Yet it seems that NikeID and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ have found ways to shake my grudge against companies interactive sites. I'm not sure if it was the high tech feel to it or the unlimited options, but I killed quite a bit of time creating multiple shoes on both sites.
I have been aware of Nike ID since I was in middle school. Clearly they have expanded the idea since then, buy my past experience with NikeID was only customizing soccer cleats. I do remember basketball and baseball shoes also having a customizable capability, but the options were limited. It made much more sense to buy a shoe that was already "hot" per say, than try to make a "better" shoe with not so many options.
I can't say the same today, that's for sure. First of all, even the choice of what shoe to customize too a while for me. You can customize nearly any shoe they sell. Not only that, but you can even chose a blank slate, or work off a shoe that you already might like. Have you ever seen a shoe before and thought to yourself, "if only this color was different and I would love this." Well problem solved! NikeID gives you an almost unlimited number of combinations to choose from to the point where if 200 people were asked to make shoes, I don't think a single pair would be identical.
Puma also has taken customization to a great place. I was not aware of Pumas customization capability at all until this assignment. I was always fairly certain that you could customize Nikes. Anyway Puma went a step further and branded per say the customization shop. You are now in the Mongolian Shoe BBQ (whatever that means). But once you get over the lame name, your shot into some basic info questions. Male/Female, shoe size, and your on your way to custom Puma heaven. Puma asks which of the four stock shoes you would like to customize, then if you would prefer a blank shoe, or an already conceptualized design.
If you put a gun to my head and asked which site is better, I would say Nike. But both sites have great things going here. They are both very high tech and modern looking. The graphics and sweeping interactivity keep you interested for quite some time. But the nod goes to Nike if you asked me which site has more shoe model options. Keeping that in mind, and also calculating in that I prefer Nike to Puma anyway, and you have the explanation for my choice.
That's not to say I'm not a fan of Puma. If you don't know the story behind Puma and Adidas you really should. It's a sneaker fairy-tale. Puma really put some effort to making their website fool proof. Making a sneaker really isn't brain surgery. Although I think Nike also gets the nod for making it just a bit easier. Where you have to read and scroll to get to the appropriate part of the shoe with Puma, you simply click on that part of the shoe with Nike's website. It made making a shoe like this below a breeze.
Check out the
Nike 6.0 Mavrk Mid 2 iD Shoe
I designed at NIKEiD.com
And if it wasn't completely clear that I'm giving the victory to Nike, they took it one step further to make my analysis that much easier. There is a rectangular color scale at the bottom left of the main NikeID page.
Simply click on the color you think would look good, and the website will generate nearly 25 shoes with the color scheme you clicked on. You can even use them simply to "start" and customize from there. So even for people with creativity that was left for dead in a poorly completed coloring book from elementary school don't have an excuse to be bad at creating a shoe. If you really can't think of anything, just have fun clicking on the rectangle until you see something that catches your eye. It's really that easyFor anyone that doesn't mind dropping 100+ on casual shoes, these two sites are a must visit. Being unique and individual is a large part of buying shoes for most people, so both companies are presenting an amazing platform to let your imagination run wild for a not so impossible price tag.
