to-the-minute list of what the city has to offer. Users can also browse ratings both for the establishment and the service type, created by members who have actually booked and honoured appointments there. Once chosen, appointments can be booked online and are sent to the user's cellphone.
In addition to the convenience of booking online, Lifebooker also offers exclusive discounts at the city's top health and beauty spots, negotiated specifically for users of the site. Perhaps even better, each time a user attends an appointment booked on Lifebooker and then rates it afterward, they earn reward dollars that can be used toward their next appointment. Booking and rating a USD 100 facial appointment, for example, earns USD 5 in reward dollars that can be used as early as the next day. Just by cutting through the hassle and streamlining the appointment-booking process, Lifebooker could gain a devoted following. The addition of discounts, honest ratings and a reward system, however, promises to make the service irresistible. One to replicate in cities around the world! (Related: Mobile beauty salon makes everything transparent.)
Website: www.lifebooker.com
Contact: support@lifebooker.com
Spotted by: Thomas Schell
More crowdsourced innovation! A startup based in Portland aims to harness the creativity of the crowds to build a new sneaker brand. Ryz, which is still in beta, lets users submit graphic designs for a high-top sneaker model. Members vote for their favourite designs, and the sneakers that get the most votes are taken into production. Designers receive a one-time payment of USD 1,000 plus one dollar for each pair sold. Shoes are priced at USD 90, and are produced in limited runs.
Issues like manufacturing, shipping and sizes aren't as straightforward for shoes as for t-shirts or posters, which means Ryz will need to implement sophisticated production and distribution processes. Thankfully, the company's founder, Rob Langstaff, has plenty of industry experience—before starting Ryz, he ran Adidas' operations in North America and Japan. As quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Langstaff believes Ryz will generate revenues of USD 40 million by 2012.
Of course, rewarding community members for the designs they've submitted isn't new. Threadless started its t-shirt competitions in 2000 and now has annual sales of USD 30 million and a profit margin of 30% (as estimated by Inc. Magazine). We're familiar with the model's benefits: by creating and voting, the community decides which products to sell, which means no guessing what customers want. No design staff, either, and no sales force since both designers and community promote the items they love. One to continue to be inspired by?
Website: www.ryzwear.com
Contact: www.ryzwear.com/contact
