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The brand (whose tagline is “Get a workout while you walk”) set on an ambitious mission when it launched in three years ago: to provide a stylish shoe that would both tone and perhaps also alleviate common foot issues. Since its initial offerings in the summer sandal category, FitFlop has successfully expanded into winter boots, clogs, sheepskin slippers and more glamorous sequined sandals that can be worn for more opulent occasions.
The FitFlop phenomenon began in May 2007, when founder Marcia (pronounced Mar-CEE-a) Kilgore, the Canadian entrepreneur who founded the Bliss Spa chain and the Soap and Glory bath, body, and cosmetics company, was wondering what place exercise had in a busy woman’s lifestyle. “Marcia was at a cellulite conference in New York in 2005 and realized that women feel better when they’re proactive,” says FitFlop publicist Katie Nieman. “She wanted to create a great-looking sandal that double-task as a lower-body toner—the aim was to make it easier for the time-starved female population to squeeze a workout in when their normal daily schedules wouldn’t otherwise allow it. Furthermore, a pain-free, affordable option to keeping in shape was on the agenda—and FitFlop was the answer.”
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Making Strides in Toning Footwear
The toning and shaping footwear category is marketed as a way to tone and shape muscles and/or burn calories while engaged in everyday activity, according to market research company NPD Group. NPD’s analysis of the segment shows its phenomenal growth: Sales in the department store, national chain, shoe chain, and athletic specialty/sporting goods channels rose from $17 million in 2008 to a staggering $145 million in 2009.
It’s no surprise, then, that FitFlop-branded footwear has hit a nerve with consumers (though it’s unclear whether consumer interest drove the category, or the category provoked such obsessive consumer interest). And FitFlop isn’t the only company that’s ventured into toning territory: MBT, Trim Treads, Reebok, and Skechers have all flooded the market with sandals, sneakers, and trainers that promise to lift your buns, give you better posture, and improve circulation.
Those who pony up their hard-earned cash for this type of footwear have particular requirements of the brand they ultimately rely on to tone their tootsies. NPD also recently released its “Toning/Shaping Footwear—Benchmark Study,” which examined the attitudes and behaviors of both owners and nonowners of toning and shaping footwear. When asked what would have the greatest impact on their decision to purchase a pair, 65% of respondents stated that “a scientific substantiation of the fitness claims” was number one.
And FitFlop makes quite a fitness claim (as do many of its competitors). According to its own marketing collateral, the brand’s footwear is “biomechanically engineered to help tone and tighten your leg muscles while you walk in them.” In a study attributed to the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University (LSBU), walking in FitFlop sandals is said to increase leg, calf, and gluteal muscle activity; improve muscle tone; and simulate aspects of barefoot walking but with more muscle load, among other benefits.
These podiatric perks can be partly attributed to the FitFlop manufacturing process. “The FitFlop is made out of unique, global, patent-pending Microwobbleboard technology,” says Nieman. “It’s a triple-density EVA midsole that increases the time your muscles are engaged every single time you take a step.”
Some members of the medical and fitness community aren’t so sure about the effectiveness of such toning shoes overall—from any brand. When one Minnesota podiatrist experimented with wearing a pair of toning shoes all day, according to a 2009 article on CNN.com that looked into the legitimacy of this type of footwear, he proclaimed at the end of the experiment, “…my legs feel tired and the shoes feel heavy… I would never propose that these shoes would replace a conventional fitness routine.” In the same article, Dr. Bruce Williams, a podiatrist and a past president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, said, “There are lots of claims made by manufacturers of these shoes. Everyone has to take this with a grain of salt."
But FitFlop stands by its claims—and how it arrived at them. “We don’t have just one study of eight people in Malibu,” says Kilgore herself, who now lives near FitFlop headquarters in London. “We have ongoing studies with two different universities [Salford University, Manchester, and LSBU]; we have an incredible technologist. And we’ve just been placed on the American Podiatric Medical Association’s list of approved flip flops for the summer.”
The brand has also entered a two-year partnership with the U.K. government-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership “to better understand how our footwear can alleviate so many musculoskeletal complaints such as arthritis, scoliosis, plantar fascitis, back pain, etc.” says Nieman. “FitFlop footwear has been proven to significantly reduce pressure hot spots in the heels and forefoot, as well as absorbing up to 22 percent more shock than regular footwear.”
