del.icio.us: co-creation

"Consumers are interested in acting as designers as well as mere customers of their favorite brands both virtually and in person."
- Reena Janna at Next: Innovation Tools & Trends, BusinessWeek.com

I haven't bought a new pair of sneakers in about five years, despite the fact that mine are clearly falling to pieces and smell like a thirteen year old boy.

Nevertheless, I think the NIKEiD Studio at the Nike store in New York sounds pretty hot. The store will take the online NIKEiD.com experience into the retail experience, allowing customers to custom design their shoes. Some will be turned into limited editions to be sold in the store, but customers can also design something entirely one of a kind.

The site is getting 3 million unique visitors per month. With numbers like that, the NIKEiD Studio is going to become a tourist destination along the lines of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty once it opens next weekend on October 20 with a grand opening party.


Update: There's a great post over at AdPulse about Nike spending just a third of their $678 million dollar ad budget on, well, ads. Ten years ago, they were spending more than half of that budget on ads. These days, they're spending the money on creating opportunities for consumers to interact with the brand: on the ground events -- and things like the NikeiD Studio.