Source: Gary Vee 003 Clouds and Dirt
Gary Vee remains one of the most divisive people in social media. The businessman turned Trainer of Entrepreneurs has dropped two shoes with K-Swiss. Naturally the releases haven’t been commercial, but the intent was to establish K-Swiss as a brand that represents the startup culture that is dominating the globe. While I initially thought K-Swiss had a product last year that could have garnered interest without an influencer if the company placed the energy and time into marketing, the company chose the influencer route and it appears to be garnering interest, but I’m not quite sure who is the beneficiary in this relationship. I discussed that here:
K-Swiss Invested In An Influencer When The Product Was Enough | Marketing
A week ago I wrote that resellers offered brands a direct link to analyzing where a brand might be headed. K-Swiss did another collab with Gary Vee based on the release of his Crushing It book release. There are approximately 29 pair being sold on eBay. The shoes ship with a signed copy of the book. Once again in this release the brand is tertiary. Gary Vee is primary, the book is secondary and the shoe is an afterthought that exists inside of an echo chamber of aspiring small business people looking for their moment in the sun by becoming a part of the Gary Vee community.
Is this such a bad thing? Is it any different than what Nike or Under Armour is doing with its athletes? No. K-Swiss is going even further by offering influencer drops from entrepreneurs, Anwar Carrots, associated with the original Gary Vee drops.
What’s unique this time around is the brand seems to be measuring the value that Gary Vee brings. A pre-order in my opinion is always the method of seeing what a true return on investment is bringing. It protects the brand from overproduction and if an influencer is truly bringing value then the number of shoes pre-ordered could be an amazing thing. If an influencer has run their course and can no longer move the needle then a brand understands that they have to shift their strategy.
What I like about this move by K-Swiss is they are utilizing their most successful model with a modern twist. The K-Swiss Classic features a knit upper with a very subtle colorblocking that represents the aim high, stay grounded and hustle philosophy of Gary Vee. The shoe is clean and will hit a majority of the targeted demographic with a summer ready version of a classic. Add in that the shoe is only retailing at 100 and you have a potential winner. There is only one problem and this sits at the root of everything K-Swiss has done since I first was excited about the Icon Series last year before the Gary Vee stuff… they are failing on delivering a landing page that would truly convert. Right now the one image above is the only pic of the shoe on the site. There is no medial, outsole, top, oblique or styled pictures of the shoe. What I do like is that Gary Vee has been minimalized. His name appears, but there isn’t an overdone video or Gary cursing about grinding associated with this. It’s all on the brand and I think that’s a good thing.