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In Brand We Trust
In the NPD study that asked what impacted consumers’ toning shoe purchases, 64 percent of respondents indicated “a brand name I know and trust.” Kilgore asserts that FitFlop has successfully proven itself to its customers and will continue to do so. “First, we’re not as small a company as people may think we are,” she says. “We were also first in the [toning] sandals category and got a really good leg in there. And we have a hugely loyal following. While there’s always going to be some competition, we just plan on doing it better and continuing to listen to our customers.”
To retain that cult following (and attract new customers), FitFlop uses an integrated marketing and advertising campaign that includes bus wraparounds, subway cards, outdoor billboards, phone kiosks, and print advertising in both the U.K. and the United States. There’s cross-promotion via Kilgore’s other empires as well: Visitors can purchase FitFlops directly on the Bliss website, and moisturizer shoppers can read news about the footwear brand on the Soap and Glory site.
Then, of course, there’s social media, which the brand mainly employs through Facebook and Twitter. “We use social media quite extensively,” says Nieman. “We’ll have product name competitions, spot the FitFlop bus, ask ‘where have your FitFlops been this weekend?’ and so forth.”
Kilgore is the driving force behind the FitFlop Twitter page, though she often has to send her pictures and tweets to staff members to place online. “I travel a lot and don’t have all my passwords with me at all times, so often I’ll send the info to someone who will put it online for me,” she laughs. “I tell them what to write.”
More than 7,800 people are fans of the main FitFlop Facebook page, though the brand also sponsors individual FitFlop pages all over the world. “Our Philippines Facebook page has more than 37,500 fans (as of June 2010) and counting,” Kilgore says. “They’ve shown us how it’s done!” The only odd international challenge they’ve come across in their FitFlop brand evangelism occurred in Scandinavia: “’Fit’ is a swear word in Swedish,” laughs Nieman. “Ironically, that just made FitFlop a more interesting and intriguing concept.”
FitFlop uses Facebook and Twitter to keep the conversation going with its mainly female audience. “We try to involve people and ask them what they want—for example, which shoe they like the best or which color,” Kilgore says. “We also use social media to find out whether we can convince them to like something by showing it to them over a period of time, which is a great social experiment I like to do on Facebook: Show them a product that’s maybe a little radical, and at first everyone hates it. Then show it again in a month, and half of them want it. Finally, show it one more month later, and 90 percent of them say, ‘Where can I get it now?”
Expanding the Brand
While women are FitFlop’s core demographic, the brand started branching out to include men’s footwear in 2008 and children’s footwear in 2010, according to Nieman. Consumers can head over to the “Our Range” section on the FitFlop site and select the “Gender” tab for appropriate selections.
Even though the NPD study found that awareness about toning footwear is higher among women (62% to men’s 37%), and that women were twice as likely as men to own a pair of toning shoes (6% to 3%), there’s been an upswing in men purchasing this type of footwear. “The men’s market could spell an interesting opportunity for shaping and toning footwear,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD, in the study. “[The] men’s [category] shows the least penetration overall, but a particularly interesting finding is that once men are aware of this type of footwear, they own them at almost the same rate as women.”
To Kilgore, this makes perfect sense. “Very early in our life cycle, men started writing to us saying, ‘My wife loves her FitFlops—what about mine?’” she says. “Women are often the decision makers in the family, and they’d tell their husbands, ‘You really need to get a pair of these. We realized it wasn’t just women who had issues with knee and heel and lower back pain. We tested a few men’s sandals a couple of years ago, and it’s been growing ever since.”
Her own son was the impetus behind the kids’ line of FitFlop footwear. “My son, who’s 5-1/2, has really wide feet,” Kilgore says. “He was walking to school in a pair of trainers from a well-respected, global footwear brand, but I could tell with each step that the sole was so stiff that he’d step onto his heel and just smack down with his little foot. He was actually walking differently because his shoes weren’t flexible enough.”
Kilgore started looking into the structure of children’s feet and was dismayed that they’d been overlooking a demographic that might need such a shoe more than any other segment. “When children’s feet aren’t put into the right positions as they’re growing and developing, it’s actually a more serious problem than in an adult’s foot,” she explains. “The insole of our kids’ Hyka sandals is multidensity, so it simulates as if the child is walking barefoot on soft ground—which is how humans walked for millions of years.”
FitFlop hasn’t forgotten about its main audience, however, stretching their women’s offerings to include two new offerings: FitFlop SuperBoots and FitFlop SuperTone trainers. “We want to have something you can wear 365 days a year,” says Kilgore. “The only thing you won’t see us coming out with is high heels, since that’s not what we’re about. In the end, FitFlop is a lifestyle technology—not just an item.” [3-Sep-2010]
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Jennifer Gidman lives and works in New York.
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