The sneaker game evolved so much when the age of information technology was at its peak and is still growing. Getting the coveted sneakers that everybody wants is very hard to get especially since retailers are going e-commerce using their own balloting system while battling with checkout bots. Information is all over the place online we need a solution need to keep a tab on this problem for us sneakerheads.
I interviewed “sneakerheads” who queue and camp (offline and online) for coveted kicks during weekly drops to further understand their emphatise, understand their persona and psyche. Also to document my qualitative and quantitative data.
- To have access that will help gain insights and rich information on releases
- To have a chance in coping an exclusive pair and not miss out
- To Identify sneakers, especially for past releases
- To have a way to organise, track and manage the sneaker collection
- A way to buy & sell in a rich community of sneakerheads
- Usually missing out because of busy schedules
- Does not have much information on where and how to get a chance of the sneaker of interest
- Having to sell in buy and sell platforms that are full of scalpers
- Have to notify own-self for the release.
To have a centralised solution which can help insights in sneaker releases. To have unified information about shops and availability. Additionally, to have a “sneaker kit” to visualise the collection, a dedicated buy and sell community and to be able to identify sneakers in a snap.
To further validate the assumption and truly understand them, I plotted out Stan’s buying journey for documentation.
How might we consolidate information and help buy a pair online?
How might we get another chance to buy when missed a chance or sell?
How might we help get as much insight about the sneaker’s release?
How might we ensure that they get notified instantly?
A Super Mobile App for Sneakers
Sneaker drops always occur during odd hours and days so the solution must be on-demand and at your finger tips.
Drops
Discovery
Collection
Reselling
Going deeper with the features for the super app.
Discover is the latest news provider for this app that will help feed our users fashion news from different sources and in-house content.
Latest news feed
Article page for reading and saving
Drops is the main USP (unique selling point) for this app. This will help the users get notified on weekly and limited drops and will provide a chance to get a pair and ballot on release days. And not just that, it will help our user laser focus on the pair he/she wants and will also suggest retailers that will or carry those pairs.
Drops listing
Tinder-style swiping for interesting drops
Another USP for this app is the marketplace. With a dedicated marketplace for sneaker lovers or just simply want to sell or resell. This will help cut down the ambiguity of larger and broader marketplaces like carousell, facebook market place and such.
Marketplace home
Item Listing
This feature is meant to curate the user’s sneaker collection and bookmark their sneaker wishlist and will suggest retailers that carry the pair.
Personal Collection
Recommended retailers
Sneaker apps are a highly niche product with a lot of ambiguity in them. Although this solution will solve the pain points of the users there is still a big constraint from a UX design perspective.
One example is balloting sneakers, every retailer or supplier has a different platform for their balloting system and basically, the ambiguity is present and real. And the intention is for equal opportunities for interested parties because the demand is so high than the supply which is usually in the ratio of 300:1.
When you try to ballot on that retailer the “user experience” will drastically change as it must link to the retailer’s website to perform balloting via the in-app browser and the only callback is closing the in-app browser.
So in conclusion, to further expand the solution for this type of app there must be an in-house ecosystem, especially for ballot and retailers to be able to consolidate and not leave the app as a solution.
