For the Love of Custom is where we share our love of all things customised and personalised! Since we are a company that specialises in creating custom outerwear, it’s no surprise that we also want to shine a light on the growing mass-customisation trend. We’ll be featuring different companies that are at the cutting edge of customisation.
Nike iD
Nike is undoubtedly the frontrunner when it comes to activewear, sports equipment and of course, shoes. As a company, Nike is focused on innovation and creating products that are functional as well as appealing. Nike iD is the service where customers are able to customise their own shoes, which are then made to order and shipped to your door. Launched in 2012, Nike iD has since allowed customers to have a hand in creating footwear that’s unique to them.
When you first get started you’ll have the option to begin with an icon, material, colour or innovation. This is a great way to start if you don’t have a very solid idea yet. It allows you to go in with small concepts and then build upon them. Something that’s very impressive about Nike iD is the software that’s been developed for the site. The shoes look real and so you end up being able to see a very realistic mock-up of your design. It lets you see the shoe from every point of view so you have a good idea of what the finished product will look like.
Let’s make one
We decided to start with the wonderful Nike Air Huarache; a great shoe in its own right. The circular logo on the front, the layered detailing as well as the shape are things we adore. The huarache is a bit bulkier than others, but still a light and comfortable shoe! The base design is already gorgeous and admittedly, we were sucked in by the trendy holographic effect on these ones.
Source: Nike iD
As you can see, Nike iD lets you not only change the colours of every detail (the laces, tip and eye stay, vamp, sole etc.) but also the different finishes (matte, shine, iridescent). For the soles you have options to add paint flecks/speckles and you can choose the colour of those as well. We decided that we would go all-out-princess today and design a shoe that reminds us of 2007.
Source: Nike iD
For the heel/back of the shoe, there are options to print the Nike logo or your country. One of the coolest things about Nike iD is the Personal iD feature where you’ll be able to write whatever you want (within the community guidelines) on the back instead. This is about 6 characters on the Huarache but less for some of the other designs. You can change the colour of the text and you can also get a different word on each shoe.
Source: Nike iD
Let’s face it, one of the best parts about customisation is the actual process of customising! Since Nike has such a great range of possible combinations, you can really spend hours trying different combinations, styles and personalised tags. We decided to showcase some of designs we came up with for your viewing pleasure or for inspiration. It really shows that the possibilities are endless with Nike iD.
What also really shows off is that we’re addicted to metallics.
Source: Nike iD
Nike iD has such a great system that is addictive and efficient; it’ll only take about 4 weeks for your custom sneaks to show up at your door! The software was a standout and the variety of design options is almost overwhelming. If you’re looking for a new pair of shoes, you should have a go at creating your own. It’s so fun to try out new combinations of textures, colours and styles to see what you can create. This was the most fun we’ve had virtually customising so far!
It’s so awesome to see big, mainstream companies also getting on board the customisation wave. Nike iD has been around for many years and it’s possible the success of larger companies is what has paved the way for new innovators to enter the custom business. Nike iD has since expanded to have Nike iD available in store in some countries. We hope that one comes to Australia soon!
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We’re inspired by such influential companies having success in mass-customisation. You can shop our own fully customisable range at Exodus Wear, too. If you’re buying for a group we have a variety of different styles and can customise almost any element of the jacket- including the lining! If you’re more of a solo artist then you can shop for your own individual customised jacket here.
We look forward to helping you create your perfect jacket!
