How two teens launched a new sneaker business in just two weeks
An in demand, innovative business built with feedback from 600+ consumers, pitched to adidas and the Chicken Connoisseur #crepcheck!
Here at Fluxx HQ, over the summer we were joined by Samia (17) and Bill (15) as part of the Mayor’s Fund work experience scheme.
As product and service experience designers, we spend our time working with amazing brands to create experiences that their customers love. So we realised we couldn’t possibly ask Samia and Bill to spend their time with us making hot drinks and doing admin. We wanted to see what would happen if we challenged them to use our Fluxx approach to creating new businesses and launch their own one, in only two weeks, Young Apprentice; Fluxx style!
Whilst Jassi Porteous and I talked them through our approach and helped set a few things up, the research, the idea, the creative design and the final pitch to adidas was all their work — so who better to talk you through it then Samia and Bill.
Samia: Hi, I’m Samia and I’m 17. I plan to be either a UX designer or study computer science, I go to a Girls Academy in South London.
Bill: I’m Bill, I’m 15, and I’m a young entrepreneur from North London.
What did you think work experience at Fluxx would be like?
Samia: I thought I was going to have a first look at the industry I wanted to work in, but I was still worried I’d be doing basic boring tasks. It turned out to be the opposite, really interesting!
So what was the brief?
Samia: The challenge was to create a product or service that’s new in the sneaker industry in less than 2 weeks and then pitch it to adidas. There’s a big sneaker scene in London so it was exciting.
Bill: So the sneaker industry in general is worth $55b dollars. It’s a huge thing for teenagers right now to resell old stuff, they don’t want it to go to waste. We have ‘Sneakerheads’ and ‘Hypebeasts’; there’s lots going on, it’s exciting to try and find an opportunity to create something new and interesting in the industry.
Bill: In my early years I started my own re-selling business on Depop, where I dolled up old shoes and resold them. I was really excited that the project we were working on was related to that. I am passionate about the trainer industry and to have an opportunity to develop business skills in the area is really cool.
What was your approach?
- Understanding the landscape
Samia: We started with desk research, to get an idea of what the big brands such as Supreme, Off-White, CGG, and mainstream brands like Nike, adidas and Puma were doing. We figured out we needed to speak to a lot of people — influencers, customisers, designers, to get insights about the industry, but also to learn if there are any ‘pain points’, opportunities where we could help with a problem by creating something new.
2. Interviewing key industry people
Bill: After desk research we reached out to a whole bunch of people. We had to cold call, contact them on Instagram and over email. And the ones that responded, we interviewed. I have never done it before, but we actually spoke to a lot of people. As sneakers were their passion, people were happy to give up their time and speak to two kids. It was tiring though.
Nic: They did brilliantly and had some famous influencers (including the Chicken Connoisseur famous for his ‘crep check’) thanking them for getting in touch. In terms of interviews, they spoke to a sneaker designer for a well known fashion label, a sneaker customiser, and a sneaker buyer for an online retailer!
Samia: I had never interviewed before, it was nerve-wracking at first. I definitely found it harder face to face. On the phone it was more about the tone of voice, we had to be confident even if we didn’t feel it.
Bill: From our research we had so many diverse opinions coming from different angles and we had to make sense of them and see what we could learn. Brett, one of the consultants at Fluxx helped us organise all of the information, so we could find themes of opportunities.
Samia: There were three key areas that began to come out as being important. Customisation is trending, technology was also topical, there were issues of bots buying up the latest trainers and then resellers pushing up the cost. This was a problem with the limited edition trainers, which are just never accessible to the general public.
3. Consumer research
Bill: After desk research and interviews, we realised we had to get more information so we created a survey for the public.
Samia: We’d never created a survey before, so that was a new thing for both of us. It was good to learn how to use Survey Monkey and we kept having to go back and editing. You have to learn how to ask things in the right way to get valuable info back. But it was all worth it as by the end we heard from over 120 people!
