Flaek – Sneakers 2.0
29. August 2009 Fashion 2.0, Rare & Limited, Shoes & Sneakers
When a graduate project becomes a sneaker brand it´s Flaek. Sven and Oliver, two German media-design students aimed high when they came up with the idea to create nothing less than „the best sneaker. Ever“. While their fellow students hustle pixels on their monitors, the pals who consider themselves as sneaker-holics go for real stuff.
Being “neither product designers nor brand-strategists”, the Flaek-Duo faces quite a challenge with not only making the brand, but also, making the shoes.
From logo, to shoe design, to production, to packaging – since June, Sven and Oliver document the step-by-step development of their project on their blog, via Twitter and in their Facebook group.
Till now it´s open, if Flaek will be a very limited series of only two sneakers, or will come up with a small series of shoes. For the young sneaker-producers, the only important thing of the now is to discover the possibilities a brand-building implicates and to make their own decisions in terms of what their feet will wear in future days.
Despite the huge efforts, the team takes and took in regard to find the right producer, to design thrilling packaging and even to think of unique POS-presentation, the most interesting part of the Flaek-project is, that the brand was already known, even before one single design has been shown.
As part of a community of sneaker-fans, for Sven and Oliver it is pretty common to talk, to share and to interact with other like-minded. And with a naturally attitude, they started, to share Flaek with the community too.
While huge companies talk about Marketing 2.0 and think about how to be open, how to become transparent and how to interact with online consumers without getting into trouble, the Flaek-Team just didn´t give a shit on thinking and talking too long. They just did. And they do naturally great. Secret recipe: they don´t fear the community, they embrace it.
Sven and Oliver do not only share, they give the newborn brand a human face by getting in real conversation, by being open for critique and kudos, by making personal what is considered to become business.
This is brand conversation 2.0 at its best. This is Flaek.
“Open before established”. It feels like the guys came to stay.
Photos via Flaek. Others about Flaek: better taste than sorry, Hypebeast.
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