Abbott Labs
A Clearer Line of Sight
To celebrate 50 years of skate culture hand customization Van's wanted to change the game.
The Insight
Since the day they released their first slip on skate shoe in Los Angeles, California kids have been drawing on them to customize and make Van's part of their personal brand.
As a part of their 50th anniversary, Van's wanted to do two things give something to their loyal fans of 5 decades that the shoe industry had never before seen and elevate their customer experience like never before.
All while giving competitor Nike a bit of heart ache for fun.
The Idea
At the time, Nike ID was really the only shoe customization engine on the block. It allowed for development of custom shoes, but had issues on mobile, tablet and slow internet connections.
Van's wanted to create something different. A digital throwback to the time when kids were drawing on shoes with markers but turbo charging it with technology.
The plan, develop a cross device shoe customization platform that would not only allow for selection of materials patterns and colors, but allow for users to upload their own designs or photos to be mapped onto the shoe.