The shoe market has always been a competitive field. Nike has remained at or near the top of this market for many years based on the company’s high brand equity. Nike is constantly producing quality shoes with a unique feel and look, not to mention the brand’s clever marketing campaigns that keep the company fresh in the eye of the consumer. Nike usually leads the way with innovating the next big thing for shoes. For example, Nike came out with Shox, a type of shoe that allowed spring-like shock absorbers to provide athletes with extended comfort and support. In 2000, Nike launched its NikeiD website. This website gave shoppers the chance to design their own shoes for basically no additional cost.
Puma, another well respected footwear manufacturer, followed in Nike’s footsteps by creating its own customizable shoe website called Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ. Now, while Puma’s and Nike’s websites are by no means carbon copies of each other, it’s clear that companies are becoming more and more aware of the importance of mass customization. Mass customization simple means that companies have the ability to produce a great amount of customized products easily.
Upon visiting Nike’s website, the shopper is immediately provided with options. On the first page one can choose “sport” or “style.” It seems as though Nike realizes that its customers are not only composed of athletes. Since I usually don’t partake in “physical activities,” I chose “style.” From here, I had even more options. However, the shoe category that I chose on this page ended up being called “sportswear.”
Touché, Nike. Touché.
Being prone to high tops, I decided to customize a pair of Nike Dunk High iD’s. Here Nike gives you an almost complete pair of shoes. The customer can continue working on this pair, or they can start from scratch. I didn’t really like the colors, so I started from scratch. When starting from scratch there are 7 steps in the design process. These steps are: choose a base color, secondary color, accent color, swoosh color, lining color, lace color, and text iD. Text iD allows the customer to place an individual message on the shoes. Once these steps are complete you can choose your gender and size. The pair of shoes I made cost $125.00.
I found this site incredibly easy to use. I thought it was amazing that I had so many types of shoes that I could choose from, as well as so many options to customize my shoes so that I was completely satisfied with my experience. The shoes would take approximately 4 weeks to be delivered after being created.
When visiting Puma’s website, the first noticeable characteristic is the fact that there is definitely an emphasis on cooking. For example, the first page has an image of a chef with text that reads “Grab your chef hat…and preheat your creativity. Design your own custom-made shoes at the puma Mongolian BBQ and taste the art of shoemaking.” When saving and reloading a shoe, the text reads “just a minute - we’re gathering all of your saved ingredients. We’ll be with you shortly.”
I started by saying I wanted to make a new shoe on the front page. The next screen immediately proved to be less in depth than Nike’s site. There were only 3 types of shoes to choose from here. I decided to continue with a pair of high tops. The next step is to choose your gender and size. Here you can also start from scratch, or continue from a shoe template, much like Nike’s website. When starting from scratch, there were a total of 17 steps to customize; 8 for the sides, 5 for the top, and 4 for the back.
I found the terms used here to be confusing. Not being fluent in shoemaker, I had no idea what an eyestay, quarter, form strip, collar, vamp, insock, or FOT was. While choosing a color for these parts, I was completely guessing what would change on the shoe. I wouldn’t say there were more options on Puma’s page. I would say, however, that the options were different. There seemed to be more of an emphasis on patterns and materials instead of colors. The colors available seemed to be a combination of earth tones, metallics, and pastels. The shoes only cost $110.00. It was interesting to me that the customer has the chance to change the logo on the Puma’s though. I don’t think you would ever find Nike giving the customer that option.
Regardless of if I’ve worn Nike’s basically since I started wearing shoes, I believe Nike has created a better customer experience with its website. Nike has allowed the customer to choose from a large range of types of shoes, but has made what could be a complex and involved process into something easy and fun. I really enjoyed making my pair of Nike’s. However, with the Puma’s I just found myself getting a little bit frustrated. The colors that were available to use just didn’t really fit what I had in mind, and there were too many steps. I realize that the increased amount of options allows the consumer to create a unique shoe, but there are only so many white, brown, tan, pink, purple, light green, gold and black combinations that can be made on one pair of shoes. Even Puma’s delivery period is longer than Nike’s.
I even found Puma’s concept for the website a little annoying. It seemed like the company was trying to be trendy and quirky by naming the shoe design component Mongolian Shoe BBQ. And that’s fine. But I didn’t need to be reminded that I was “cooking” a pair of shoes repeatedly throughout the process.
Overall, I would definitely choose to create a pair of Nike’s over a pair of Puma’s. It will be interesting to see where the shoe companies go next with this concept. I’ve noticed lately that in shoe stores such as Footlocker that pairs of shoes seem to be getting more and more unique. Either way, I think that the shoe companies are definitely on to something.
