Keds Collective

Keds is engaged in a "wholesale business-model change" in which its consumers not only design footwear, but can also sell it, reports Christina Binkley in the Wall Street Journal (12/10/09). "Marketing has evolved into a conversation with the consumers," says Kristin Kohler Burrows, president of Keds. To keep that conversation going, Keds is launching a site, called Keds Collective, where consumers can choose from a palette or upload their own design elements.

If Keds likes a design, it makes a deal with the consumer, who receives a 10 percent cut on any sales. The shoes can either be ordered online by consumers or stocked by retailers for sales in stores. So far, this hasn’t exactly made anyone rich, but that’s not the point. "I’m totally thrilled," says Jeriana San Juan, who has "sold six pairs of Keds with her designs." And for Keds, its all about turning "custom sneakers into an advertising juggernaut when the designers … proudly holler about them from the rooftops of the internet."

Jeriana, for instance, "has posted her Keds designs on Facebook and is adding a Keds link to her website." Similarly, Nike not only publishes a "gallery" of consumer designs on NikeiD, but also provides "convenient icons to click to ‘share’ them on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace." Champion meanwhile asked its "consumers to design hoodies and submit them for votes (link)." Darren Paul of Night Agency, the social-media consultancy that helped create the Keds Collective, comments: "People feel much more connected to the brand because they’re part of the advertising, in reality."