Out of the (Shoe) Box Thinking

We hear the words "thinking outside the box" all the time...but one company is putting that to the test literally. According to this article from Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/1614807/puma-and-yves-behar-unveil-super-green-shoebox-replacement), Puma has completely redesigned their shoebox. Puma is a company that leads trends and has successfully bridged the gap between traditional athletics and the notion of being a "lifestyle" shoe and brand, so it's no surprise that they've taken a new approach to design and rethinking what a shoebox really is.

What I find the most interesting though, is how multifaceted this new direction truly is. It isn't simply the aesthetic or the "cool" factor, but rather a calculated decision to minimize tremendous costs:

Puma estimates that the bag will slash water, energy, and fuel consumption during manufacturing alone by 60%--in one year, that comes to a savings of 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, 264,000 gallons of fuel, and 264 gallons of water. Ditching the plastic bags will save 275 tons of plastic, and the lighter shipping weight will save another 132,000 gallons of diesel.

This is a perfect example of a cognitively holistic approach - a WE innovation if you will. On first glance, the idea of focusing on a redesigned shoebox would be a purely conceptual experiment, both in terms of the actual design element and the focus thinking up a new way to do something as seemingly mundane as the packaging...the shoe after all is the key. However, dig a little deeper and it goes far beyond that...

A structured, efficient production system calculated to every detail from shipping costs to manufacturing costs to % of products damaged in shipping (not to mention a 3-year plan to implement the full rollout). Even the genesis of a redesign of this scale, analyzing each element of production, realizing that there were efficiencies to be had and calculating the ROI over the long-term. Finally, even in a project as calculated as this one, the social element of care for environmental concerns for the future and the ability (and necessity) to link in what could be a purely economical (Blue/Green) decision to the overall brand and the feelings in Puma's customers that it invokes.

No telling whether this will be the new standard-bearer for the shoe industry, but there is no doubt that Puma is a leader when it comes to a whole brained thinking and how it can change the way things work.