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Oct 09, 2008

The Cult of Individuality

Wear your style on your feet with the help of NikeID
We love shoes. We really, really love shoes. And, shoe junkies like us can now realize their own creations using the NikeID concept which arrived in Shanghai in April.

Aimed at those wanting to push personal style to the max, the concept has been extremely popular with young locals who want to express their individuality and street style. As customer Li Bozhen, 19, at the ID bar puts it, "I can design my own shoes and show my personality." According to Product Manager Jessie Xu, foreign customers "only make up a small percentage of ID 'designers,' and often go for high tech styles such as Air Max rather than street sneakers as more locals do."

The NikeID experience takes any of three forms: ordering online, shopping in the NikeID studio bar, or booking an appointment with a design consultant at the NikeID studio to personalize your own shoe-the ultimate luxury footware treatment. Not only do you get to feel the fabrics and check out the range of colors and finishes available, but your consultant guides you through the experience and promises not to laugh, even if your shoe is really ugly.

Sectioned off from the rest of the store, shelves of fashionable shoes inspire customers to go for individuality. Settling in with your design consultant, most of whom are graduates from design schools, their up-to-the-minute Macs are your ticket to shoe heaven. To increase exclusivity, NikeID Studio has six shoe styles in stock which are only available through the Studio. However, when designing, you are not restricted to those six lines and you can choose from over 40 different widely-available styles of shoes as well as accessories and clothing to customize. Swatches showing the materials for each shoe give you a clear idea of the finished product. Every detail is chosen by the customer, right down to the laces (you get two pairs), the stitching, sole and lining. As a final flourish, the customer can write a short message, such as a name or team number, on the shoe.

Finally, the item can be printed out for you and also stored on an "ID card" which carries an ID number that can be plugged in at a later date if you aren't sure that you must have your customized shoes right away. Of course, individuality comes at a price, with the average NikeID shoe costing around 30 percent more than its everyday counterpart off the store shelf. But as Li Yi Hua, 14, summed it up, "[Here] we can design shoes by ourselves," and you can't get better than that.

Elyse Singleton