This is what the future of sneakers looks like
Everything is about to change, with the help of AR Try-On
Buying shoes online isn’t perfect. Neither is going to the offline shop. For the online, the experience isn’t that fun or engaging, you’re just clicking through (staring at those photoshopped materials), hoping for the right fit to your closet. For the offline, you’re wasting your precious time by showing at the store, being disappointed because of the limited choice they have.
Where’s the innovation, both for the consumer, and providers?
Virtual Try-On. And Wannaby is the first company to develop it.
Works like magic, right? Our team of developers have done some hard work on computer vision and machine learning side, as well as in-house rendering (object visualisation), and no ARKit or other platforms were used.
But this post is not about the tech itself, it’s about the vision that is driving us in making this technology available for everyone, impacting sneaker lifecycle:
We’re going to dive into each step, how AR will transform every one of them.
1. Designers are empowered by new instruments
Of course, they can sketch (physically or digitally) — but it’s not that easy to test whether the created model is actually viable for production. What about sharing with followers or maybe colleagues— for the feedback?
2. Brands are given a new way to promote sneakers
Unless you’re Nike or Adidas — it’s not that easy to present and sell new releases and drops. AR Try-On is about to change that, at the same time allowing a totally new way to expand Direct-to-Consumer offering, establishing an emotional connection with the customer. Sustainability is very important here— AR can help to collect pre-orders, fighting overproduction.
3. Online retailers are able to engage their shoppers
Shopping online has its benefits — but the problems haven’t been properly addressed yet. Try-On solves the main one — bringing offline experience to online, with the opportunity to “try before you buy”. And that, in turn, reflects on any chosen metric: conversion into the purchase, returns, session time etc.
4. Offline retailers are hiding their weak points
There’s a lot of controversy about offline shopping — but it still makes up for a large portion of footwear sales. The reasons are obvious — from the experience feel, that online was lacking, some people still prefer to spend their time, searching for the right thing. However, more than often, this search is for nothing — there isn’t the right model, and trying on physically more than 2–3 shoes is a pain in the ass. AR Try-On addresses that.
5. Shoppers are more confident in the purchase
In this article, we’ve focused on the experience, and it works both sides — businesses are only well off if the customer accepts the innovation. From our Wanna Kicks launch, we can clearly see — they do. 90% of the users of our demo app report that they would strongly (9 or 10/10) miss not having this technology in their usual shopping experience. It solves their problem — desire to be sure you like your order, especially if you’re already connected with it emotionally, tried with your outfits (mirror case).
And it’s not only about the regular shoppers! The whole sneaker community will change. Why wait for the photos of the new drops, if you can try them on at home, months ahead of the release? Why to even bother going for the offline drops anymore, if you can fight bots with AR Try-On?
In short, that’s it — we’re expecting to make most of these changes happen in 2019 and 2020, making the world a better place to shop sneakers & shoes.
Wanna be a part of it or leave some thoughts— drop us a line at hi@wanna.by. Always excited to talk about sneakers or AR.
