Mass Customization

In the age of mass customization, why should clothing be any different? If clothing is supposed to be an extension of who we are, how can it accurately portray who we are if it is the same thing everyone else is wearing? Customization allows us to take the roll of designer when it comes to our apparel and maybe then, what you see is really what you get.

Two athletic clothing companies have created interactive websites based on the personal design principal, Nike and Puma. With their websites NikeID and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ, respectively, visitors are able to design their ideal shoe. Assuming they have the roughly $100 to pay for their customization, your new shoedentity is a mere four to six weeks away.

NikeID is the long-standing shoe design leader in this field, having been around since the inception of the concept by one of their own. Once logged onto the site, a user is prompted to select a gender and then either a specific shoe they want to customize or a genre from which to pick their ideal shoe. After a series of user-friendly steps, selecting materials and colors, the consumer is left with a 3-D model of their new footwear. Although not everything can be left up to your imagination, strict colors to pick from for example, almost anything is possible within the finite choices given by Nike. The less creative may even choose to select a pre-made “custom” shoe in colors unlikely to be found at a local Footlocker. (see the Chelsea model above)

While not rocket science, it can be a little tricky to navigate around the NikeID page. Instead of being able to click a clearly-market button on the homepage that would allow the user to create a new shoe from scratch, users must sift around the site in order to find the page they are looking for. This most often means clicking on a pre-made shoe in the correct style and then selecting to “start from scratch,” so to speak. While the technology utilized in the website is crisp and purposeful, some pages take much longer to load than others, the inconsistency quite apparent. Nothing design-wise seems out of the ordinary for Nike, although some colors are bright and wild, nothing is really “out there.” Typical Nike shoes, a little cooler looking than average, for more money and a longer ship time. Not bad, but not awesome, either.

Joining the shoe customization bandwagon is Puma with their Mongolian Shoe BBQ website. The website definitely pays homage to the NikeID model, but is easier to use, more straight-forward, and has better customization possibilities. Mongolian Shoe BBQ is much more of a gimmicky website than NikeID, a little racist, but also a little fun. MSBBQ is a character website, mimicking the style of a Mongolian BBQ restaurant where you have total customization options over your meal. MSBBQ utilizes a flash-based website that is much faster and clearer than NikeID. The shoe customization options are much more fun, as well. (see the Chelsea model, also known as "the Pimp of Shoes" above)

On NikeID, the user only has a few choices between colors and textures, such as leather or synthetic material. However, on MSBBQ, the possibilities are much more fun and wacky. Puma offers everything from colored leathers, to sparkly gold material, and everything in between. While NikeID could be seen as the respectable cousin of MSBBQ, MSBBQ is definitely the fun one in the family – maybe drunk half the time and maybe a pimp under the cloak of night, you do not really care. All you need to know is that MSBBQ is where the fun is.