GREATS SHOES

Davis Sesoko, Evan Lee,

Michelle Kim, Alex Adamopoulos II

 I. Executive Summary

GREATS is a shoe retailer founded in Brooklyn, New York that offers a comfortable and

elegantly designed shoe priced below the average luxury footwear. Although they are relatively

new to the footwear industry, GREATS is becoming more well-known since their initial launch.

With popular magazines recognizing GREATS, innovation and expansion have never been more

crucial to their potential growth and success. To millennials as well as even baby boomers,

GREATS is the timeless all-around sneaker because of its high quality and reasonable prices,

that provide comfortability and style without breaking the bank.

II. Company Description

GREATS is the first sneaker company to be based in Brooklyn, NY. They were established in

2014 by Ryan Babenzien and Jon Buscemi. Both of the founders come from the footwear

industry; Babenzien coming from Puma and K-Swiss and Buscemi from Gourmet Footwear and

DC Shoes. Their current headquarters are located in Williamsburg, blocks away from where they

started.

At the moment, they have four key product lines. The Royale is their most popular style and is a

“timeless essential”. Newest to the lineup is the Court sneaker for men: a “true classic” that takes

design cues from vintage basketball sneakers. For urban commuters, GREATS introduced the

Royale Ripstop. This sneaker is made from breathable nylon and soft leather. Lastly, a women’s

only option was released called the Safari. The Safari is a limited edition sneaker that features

pony hair animal prints for the more expressive buyers.

III. Mission and Goals

To deliver premium, high quality essentials at a reasonable price. GREATS is not a “cheap”

brand. They aim to deliver value to our consumers by sourcing the highest quality materials and

offering them at reasonable prices. Their prices reflect the amount of money it costs to produce

the shoes. Whatever the price may be, consumers are getting a higher quality and better value

shoe than their competitors at retail.

GREATS shoes are handmade in Italy in the town of Civitanova, off the coast of the Adriatic

sea. It takes a few days to craft a single pair of GREATS. They use the finest leathers in Italy as

well as waxed cotton laces. The Italian Margom sole used in these shoes is the same sole used by

competitors Lanvin, Balenciaga, and Common Projects. Ultimately, GREATS’ goal is to provide

value to the consumer while remaining a healthy business.

IV. Core Competencies

From our own in depth analysis of this company, we have determined the following as GREATS

three strongest Core Competencies.

- Communication: GREATS did an outstanding job in keeping contact with us, as we

reached out to GREATS directly for information that we needed to complete this project.

Andrew from the Customer Experience Team was sure to respond at a very timely

manner.

- Top Technical Skills: GREATS online presence is one of the best we have ever seen.

Their website as well as their social media platforms are very easy to navigate, making

the whole experience in purchasing GREATS very enjoyable.

 - Trust and Ethics: GREATS claims to sell a high quality product that is on par if not better

than their competing brands. With products as low as 99$ for something usually priced at

600$ or more (Gucci), potential consumers could be very skeptical on the actual quality

GREATS claims to produce. To confirm this for ourselves, we bought a pair and can

truthfully say that GREATS produces the product quality they claim to have.

V. Situation Analysis

- Internal Environment: “Committed personnel who are "passionate about building the

best footwear in the game at the best price.”

- Competitive Environment: Companies that produce and manufacture high-end footwear

for men and women. (Ex: Gucci, Common Projects, Koio, Adidas)

PEST ANALYSIS:

Political/Legal Environment Economic Environment

- Import products from Italy - Handmade products = increase in production price
- No restricting regulations currently - Uniqueness: GREATS produces same level of quality,

but keeps prices considerably lower

Social/Cultural Environment Technological Environment

- Up to date in consumer trends and movements - Primarily website based
keeping clear communication with initial target - Starting to distribute to popular retailers
market (millennials) (Nordstrom)

SWOT ANALYSIS:

Strengths Weaknesses
- Lack of options and designs in comparison to
- Cheaper prices for same quality as high-end brands.
competition.
- Known and reviewed positively by popular fashion
- More underground brand.
sites/critics (GQ, Esquire, VOGUE).
- Production and manufactured in the same factories - Inconsistency with advertisements (shoes that are
as designer brands. not available online or in stores but advertised on
social media).

Opportunities Threats
- More styles - Competitive market- potential brands coming into
- Additional options, i.e., suede, nubuck, and more the market with cheaper prices and better-quality
colors. shoes.
- Possible endorsement opportunities/collaborations. - Constant change in consumer preferences;
- Larger demand in GREATS could possibly result in
inefficiency in production. (Human Labor Rights etc)

VI. Competition

Koio Gucci

When offering quality at a fair and accurate price, you tend to automatically be placed right in

between a price spectrum of the mid to high-end pricing.These are just some examples of what

GREATS is competing with today. Gucci sells similar quality, but with a well-known brand

name, and Koio does the same job that GREATS does, but currently has more variety, making

this company a rather aggressive competitor.

