When the sneaker options at your favorite sporting goods store don’t compliment your swagger just right or match your sports uniform perfectly there is NikeiD and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ to meet your unique needs. Puma and Nike have managed to market to everyone individually by making otherwise standard options customizable. These spin-off sites utilize interactive technology to allow visitors to create one-of-a-kind wardrobe accessories that virtually guarantee you will never again be embarrassed by showing up to the b-boy competition in the same dunks as someone else. (Or was that just me?)
I tend to think of myself as pretty technologically savvy, however, I initially had trouble with the NikeiD site. It wasn’t terribly intuitive. I stumbled around the splash page before figuring out that I didn’t have to customize baseball cleats and that I could, in fact, customize everything in the NikeiD store.
Self-important as I am, one of the things I appreciated about NikeiD is that I could share my creations with my friends via Facebook and other networks. By recognizing the need to share, Nike has identified a distinct characteristic of their young, digital demographic: although we may be too shy to make a phone call and would rather text, we look for ways to express ourselves online through ironically impersonal forums like Facebook. The rich online experience that Nike is providing helps users to define their online identity. Facebook and Twitter ad-ons are not only smart because they increase brand awareness; these add-ons are also smart because it makes Nike so much more than a brand. When a friend adds her NikeiD design to her Facebook profile, Nike suddenly becomes a part of who she is. Now I am not only more aware of Nike, I am also more enchanted by Nike.
While the NikeiD site is adept at helping users define their online personality, Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ is better at conveying a personality that is all its own. On the splash page a Mongolian chef, with a seemingly huge personality, greets visitors. The theme is carried throughout with thoughtful touches like a “Doggie Bag”, as opposed to Nike’s “Locker”, which holds your designs while you shop from the rest of the site. I preferred the accessibility and options of the Puma site; it was easier to navigate and I had far greater control over the look of my shoe.
Admittedly, I have had a personal bias for Puma for quite some time. I even considered halting purchase of my favorite footwear, Chuck Taylors, when Nike purchased the brand. Maybe it had something to do with Naomi Klein’s No Logo, or maybe I have some residual childhood angst about the fact that the cool kid footgear never fit me quite right. So, if it is true that I am biased, we will let the numbers speak for themselves.
According to my calculations there are over three billion combinations for the sides of the high-top Pumas alone. That number does not include over half a million combinations for the top of the shoe, and over 30, 000 combinations for the back. Nike’s numbers are lackluster at best when compared to these figures. In total there are roughly 286 million combinations for one Nike shoe, which is one-tenth the options for just the sides of a Puma sneaker. Although 286 million is impressive considering no department store could ever offer that many options, the competitive advantage goes to the company with the greatest number of customizable options, which in this case is Puma.
Not only is customization advantageous in that in can attract people who might not otherwise flock to these brands, create even greater brand loyalty among core customers, and become a part of people’s digital self-awareness, but mass customization also provides an opportunity to recognize trends and make them available to customers who can still appreciate picking out and trying on their shoes in-person. Popular customized looks are already available on NikeiD and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ. It may not be long before these designs become mainstays of the brand and product lines are completely user-generated.
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