See the Forbes article which accompanies the episode here.
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Episode Description
What if I told you there’s a company that has manufactured millions of distinct products? And would you believe that the business is only seven years old? Welcome to the world of mass customization! That company is Shoes of Prey, and Chief Creative Officer and co-founder Jodie Fox tells us what it means to deliver exactly what the customer wants, where they want it. Their model? “Our customers pay upfront for exactly what they want and pay up-front for that, and we make it.” Sounds like a dream, but it raises some interesting questions, such as how manufacturing on demand can be cost-effective, how to give customers the tools to design and visualize their product in advance, how to use big data to identify trends and understand the individual consumer better, and how to craft a user experience to minimize the risk of returns. And what is the role of a Chief Creative Officer, anyway, when the customer is the one designing the products? We talk about that and a whole lot more. We talk about their recent move from Sydney to Los Angeles in their quest to go global and the things that keep Jodie up at night. She gives us a sneak peek into the shoe trends of the upcoming year. (By the way, did you know that the average woman in the UK buys 13 pairs of shoes a year?) She shares some futuristic predictions about how technology from blockchain to artificial intelligence might impact manufacturing. And she teaches me how to walk in 4” heels!
About Jodie Fox:
Jodie Fox is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at ShoesOfPrey.com – the world’s first website where women can design their own shoes. Started in 2009, Shoes of Prey broke even at 2 months, hit multimillion dollar revenue in under 2 years and today is a global multimillion-dollar enterprise, with stores in David Jones, Nordstrom and $24.6 Million USD in funding to date.
Links:
Shoes of Prey
Twitter/Facebook
Bondi Beach Run in 4.5″ Heels
How to walk in 6″ heels
Power of Now
The Four Faces of Mass Customization (HBR)
