Market votes on shoe designs before manufacture
Beach Religion is the collaboration between two established footwear designers, South African, Michael Cloete and Swiss, Thorsten Eissrich. Their emerging leisure footwear brand is challenging traditional channels of footwear design and manufacture. Together they have developed an open online platform that invites creativity, challenges process and opens up freedom so that the market has the say in what becomes available commercially.
Believing in the power of community, they have has chosen to take design to the people, to involve them in crucial decision making processes and then to make their choices happen. They manufacture designs that are submitted through an open international online design portal to which anyone can submit and vote for their favoured designs.
Anyone to go online, download the design template and submit their own unique creation (and they encourage users to push the boundaries). Once submitted, designs are online for all to see and, through an integrated social media strategy, encourages industries and the general market to vote for the best designs.
The winning designs are put into production to create the seasonal range that is manufactured and distributed both locally and internationally. Manufactured according to the highest international footwear and material specifications and standards, Beach Religion shoes are foot friendly and designed for both men and women for comfortable, design conscious living both on and off the beach.
Retailing for R250 through surf and leisure outlets nationwide, the brand meets its payoff line - 'For the People, by the People'.
For more information, go to www.beachreligion.com.
