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Question: if a company made REALLY WIDE skate shoes (designed for skateboarding) how many here would buy them?
Thinking of something shaped like this Be Lenka:
(These exist but they cost $150 and the sole is hella thin)
Would you want suede, canvas, or other vegan material?
4 eyelet or 6 eyelet?
Cupsole or vulcanized?
Other feature?
How cheap would they have to be? (150 is too high for me. Might buy at 90. Would definitely buy 2 at 75)
do you own a shoe company or know someone who can get this made?
TLDR: I wish! But somebody with an existing infrastructure ought to do it. Hire me!
I've dreamed about it but I don't have financial resources like that. I do have a design degree (which is great for working as a stocker at the grocery store, if you're choosing a field of study)
I used to think that to mass produce shoes you had to go where labor is cheap (i.e. Asia.) Based on reading about the start of Last Resort, Lakai, etc.
More recently I've learned about businesses that buy carpet on a subscription model (contracting per year instead of per square foot and recycling the used/damaged product) Seems like it would work for a "high-wear application" like skate shoes.
Also noticed barefoot shoe companies manufacturing in the USA and offering repair/resoling. But none of them make skate shoes.
It's dismaying to me that there are zero skate shoe companies that make a true foot shaped shoe. All of this tapered toe nonsense. It's basically foot binding. So maybe a "barefoot" shoe company could get into the skate game.
Wide toe box skate shoes seem like a challenge, but also a market niche that is just waiting to be filled by somebody. Maybe it's time to do a Kickstarter.