Ever accidentally purchased shoes that, when you got home, you discovered were two different sizes?
I haven’t. I come from the school that, no matter how much of a hurry I’m in, I’ll try on both shoes to make sure they fit comfortably.
Why? Well, first off I have bizarre feet. Not like monkey feet, mind you, but pretty knobby. Secondly-it’s just plain common sense. If I’m gonna wear these shoes for at least a year, I sure do want to make sure they’re comfy!
But I guess that not everyone thinks this way.
Inventor Stephanie Huang took it upon herself to develop a new approach to marketing sneakers. This is done by vacuum-sealing the shoes in an airtight plastic bag and attaching a card with various details to the top of the bag.
Fresh Kicks sneaker packaging
Her argument is that this saves storage space, insures freshness of product, allows potential buyers to see the shoes, and makes sure that the buyer doesn’t take home two different sizes.
I like the idea overall, but I can’t see it taking over the marketplace. I’m quite sure I’m not the only one who will ask to try on the vacuum-packed shoes to finalize my decision to purchase.
So instead of box tops sitting around, there will be a bunch of slit open bags that need to be re-sealed with a vacuum sealer-that the shoe stores will have to purchase so that it is on-site. Plus shoe boxes have a certain recycle-able factor. I have several around the house, labelled and holding various items.
Sorry Stephanie. While I like the design and admire the lower amount of storage, I just can’t see this working. Perhaps another product would fare better?
SOURCE: Stephanie Huang
