In the process of doing research to buy a new pair of sneakers, I came across the Vans website.  They are known as a producer of extremely comfortable and versatile footwear (among other things).  Back in my younger days, I was a pretty avid skateboarder and Vans were viewed as the leader of their scene.  I still sport some of their slip-ons around the office and I love them, although some people mistake them for slippers.

While on the Vans website, I came across a feature called ‘custom shoes’.  In about 5 minutes, I managed to design some Smibs inspired slip-ons.  I am not going to lie they were pretty ugly, but my interest was peaked.  In the guise of blog research, I uncovered several other websites that allow you to personalize a variety of consumer products.  After about an hour, I had designed a whole slew of Smibs inspired stuff from a geared up F-150, to a longboard and some rocking Converse Chuck Taylors.

Although it is not a new phenomenon by any means, I anticipate a shift in the market toward an increased demand for personalized customer-designed products as more people become aware of the possibility.  The trend has already infiltrating the design of our new small-business SAAS (Software As A Service) products, SmibsNet and Doorbell.  We have been getting our users to test our software for months so that they can give us suggestions on what they want.  I find that it is much easier to get requests from our testers then to anticipate the needs of the consumer.  In the end, the users get a more intuitive/dynamic product and we get to spend more time designing sneakers.