But where can you get shoes that are uniquely you? There are a few places on the web that have great little programs that allow you to design custom shoes, – make them as individual as you are – and buy them! Now, I know MakeUseOf is intended to feature free applications and websites and such. However, I could argue that the ability to design shoes online is free, it's just the getting the shoe part that costs.
Zazzle
Zazzle makes me jealous. You can design your own custom Keds shoes there with practically any design you can think of. Upload a piece of artwork and apply it to the shoe.
How about a picture of your dog for your dog-walking shoes? Make shoes for each day of the week. Maybe make 'left' and 'right' shoes for your kids? The possibilities are definitely endless. Well, not completely endless. They don't have a men's shoe. I suppose a fellow could buy a women's slip-on and wear that, since they are pretty unisex looking. However, it seems that women's shoes are typically much more narrow and pointed than men's shoes.
When you start designing your shoe, you are shown what areas you can customize.
Clicking on each colour box gives you a variety of preset colours and patterns to choose from.
I've always liked red polka dots, but they just weren't conducive to this design. So I moved on the area where you can add images to the shoe.
As you can see, there are many options here to help you work with your image. Probably the most important thing to remember is to choose your shoe size first. The images will show differently on different shoe sizes. As you add images to the shoe, the demo of the shoe is instantly updated, so you'll have a good idea what to expect as you go along.
Check out these sweet kicks I designed. No brown-nosing here….
These beauties could be yours for the low Internet price of $79.25 plus applicable taxes. We're not seriously selling these though….are we?
Custom Keds from Zazzle could be used for fund-raising as you can sell your design through Zazzle (I've seen some breast-cancer themed ones). Or you could just buy a few pairs to wear for awareness campaigns like the yellow ribbon, or even as incentives for employees. (Hint, hint, editors!)
NIKEiD
I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be pronounced Nike ID, because when I tried to say it as a word it sounded too much like nekkid. Brought to you by marketing legend Nike shoes, this is an extensive web application to design not only your own Nike shoes, but clothing and accessories as well. The pricing is very competitive with factory designed shoes as well.
I'm going to design some shoes for my son, who is seven. I've chosen the Nike Air Tiempo Rival Premium iD Shoe (Barcelona) Kids'. Okay, they could come up with shorter names. You have to be in shape just to say that in one breath!
What I'm going to do with it is apply colours that mimic the jerseys of the Edmonton Oilers – my favourite NHL team. Mind you, it's not my son's favourite team, but I'm not really buying him these shoes anyway.
At the point where you start working on the design, you are given a great number of options: colours, materials, logo's, custom text and mascots. Check out some of the screen shots from the design environment below.
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Here's the finished project. Not bad if I say so myself! With a tag of $100, it's not ridiculously expensive either. If he was done growing, I might think about buying them.
Know of any other places on the web to design custom shoes online? Have any experience ordering shoes like these? We would love to hear about them in the comments below.
