After 25 years of playing it safe, Skechers just announced a bold new marketing strategy that could change the face of the sneaker industry forever. Earlier this week, Skechers announced that it is releasing a shoe that’s so ugly that the others look all right in comparison.
The performance footwear company revealed that its hideous new shoe, which is listed on its online store as ”The Monstrosity,” will essentially look like you’ve stuck your feet into two big piles of garbage. The Monstrosity’s nauseating design makes every other sneaker in the Skechers store look like a high-end designer shoe by comparison, and the company is banking on this juxtaposition to help drive up sales of its more conventional items.
“Our creative vision for The Monstrosity was to design one shoe that’s so completely horrendous that all our other shoes will pass as okay-looking,” Skechers CEO Robert Greenberg wrote in a press release sent out earlier today. “Coming only in colors that depict different shades of vomit, ranging from “Dark Puke” to “Bright Puke,” the new shoes will also come in a series of irregular and cumbersome shapes that announce to the world that they are so unsightly and unwearable that any other footwear item in our store looks amazing by comparison.”
Incredible. It’s exciting to see a company that’s willing to innovate and take risks in order to succeed. It will be interesting to see if people are so repulsed by Skechers’ new shoe that the company will get to see its marketing gamble pay off!
