SNEAKER customisation is a great way to personalise run-of-the-mill shoes and sneak ahead of the competition.
For “sneakerheads” Clement Tan and Ether Kum, their business, TK Customs, came about in 2014 when they reproduced a pricey pair of floral custom sneakers. They now have a team that adds more kick into production shoes.
Two notable designs that TK Customs undertook were for Danny Yeo, Singapore National swimmer, and Desmond Oh, basketball player for the Singapore Slingers.
“Our business came about organically through the environment and influences,” says Kum. The runaway success of their services has led them to a green field of opportunities, where they could pretty much offer a service that was not readily available.
“We are currently exploring customising leather goods like wallets/purses, duffel bags, handbags and so forth to great reception from customers.”
Their quick road to success was via social media platforms. They run through five things that have helped build their online presence.
TOP 5 WAYS TO BUILD YOUR BRAND’S ONLINE PRESENCE
1) Share your latest products and services constantly.
Constantly upload new content on your website, Instagram and personal Facebook pages to share your latest creations with your followers. It would be good to do it once a day, but if content is limited, at the very least upload content once a week. Not everyone might like what you’re showcasing now, but something down the road might catch their attention. You’ll want to be the first thing they think of when they wish to engage in such services.
2) Ensure quality.
With quality products, clients will share it with their network of friends and family on social media. With a simple “share” function, your product can easily reach a wide audience, even potential clients. Also quality images are equally important because it helps bring out the detail of your product.
3) Post on forums with similar interests.
Share your new products and services with individuals who might potentially be your clients. It’s futile to have a great product but selling it to the wrong people. Know your audience and find communities that might help to bring awareness to your brand. We started with our friends and family before exposing our brand to forums. From there, it was primarily based on word of mouth.
4) Be different.
Trends will guide public perception, but that isn’t always relevant in business. What matters is that the content reaches the audience it was meant for and sometimes, it may not be the general public.
5) Be open and friendly to partnerships and collaborations.
Be it artistic exchange, business models, or customers, there’s always more to learn from and share with the people around. In the context of social media, collaborations will allow one to reach another community of followers that gets the brand name out.
This is the first in a series of occasional features on start ups. If you have a start up business that you’d like to tell us about, do send us an email: editor@storm.sg
