I'm brainstorming a new business idea and would love to hear any and all feedback. I'm thinking of starting an on-demand shoe cleaning and customization business where customers navigate an app to schedule pickup and delivery shoe cleaning and customization. Myself (and eventual employees if the business grows) would get requests for shoe cleaning from customers, go to their homes and pick up X amount of shoes, bring them back to my own home to clean/customize them, and drop them off by the end of the day/next day. This business would also offer customization services, as I see this is a growing trend to customize shoes, so I'm thinking painting, embroidery, and laces customization options.
I have a couple questions for you all as I brainstorm this business:
How much would you be willing pay per pair of shoes to get them cleaned? Obviously this also depends on how dirty/expensive the shoe is, but what is a reasonable base price to pay?
Do you think this business could be subscription-ized? In other words, would you be willing to pay for a monthly cleaning package for X amount of shoes cleaned/customized per month?
Do you think shoe painting, embroidery, and laces customization would be good customization options? What other customization options would you want? Love any other feedback on this.
If you have had experience getting your shoes professionally cleaned, what was it like?
@smylez35 Sounds cool! I am not a shoe/sneaker head at all however I feel there is a market for it. It might be easier to have a vehicle that allows you to do the work on site. Park in the driveway and do the service for an hour or two then drop shoes and move on to the next one. Of course some services would take longer or need specialized equipment that wouldn't travel well in a large van or box truck. The travel could be a huge time and money suck. Even with good logistics, there is always traffic or roadwork or something, and gas prices to factor in. I hope you do this someday!
@smylez35 On-demand anything (and pickup) is awesome. It’s also hard to scale. If the demand in that area is sufficient, it can absolutely be offered as a recurring-payment subscription. I wonder if the custom services would actually interrupt or prohibit the core service. It’s easy to imagine it working now because you’re not driving all over with 300 pairs of shoes in your backseat. Which city are you in, btw?
@smylez35 My best advice would be to start by doing something charitable with your shoe cleaning skills (maybe clean shoes for free in an impoverished area around you, then when you gain some revenue do shoe giveaways with the same community) and advertise your business while doing so, on social media would help you explode. Work on a catchy name and a recognizable logo and you're golden. I am a graphic designer and would help out with a logo if you needed.
I'm a sneaker head myself and I would pay for shoe cleaning, but more likely shoe restoration for some old pairs or shoe customization.
I don't think a subscription service would work with these services
Customization I personally love and will send some pics if you PM me is hand drawn with pen on canvas shoes (with waterproof spray) like vans or converse. I also have seen a trend of Air Force one customs with different types of paint styles.
Honestly always done it myself but I've gotten busier as life as gone on and I don't keep up with much anymore.
