Users feel overwhelmed with a white canvas and therefore abandon Custom shoe designs. Marketing came to my team with three Vans athletes and their shoe designs and asked us to formulate a story. We divided their shoes into three categories: basic designs (solid colors), mid-level designs (solid colors, patterns and embroidery) and high-level designs (adding your own artwork) and targeted users based on what we knew about them with CLM. Each athlete’s story follows a simple formula to prove that you don’t have to be a shoe designer to make Custom shoes.

• • Story and website increased engagement on Customs site by +63%, highest on Vans.com/Customs so far.
• • Story formula was easily adaptable by Asia and Europe regions.
• • Athletes used: Dakota Roche, Karina Rozunko and Beatrice Damond.