Not Your Grandmothers Shoe Store. Case Study 1.

Online shoe buying is an evolving digital experience. While purchasing shoes used to be about the store you went to, like Footlocker or FootAction, buying shoes online offers a greater variety of options. Retailers like Footlocker do still exist on the web, but they just try to create their physical store online. Now, new approaches are emerging on the internet that did not and could not exist in the real world, offering a high level of customization and personalization. NikeID and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ, offer a new online experience that reflects the brand image of the shoe company itself, not just the store that distributes the shoe.

Both NikeID and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ offer an experience that reflects the brand they represent. Nike’s theme is that athletes have to be machines in order to compete at the highest level, and their approach reflects this. The shoe appears and floats as you customize, adjusting automatically to give you the best view of the part of the shoe you are customizing. Every step and movement is very fluent and mechanical, you feel like Tony Stark from “Iron Man” as he decides what to wear in the morning.

Puma’s approach is very different. Puma as a brand, is more of an everyday persons shoe, not super athlete, and the casual approach online reflects that. As you customize the shoe you see it on a surface with a background, not hovering like with NikeID. The idea of the Mongolian Shoe BBQ is that they have predetermined options to guide you but what you take home in your “Doggie Bag” is up to you.

The overall experience for both sites is very unique and reflective of brand personality. NikeID begins by allowing you to either start with the Kobe Bryant Lakers design and go from there, or start from scratch. If you start from scratch the site lets you begin where you would like, and offers helpful advice along the way, pointing out in one A vs. B situation which option works better outdoors. The site also let’s you put your “ID” in multiple places on the shoe, making it truly personalized. Nike creates an experience that makes the user feel like they are using cutting edge technology to create equipment they’ll use on the frontlines of athletic war. When the mouse scrolls over a part of the shoe, that entire part gets highlighted and the program tells you what part you are on. The NikeID program leaves the user feeling prepared for battle on the court, but does little to excite the non-athlete.

Puma’s experience is friendlier to the non-athlete. The experience begins by giving you multiple shoe choices, with some casual and some sporty. Puma also offers you previously designed options you can then customize. Puma’s Mongolian Shoe BBQ theme continues throughout the whole shoe building process, beginning with a loading screen that reads, “We’ll be with you shortly,” like how a waiter would address you. Puma does a good job walking you through the decision process, starting you at the side of the shoe, then moving you to the top of the shoe and finally the back. Along the way however, you have to be the one who decides the camera angle, which is less user friendly then with NikeID.

Online shoe design is certainly not the most economic way to shoe shop. It is however, the most engaging and entertaining method. NikeID is a technological experience that fits the Nike theme of mental toughness and athletic soldiers. Puma is a more casual brand, and the Mongolian Shoe BBQ fits into that as well. The Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ also probably fits a larger audience with more options to customize and an easier process. NikeID is able to utilize technology better to create a more engaging digital environment. In the end, I would have to declare Puma the winner in this battle of two giants, even though I am more pleased with the outcome of my Nike. Either way both sites leave the consumer satisfied, and their Christmas wish lists longer.