Bill: We had bets on how many people the survey would reach.
Samia: I said 40! I never thought we would get so many responses!
4. Consumer co-creation
Bill: Then, we had 15 future consumers come to the Fluxx office. We split them into two teams. Each team took one of the key topics to come from the research. Team one looking into lack of sustainability in the sneaker industry, and team two took on the challenge of the high costs and lack of availability of hype sneaker. Both teams were given 2 hours to develop a new idea around their topic. They came up with 2 products/services to solve their problems — Rare Kix and Look Alive.
Samia: Rare Kix was an event pop up service. The idea was to plug into the Hype around new trainers, creating a community/ event around the release of a new shoe. The public would sign into an app, which would lead them on a treasure hunt around the city, revealing clues that eventually lead to the reveal of the secret location of the event.
Bill: the concept of Look Alive was to provide a service to refurbish trainers. As sustainability was a big consideration that came up in our research, the idea was that you can recycle, refurbish or refresh your sneakers, so that they stay on your feet and don’t end up in landfill.
Samia: We chose to develop Look Alive. It seemed like there was more of a need for that product, and we would be doing some good, as we both care about the planet too. It felt more original.
5. Build, measure, learn — proposition development
Bill: We created a logo. We planned to use light blue, but we decided to use darker colours after some more user testing. Everything we did, we kept having to go back and test and then learn from what we found out. Then we created an Insta page so that we could run an advert and a website to send customers to. We even had an ethical fashion company contact us to partner up, that was in less than 2 hours of creating the advert!
On the website we tested 3 propositions so we could see which was the most popular. So even once the website was launched we were still testing and experimenting.
So what were the results?
Bill: After 24 hours we had 494 unique visitors to our website having only spend £35 on our Insta advert. We also had 3 people get in touch — here’s what they said:
“Please inform me of more details” William
“Looking into getting trainers customised, would like to know the price” Afnaan
“Got a few pairs that could do with a spruce up and probably some that can be donated for the less fortunate. Think what you’re doing is a great idea…keep me informed.” Jeni
We had created a whole new brand in only a few days and already had people interested and excited in our services.
It turned out Reboot was the most popular service we offered with 18% of visitors to the website clicking on it for more details. A lot of people who buy expensive trainers want to wear them and keep them in good condition.
Pitching the idea to adidas
Nic: At the end of the two weeks, Bill and Samia pitched Dragon’s Den style to a panel of judges. There was plenty of pressure on them to nail their pitch as along with 12 Fluxxers in the audience, on the panel was Paul Dawson (Fluxx Partner), Jennifer Torry (Senior Consultant) and special guest Leigh Goode (Product Manager, adidas) who kindly came along to hear about their new business:
“You’ve picked up on one of the hottest topics around…and you’ve come up with a really brilliant idea. You both really delivered, be proud of yourselves!”
Leigh Goode
Link to watch with pitch and panel feedback
Nic: Leigh was so impressed with how much they’d got done and it was great to see how excited they were to talk to him about his job. He was definitely their hero! And that was even before he arranged for them to each get a pair of adidas sneakers for all their hard work!
What did you learn?
Bill: I’ve learnt how to research, gather insights, build experiments to understand how you test propositions. It seems simple but the most important thing is to start small and then build.
To iterate means to make changes based on feedback and responses. It is really important as you are constantly building on what you have done before. I also learnt failure doesn’t really exist, there are just good things to learn from things not working out how you expect.
Samia: We now have a fully functioning business, with evidence for our insights. I learnt that the most important thing is the customer and understanding what they want. That’s really at what I want to do.
So what’s next for you both?
Bill: Well, me and my partner here are now CEOs so we need to see what the future holds!
Nic: While we’re not all as creative and driven as Bill and Samia, the techniques they used can help any business unlock the potential in their people and launch new products, service and businesses that customers love. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how we can help you. nic.gray@fluxx.uk.com
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