British designer Paul Smith and French designer Jean Paul Gauthier design Evian Water Bottles. High end French mineral water meets High end Fashion Designers. It’s all about the Brand Experience. Drinking a glass Evian water bottle, limited edition Paul Smith or Jean Paul Gauthier, in a hip restaurant, hotel or nightclub makes it cool for the consumer and even maybe makes it taste better.
Each designer has done “their way”. Paul Smith has designed a limited edition Evian bottle with the strips and colors representing the brand. Additionally each Paul Smith Evian water bottles has a special PS cap. Jean Paul Gaultier, has designed a specific bottle for each top fashion location, New York, London, Moscow, Tokyo, Melbourne…See the JeanPaulGaultierEvian website.
Will the Evian brand push it further? More special edition water bottle? New ways of branding themselves? The Evian Brand Film & Brand Experience?
That’s what I love about great brands…INNOVATION & ENTERTAINMENT.
Why is the K Swiss Brand doing the right thing and why are they different?
– Modern Image
– Use of Social Media (Facebook / Twitter / You Tube / My Space)
– Production of short Films distributed on main K – Swiss website and all Internet TV platforms.
– Always innovating with products
– Celebrity Endorsments (Anna Kournikova, Tommy Haas, Mardy Fish, Evan Ross (son od Diana and musician), Ed Westwick (Actor / Musician), Chris Lieto (IronMan), Katya Meyers (World Class Athlete) …
– K Space: Vignettes / Brand Films for K-Swiss. Who’s wearing KSwiss today? (See above celebrities). K-Swiss has also put a huge emphasis on the quality and style of their films.
The Classic Remastered on K-Space
Anna Kournikova on K-Space
About K Swiss (source Wikipedia):
K-Swiss was founded in 1966 in Los Angeles, California, by two Swiss brothers who became interested in tennisafter immigrating to the United States, where they introduced the first leather tennis shoes.
In 1986 Steven Nichols, while working at Stride Rite, was so impressed with the K-Swiss tennis shoe that he tried to convince his bosses to purchase the K-Swiss company. When his superiors passed on the opportunity he headed a group of investors that bought the company for $20 million. Mr. Nichols called the K-Swiss white stripes on white leather tennis shoe a “classic 50-year shoe”, and in 2005, global sales passed $500 Million.
In the 1990s, Steven Nichols boosted K-Swiss’s marketing budget and hired a number of key individuals from large companies such asProcter and Gamble and began a large marketing blitz around the K-Swiss brand. Due to advertising campaigns (primarily one where K-Swiss encourages users to personalize the trademark stripes under the slogan “Put Your Spin on It”), K-Swiss’s popularity has risen immensely in recent years. K-Swiss shoes are popular not only for their style, but also for their comfort. The brand has been one of the leaders in interactive footwear with the introduction of their successful color changing K-Swiss Tongue Twister in 2003, Stripe Shifter and most recently their Band Em footwear styles.
The company continues to grow internationally and passed 100 million in revenue in Europe in 2006.
Steven Nichols owns a little over 22% of the K-Swiss company (2006). His son David Nichols is the company’s Executive Vice President since 1995 and President of Europe Operations.
Royal Elastics was founded in 1996; K-Swiss acquired it in 2001. Their sneakers have no laces, instead relying on an elasticized, stretch-fit systems to fasten them to the foot.
Through Royal Elastics the company also produces a line of footwear for L.A.M.B., the clothing line founded by singer Gwen Stefani, with Stefani serving as Creative Director and a forthcoming collection in conjunction with the Andy Warhol Foundation.
K-Swiss and Royal Elastics is also in progress of producing a line of footwear for DCMA Collective, the clothing line founded by Good Charlotte band members, Joel and Benji Madden. The shoes will be released in mid 2008 and will be called “K-DCMA”.
K-Swiss Brand is used by a E-Sports Team WoongJin Stars.