RbkCustom.com

 

Reebok wanted a shoe configurator, like NikeID, but was convinced that Nike, being first to market, might not have done the best job merchandising their shoes and offering a deep customization experience. So, they hired Fluid, Inc. to make them a brand-new product configurator, based to a large degree on some similar work we did for Timberland and Design Within Reach.

Our team interviewed members of the sneakerfreak subculture and analyzed all the competition, as well as our client. We came to a handful of guiding principles pretty quickly:

• Be on-brand by allowing maximum self-expression, individuality, and the essence of the greater Reebok "I am what I am" brand value
• A thick-client Flash architecture for speedy interaction design
• Full-bleed photography for immersion and to help carry the brand
• Help the customer visualize the shoes on models...while still being fully customizable
• Emulate the in-store expierence, allowing physcial inspection of a product by allowing two axes of product rotation, an innovation that no competitor had
• Our core customers craved exposed complexity, deep control, and exploratory environments

We used a similar custom run-time tinting engine and display system that we did for our previous Timberland configurator project. Created for Flash 7, we designed not only the client-facing application but also a full set of rich administration tools and even ties in with the manufacturing process. We handled everything but the checkout process.

 

The photography production methodology I developed is also worthy of note. We photographed shoes, custom-manufactured for the photo shoot, along two axes of rotation and on male and female models. We had to shoot multiple versions of each shoe to capture all the options, alternatives and add-ons that were available. Once all these were aligned, retouched, masked, and separated, each shoe had 22 individual views and a total of 600 to 900 assets per shoe. Custom proprietary software tools were created in-house to speed and automate the process, as well. The production process also involved a power drill, a 1/2" bit, a dowel, and a protractor...but how we used these tools I'll leave to your imagination.

Within the first quarter of its quiet soft-launch, the average site visit was up to 10 minutes in length and was considered a major success. More shoes are slowly being added to the lineup. 20% of all visitors that go to Reebok's North American portal site navigate directly to RbkCustom.com.

This project, and a similar project for Timberland, was featured in a talk I gave at the FlashForward 2006 conference (to a healthy 87% approval rating, thanks, folks!).

I acted as the co-creative lead, information architect, interaction designer, and production director (but did not execute the final visual design, although I have extended them as needed). I supervised and technically directed all photography, post-production, and asset cutting.