After KedsStudio, RYZ is another notable shoe project. At first glance it seems like a sister site of Threadless - with an analogous concept:
"RYZ invites anyone to design the perfect pair of shoes. We’ll produce the most popular designs, sell them around the world, and share the profits with the designer."
But does the crowdsourcing model which works so well for Threadless also work for the shoe market? Frank Piller seems to think so indeed:
"I am wondering since long what could be good fields where the extremely profitable Threadless idea can be applied to, and footwear could be one option.
Rob Langstaff is not an outsider of the sneaker world. The former Adidas America Inc. president has turned the business model of its former employer upside down. Instead of assigning design jobs to inhouse designers, he is relying on online clusters of consumers to design products and figure out which ones to sell.
Rob Langstaff is putting $4 million into his shoe startup, saying there is too great a disconnect between businesses and consumers. He expects to do $40 million in revenue by 2012 (which would be about half the time of Threadless’ way to scale, but could work given his larger experience in the market and the higher price tags) ...
So I am curious to see whether Mikal Peveto and Rob Langstaff’s predictions come true. They took some serious modifications of adopting the Threadless models for their industry. But Threadless’ customers are as much purchasing the membership in a club, a community, by purchasing t-shirts frequently at $15 a pop. I am not quite sure that this will work with $90 sneakers."
Zazzle and Keds have it a lot easier. Not only are their shoe models significantly cheaper, they’re also produced directly by the customers.
(via)
Related posts:
- Keds Studio: How Zazzle Is Revolutionizing the World of Shoes
- The Most Innovative Small Company in America is ... Threadless
Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo
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