At first sight, the rolling steam table located at the far end of the lower level of the chic, all-white Puma store in downtown Manhattan looks like it was left there from a staff party the night before, and is awaiting pick up from the catering company.
But as one approaches the seemingly out-of-place food service device and sees that its square metal food pans are in fact filled with the varying swatches and components that when stitched together, make a sneaker, one instantly reckons the odd juxtaposition of sneaker design and a la carte food service, and it becomes clear that this is a very cool idea in Sneakerland: mix and match the items to create a pair of self-customized sneakers.
For each of the 20 different parts that make up a shoe, from the shoelaces to the sole, there are about a dozen color and materials options. This is gonna be fun.
“It’s best top start at the front and work your way back” is the advice given me by the on-site sales and design consultant, AKA the “sneaker chef”. Since Puma launched their “Mongolian Shoe BBQ” she’s done more than a few pairs of sneakers, and has lost count of just how many. She’s meticulously dressed, exuding style from head-to-toe, but her philosophy is to “let customers have fun and do what they want.” I ask if she’s seen any ugly shoes and she says that “sometimes customers get confused with all the options and they ask me to help them, so we start over, but everybody’s always happy in the end.”
She notes that “Because the shoe BBQ is also available online, many customers design their shoes at the site first, and then they come here just to see the actual materials and to make last minute changes.” Since there are only four Puma stores in America with the BBQ, we decided to also do a pair online, assigning our hip photographer to create her own shoes. Watch for our follow up-report when the shoes arrive in a few weeks.
The design I have in mind is based on a painting by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, which uses bright primary colors like blue red and yellow, interspersed with the black and white dots from cartoon panels. Since I don’t find a black and white dotted swatch, I decide instead to copy the palette from one of my favorite paintings by Kenneth Noland, whom does concentric circles with interesting colors.
My colors today are – don’t laugh, they actually look good – turquoise, orange, black, white, and green. I’m pleased to see that the shoe BBQ has close to exactly the colors I’m using and I decide to add a little silver which surprises my chef, but pleases me to no end.
And this brings me to the most important, if obvious, point about this whole process: since these are your very own one-of-a-kind shoes, why not go absolutely crazy and express yourself with a funky style?
The way it works at the store BBQ is that each material has a barcode which is scanned into a computer. There is a monitor displaying a shoe and each time we scan a color, it appears in the on-screen shoe, just like in say, Photoshop. At the website, you can click and drag your materials onto the shoe, then you click “Preview” to see how it looks. I did both and while I had fun at the store where I could actually see the texture of the materials, I had much more fun hanging out with my photographer designing her shoe online, laughing at our endless creations. The website also allows you to save your shoe profile online, so you can re-visit it the next day or week and still make changes.
Back at the BBQ, I’m really getting into my shoe. I surprise, maybe even shock my chef but she’s very gracious about my wild style. I opt for darker colors in the areas that get dirty the quickest, like the outsole and the sole. The black bottom makes gives my shoe a chunky look set against the bright colors and the silver accents, it has a kind of 80’s new wave feel that I think is super-cool.
Both online and at the store, you can rotate the shoe design, so it can be seen from an overhead view (which is really helpful, since that’s what you’ll see when you actually wear ‘em) and from both the left and right sides.
With a final scan of the sole at the store and a final click of the mouse at my photographer’s studio, our shoes are done. The in-store process took about an hour, while we spent more time online designing the second pair. I love my shoes, but I’ll admit that my photographer has a better design eye. Most people would really like her shoes, while mine are totally and completely MINE. This again, is the only thing that matters.
When I’m finished, I feel both tired and excited at the same time – it can be exhausting sorting through all the possibilities, but the sense of customizing something in this off-the-rack world is a very unique feeling. The shoes cost $130, and while that’s not cheap, it’s about what most folks are willing to pay for other shoes. And given that these are the only shoes of their kind on the planet and they’re all yours, it’s a worthwhile treat, and certainly makes for a great birthday gift for someone special.
I’ll report back when the shoes arrive in about five weeks. Puma has stores with the BBQ in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston, but anyone in the world can go to www.mongolianshoebbq.puma.com and design their own shoes.
My advice is to take your time and go crazy, and after you create your design, save them at the site and wait a few hours, then re-visit them, so you can make any additional tweaks to your perfect pair of sneakers.
PUMA RS-100 self-customized sneakers, $130 at select PUMA stores and at mongolianshoebbq.puma.com
Leave A Comment!