DESIGN-YOUR-OWN SHOES YOUR OWN CHOICE OF VANS IS JUST AS CLOSE AS A MOUSE CLICK, UPS LABEL.Byline: Kevin Felt Staff Writer SANTA FE SPRINGS Santa Fe Springs, city (1990 pop. 15,520), Los Angeles co., SW Calif., inc. 1957. The city lies in an oil and natural gas region and has diversified manufacturing. - A few months after its unveiling, Vans is on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of expanding its successful Vans Customs shoe line. In March, the Santa Fe Santa Fe, city, Argentina Santa Fe, city (1991 pop. 341,000), capital of Santa Fe prov., NE Argentina, a river port near the Paraná, with which it is connected by canal. Springs-based manufacturer and retailer of skate skate, fish: see ray. skate Any of nine genera (suborder Rajoidea) of rounded to diamond-shaped rays. These bottom-dwellers are found from tropical to near-Arctic waters and from the shallows to depths of more than 9,000 ft (2,700 m). and board apparel unveiled the line, which allows customers to custom-design shoes on the Internet. Jody Giles, Vans' vice president and chief information officer, said the company has been thrilled with the results. Sales have more than doubled expectations, and now make up about 25 percent of its Internet sales. ``Vans is all about individuality,'' said Giles, explaining the company's decision to offer a custom shoe line. ``It's a culture of individuality.'' Customers can log onto the Vans Web site and custom-design versions of Vans Classic Slip-Ons in their size for $50, selecting the specific colors and designs they want for various sections on the shoes. If a customer wants camouflage camouflage (kăm`əfläzh), in warfare, the disguising of objects with artificial aids, especially for the purpose of making them blend into their surroundings or of deceiving the observer as to the location of strategic points. on the heel, pink-and-white skull-and- crossbones near the ankle and red-and-white checkers checkers, game for two players, known in England as draughts. It is played on a square board, divided into 64 alternately colored—usually red and black or white and black—square spaces, identical with a chessboard. near the toes, they are a few mouse clicks away from having them manufactured. ``We'll make them as ugly as you want them,'' said Giles, pulling a pair of green, purple, black and white sneakers sneakers Noun, pl US, Canad, Austral & NZ canvas shoes with rubber soles sneakers npl (US) → zapatos mpl de lona; zapatillas fpl from a stack of returns. ``Sometimes I think it seemed like a good idea at 2 a.m.'' Giles said one of the biggest obstacles the company had to overcome in creating the line was distance. Soon after the company was founded in 1966, it allowed customers to bring their favorite fabric to Vans headquarters and order custom-made shoes. But when the company's manufacturing operations Manufacturing operations concern the operation of a facility, as opposed to maintenance, supply and distribution, health, and safety, emergency response, human resources, security, information technology and other infrastructural support organizations. moved to China, Giles said logistics made it too difficult to continue the line. To create the infrastructure the company needed to support manufacturing individual orders on-demand at its plant in China - in addition to typical production of thousands of shoes - the company utilized IBM's expandable eServer iSeries computer server. Vans was already using that server to run various operations managing the company's inventory at its retail and online outlets. Because the instantly expandable computer server allowed Vans to only use the amount of server capacity that it needed, Giles said it enabled the company's expansion to offer custom-ordered shoes to move quickly. It also gave the company the ability to deliver the shoes to customers within four to six weeks by applying UPS shipping labels on each order before being shipped from China. ``As they expand their on-demand business, this system helps enable them to respond with the capacity they need,'' said Joe Rueda, an IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) sales executive for the iSeries. ``We couldn't be more pleased with our role in the success Vans has had.'' Because of the success of the initial offering of Vans Custom shoes, Giles said the company will soon add two more popular shoe styles to the line: the Old Skool and Sk8-Hi. Kevin Felt, (626) 962-8811 kevin.felt(at)sgvn.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Jody Giles, vice president of Santa Fe Springs-based Vans Inc., shows the Vans custom-design shoes he had made for himself. Keith Durflinger/Staff Photographer (2) The Vans shoe firm allows customers to custom-design their own shoes and order them via the Internet. |
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