Clarifying Questions:

– What’s the scope we are talking about when we mention ‘future’ (how many years down the line?)

– What type of company are we? (Tech, Manufacturing, Apparel, Fashion?)

– Any specific goal in mind while designing this shoe? (Want as many people to wear, see it as a luxury/in-demand wear, tech companion)

For the question’s sake, let’s consider we are a tech company working on building a connected shoe for the future.

User Persona:

TAM who’d be interested in a ‘connected/tech’ shoe would boil down to:

UP 1) Techies (20-40 years old | Tech-savvy | Good purchasing power) [would be wearing shoes probably 40% of their daily routine on an average]

Needs & desires: 

– To be on top of tech advancement

– Peer pressure

– Wants to bring an additional gadget into their tech ecosystem.

UP 2) Athletes (18-30 years old | Performance trackers | Decent purchasing power)  [would be wearing shoes probably 60% of their daily routine on an average]

Needs & desires: 

– To be on top of their body fitness levels

– To track their daily routine more accurately & granularly to identify the scope of improvement

UP 3) Intersection of 2&3 – health-conscious adults (20-50 years old | Knows tech know-how | Decent purchasing power)  [would be wearing shoes probably 20% of their daily routine on an average]

Needs & desires:

– To track their fitness levels normally.

– Should also be daily use friendly

UP3 would probably have the largest TAM followed by UP1, if we are going for acquisition/commercially we could target them.
If niche-wear is the focus we could target UP2 with a lesser TAM but with probably higher LTV.

Solutions:

S1 for UP1, UP3 – Integrate fitness trackers to track daily steps, running/walking goals, etc. (would be more accurate than a wristwatch)
Cons: Not a very convincing VP to acquire existing smartwatch users.

S2 for UP1 – Integrate social platforms & location data to share user accepted and accessible information with friends and social circles (Hey, your friend is just a few miles away from here, why don’t you check them out?
Cons: User Privacy

S3 for UP2 – Built-in tracker to track athletics/sport metrics like shot power, blood-flow level, recovery times, etc.)

S4 for UP1, UP3 – A sole transformable shoe that could serve users’ running, sport & daily-use requirements.
Cons: Moonshot idea. Manufacturing efforts are required for a tech company (assumption)