Saturday –
There are some strange new businesses popping up in cyber-land. One that I recently became familiar with is Customatix. They make unique shoes. That’s right, they’ll produce a pair of nice comfy new shoes designed just for you, to your specs. I first saw the company named in Wired, and after checking out some of their references, I bought me a pair of shoes. I figure I might as well, I needed new running shoes anyway (shut up Walt), and the company will possibly end up bankrupt and gone in a year like most startups. Gotta strike while the iron is hot, and all that.
So, how’d they do? I ordered them on the 11th, they were shipped on the 15th, and (UPS blows for West Texas) I got them on the 21st. Apparently "2nd Day Air" means something completely foreign to UPS.
But, what do you really want to see, but pictures. So, here is the image that the handy-dandy Customatix Java applet produced:
And, these are the shoes as photographed by my Canon digital camera:
Although I did wear them a bit before I took the photo, you can see they’re pretty close to what the screen showed before I plunked down my credit card. The "royal blue" webbing is a bit less vibrant, and the "navy" soles are not terribly cerulean, but overall it’s a good match. Maybe if the web had a standard for color-matching we’d be good. And, yes, the left shoe does say Andy on the back. 🙂
The shoes are quite comfortable, they came with a second set of laces (in a less vivid shade of blue), and they come with a money-back guarantee if they turn out horrible or the wrong size.
I can’t imagine this business model can be profitable as yet, since the shoes cost about the same as good running shoes in a store, but there is no economy of scale. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m thinking that I need some new boots too…
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