VII. Target Market

When GREATS launched in 2014, their key target market was millennial men between

the ages of 18 and 35. Initially they only sold their products online and were directing

them towards technology savvy internet shoppers. However, in the summer of 2016,
 GREATS launched their first women’s line and since then they have continued to create

products that attract style conscious millennial men and women who prefer value rather

than overpaying for designer labels. GREATS creates products that are up to par with

their designer competition, yet they appeal to individuals who dress well and prefer high

quality products, but know they do not need to overpay.

VIII. Marketing Mix

Product Strategy:

The main focus for products is on expansion on variety, rather than the current quality of shoes

that are being manufactured. If options such as slides, loafers, and flip-flops were to be added to

the options for purchase, we could speculate an invitation toward a broader set of consumers.

Distribution Strategy:

Given the facts that GREATS operates primarily out of the eastern coast and online, it is

recommended that another store should be opened on the western coast. California is home to

thousands of people that care about what kind of footwear they have. Especially with the

expanded options, GREATS has a better opportunity to reach more people.

Promotion Strategy:

GREATS is currently advertising through magazines and Instagram. Clearly, this can be

improved. Different media outlets such as Facebook, Youtube, and even TV can be implemented

to promote the brand. Despite GREATS’ relatively low profile, they have accomplished to

appeal to a-list celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Kevin Durant, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, and

even former president Barrack Obama. Through this, their company has become established

among stylists and fashion savvy individuals who had began to recognize the value in the

GREATS’ shoes. As a result, the attention that the brand receives can and has led to the
advertisement and promotion of its products. GREATS hopes to further partner and inspire these

individuals to value quality while valuing price.

Pricing Strategy:

GREATS’ current pricing and mission statement gives the customer a mind-set that they are

saving money. If GREATS continues to provide and improve the quality of their products and

instil the fact that they provide quality at an accurate price, customers will believe that they are

being smart buyers.

IX. Budget, Schedule and Monitoring

Budget:

Once we fully establish and launch our new shoe models, we hope to implement the appropriate

prices listed below:

Slides (Flip Flops) Loafers Boots

$100.00 $175.00 $200.00

Schedule:

- YEAR 1: In the first year our plan is to a first implement/introduce our new line of

products in popular “trendy” areas around the US. “Pop Up” shops, are currently

trending, and we feel GREATS can use this new strategy of marketing for their own

products. If the response from the “Pop Up” shops are positive, we suggest to open a full

fledge GREATS store in the most popular area.

Proposed Areas: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, and Seattle.
 - YEAR 2: While the “Pop Up” shop experiment is in effect, we will also debut our new

proposed advertisements via YouTube and Facebook. As stated in earlier sections,

GREATS ad campaign is already strong on Instagram, and we feel that GREATS should

continue their expertise through the proposed social media platforms.

- COST: YouTube Ad: Range of ($0.10 – $0.30) multiplied by the average view

GREATS can attain

- Facebook Ad: $0.27 multiplied by the average “click” users generate of of

GREATS proposed advertisement

- YEAR 3: We can assume that at this point enough data will be collected to choose which

strategy to pursue more aggressively. Best case scenario, GREATS will be in a position

to keep both strategies.

Because GREATS is a smaller company, we were unable to acquire the necessary numbers to

accurately predict the correct budget necessary for our new plan. This was our best estimate

based off of general numbers off the net.

Monitoring:

By looking at our sales and the efficiency of each reporting term, we will determine if our

implementations are/were effectively carried out. We cannot completely measure the success of

this project, but we will be able to see if the sales of each term were similar to our past sales of

current products within GREATS. We suggest for when the numbers are gathered, that GREATS

have a team in place to accurately collect the data. We believe that because of the growing

popularity of GREATS there will be a lot of new data to collect.

X. Bibliography
- Taub, A. (2013, October 03). GREATS Is Building The Next Great Footwear

Company. Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alextaub/2013/10/03/greats-is-building-the-next-

great-footwear-company/#5fe303f2b841

- Andrew - Member of GREATS Customer Experience Team

- Hyper-Value - with Ryan Babenzien of GREATS. (2019, January 17). Retrieved

from https://loosethreads.com/podcast/2018/01/24/hyper-value-with-ryan-

babenzien-of-greats/

- GREATS: Then and Now | Ingram Micro Commerce & Fulfillment. (2018, April

18). Retrieved from https://www.ingrammicroservices.com/resources/greats-

footwea