Commercial Viability of the Concept

¶ … commercial viability of the concept of footwear customization on a mass market scale. It was inspired by the recent development of production techniques and mechanisms that facilitate the increased capability of incorporating custom preferences and designs into consumer products that were previously capable of being produced at affordable prices only in mass produced quantities of specific product designs. New production technologies, such as 3-D printing, could allow footwear manufacturers to allow individual customers to express their specific preferences and to actually provide the opportunity for customers to design and detail footwear one a per-unit basis to allow for maximum customized preference.

Primary research was conducted in the form of focus group interviews in which the researcher utilized the Skype platform to collect data in the form of consumer opinions, preferences, and values. Those data were subsequently analyzed qualitatively to determine the relative marketability of mass produced custom footwear. Secondary research in the form of a literature review provided an informational background on known consumer preferences and values, as well as on the relative success of recent initiatives by one major athletic footwear manufacturer in connection with its recent addition of an experimental platform designed to allow customers to customize various aspects of footwear subsequently manufactured to their particular specifications.

The results of the primary data analysis and the secondary literature review indicate that there is a sufficiently strong desire on the part of contemporary consumers to support the development and implementation of mass produced custom footwear operations. It is anticipated that as the necessary technology continues to develop, mass production techniques will be combined with consumer customization much more generally and across a wider variety of products far beyond footwear.

Introduction

The purpose of this research project is to determine the relative commercial viability of the concept of custom design for consumer products traditionally manufactured exclusively on a mass production basis. More specifically, footwear is typically produced according to mass production orders placed by manufacturers whereby selected product designs are mass produced in various sizes and colors but no other variations or options beyond color and size are available to customers. By contrast, the addition of custom design to commercial footwear production would allow individual customers to request products on a per-unit basis that incorporate their specific color patterns, choice of materials, and elements of design to suit the specific needs and preferences of individual customers on a per unit basis.