RDB uses the idea of ​​refitting luxury cars to make luxury shoes, and has had star customers such as James and Jenna before.

When the owner of a luxury car modification shop encounters a luxury shoe business, what kind of spark will the two collide?

After a year of preparation, Vik Tchalikian and his business partner Stephen Blazick launched the "RDB shoes" series in early July. Charlie Kean has not done a shoe business before, he runs a car modification shop called RDB LA in Los Angeles.

15 years ago, Charlie Kean founded RDB LA, and later became popular by publishing car modification videos on social media. Currently, RDB LA has more than 500,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel and more than 600,000 followers on Instagram. In addition, LeBron James (LeBron James), Kendall Jenner (Kendall Jenner) and singer Billie Eilish (Billie Eilish) and other sports and entertainment stars are all customers of RDB LA, which undoubtedly further improves Up to their popularity .

▲The rapper Chief Keef wanted to endorse "RDB shoes"

. Therefore, when this small well-known car modification shop chose to cross-border shoe business and launched the "RDB shoes" series of products, it naturally attracted a lot of attention. Charlie Kean revealed in an interview with Organization Insider that many celebrities are very interested in the "RDB shoes" series. The rapper Chief Keef saw the photos of the shoes when he went to the store to modify his Lamborghini and said that he would do this series. Spokesperson. With the help of star halo,

brings positive bonuses to product announcements and sales. This strategy has proven successful in the sneaker market. In the second-hand sneaker market, the OVO co-branded sneakers launched by the JORDAN brand and hip-hop singer Drake, the "Barb" series launched in collaboration with the rapper Travis Scott, and Adidas and Kanye The Yeezy series created by Kanye West has a very obvious price increase and is sought after by the market.

In fact, car modification enthusiasts, hip-hop rap and sneaker enthusiasts have a certain degree of overlap. Therefore, using the customer resources accumulated by RDB LA, coupled with the connections with celebrities such as sports celebrities and hip-hop singers, Charlie Kean can also create momentum for the "RDB shoes" series of products . For

's positioning of the "RDB shoes" series, Charlie Kean hopes to make it a luxury in shoes, so the materials for the shoes include high-quality Italian leather and carbon fiber board. You know, for many sneaker fans, whether to use carbon plates is a big sign that distinguishes high-end shoes from middle and low-end shoes.

▲Charlie Kean wants to use the idea of ​​refitting luxury cars to design shoes.

Charlie Kean’s design concept has nothing to do with his business of luxury car modification for many years. "Think about it, in fact, car modification and shoe design Certain basic principles are interlinked.” Therefore, Z8z Charlie Kean chose to “transplant” the essential elements of luxury cars, such as carbon plates and high-end fabrics, to shoes, and designed a shoe with the idea of ​​modifying luxury cars. As a partner of Charlie Kean, Blazick agrees with this design concept: “We decided to add carbon panels when we first conceived the shoe design, just like a luxury car must have carbon panels, which can also make Our shoes are different."

▲ The "RDB shoes" series currently has 4 shoe styles and 9 different colors. The

"RDB shoes" series are priced between US$350 and US$525 and will be sold directly through its official website. At present, the series has launched four products for consumers to wear in different scenarios. "We have prepared running shoes for sports people who drive sports cars, slippers for consumers who like to drive barefoot, as well as high-top shoes and classic shoes suitable for various occasions." Charlie Kean introduced.

introduced by Charlie Kean, it is not difficult to see that the driver’s experience is also one of the considerations when thinking about the use scenarios of the "RDB shoes" series of products. The direction of is obviously different from other shoe and clothing brands in designing products. The reason for their “maverick” is that after the release of the “RDB shoes” series, they are very different.The majority of consumers are the user group accumulated in the past by RDB LA.

Charlie Kean and Blazek are very clear that fans of RDB LA are consumers of the "RDB shoes" series. They look forward to wearing these shoes and then driving RDB LA modified cars. This is why after the release of the "RDB shoes" series, two new shoes will be exhibited at Cool Kicks LA, the largest sneaker consignment store in Los Angeles, in order to reach the fan base of RDB LA. Charlie Kean even plans to cooperate with RDB LA partners and customers in the future to hold offline activities such as pop-up stores to promote the "RDB shoes" series.

Although the "RDB shoes" series can have a group of loyal "followers" as soon as it is released, the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic still has a certain impact on their pace of publicity. Because of the epidemic and social distancing policies, the offline conference of the "RDB shoes" series was forced to cancel.

▲ The background board for the release of the "RDB shoes" series is the luxury car

Charlie Ke'an then moved the new product launch conference to the social media platform and released a series of product photos. What's interesting is that a major theme of these photos is "luxury cars with shoes", and big car brands such as Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz have appeared on the scene. Through the "linkage" of with luxury cars, Charlie Kean hopes to further strengthen the luxurious image of the "RDB shoes" series in the hearts of consumers.

In fact, many sneakers will learn from the design of luxury cars, such as AJ 14th and Kobe 5th. The brand will tell stories around its design and color matching, which is popular among sneaker fans. The AJ 14th generation can see the shadow of the Ferrari F550 from the shoe design to the partial color distribution, while the Kobe 5th generation has launched a joint color shoe with Aston Martin. In 2008, Bryant shot an advertisement for Nike, in which he flew over a fast-moving Aston Martin sports car, which paved the way for Kobe's 5th-generation Aston Martin limited color scheme.

Charlie Kean’s operations from the car modification industry to the shoe business seem to make no sense, but in fact, he relied on the reputation and customer base accumulated by RDB LA to cut into the casual shoes field that has a certain relevance to the car modification enthusiast group. , To promote the "RDB shoes" series through social media platform promotion, celebrities bringing goods and direct-to-consumer strategies. According to Charlie Ke'an, there are currently more than 1,500 people who make appointments to buy shoes, and the number of appointments is increasing every day. It remains to be seen whether the "RDB shoes" series will succeed in the end, but Charlie Kean's business ideas are worth digging and learning.

statement: This article was originally created by Lanxiong Sports, and may not be reproduced without authorization.