K-Swiss partners with UGC platform Flowbox to build product authenticity and forge a stronger connection with their community

K-Swiss, a leading sneaker brand, has partnered with Flowbox. Read on to learn more about how the Flowbox platform has allowed K-Swiss to connect better with its community and present its products more authentically.

Founded in 1966 in Los Angeles, California by two Swiss brothers, K-Swiss exploded onto the tennis scene with the Classic 66, the first all-leather tennis shoe.

Even though K-Swiss has a strong athletic pedigree, boasting sponsorships with some of tennis’ leading athletes like Cameron Norrie, their brand goes beyond sport as well. In the 1990s, their Classic 66 sneaker was adopted by the rapidly growing hip-hop scene, and K-Swiss has remained a staple in pop culture ever since.

In this way, K-Swiss offers two different collections: one which focuses on performance on the court and is sold in specialized sports stores, and a lifestyle collection focusing on life off the court, sold in sneaker stores and fashion boutiques.

The brand is currently targeting growth in the European market, and in order to do this, they want to be rediscovered as the brand of lifestyle sneakers to wear for a retro and trendy look. A UGC strategy was therefore a logical route to go down.

“We want to grow and retain our existing community and seek out new brand ambassadors. The integration of User Generated Content into our eCommerce site allows our consumers to be able to identify themselves through the different photos of our community.”

Mélisande Caratis, E-commerce Manager at K-Swiss

Since incorporating User Generated Content into their eCommerce site, K-Swiss has witnessed how it can add authenticity to a product, boosting user confidence and conversion rates as a result.

“Showing the product worn by other people, who share their experience of the product in their daily lives, is a factor that can help users picture themselves with the product they are viewing online and encourage them to purchase.”

Mélisande Caratis, E-commerce Manager at K-Swiss

The Flowbox platform was already being used by Palladium, another brand in the K-Swiss Global Brands group (see the case study for Palladium), and after positive feedback from their colleagues, K-Swiss decided to incorporate Flowbox into their eCommerce strategy as well.

One of the aspects of the Flowbox platform that the team at K-Swiss enjoy most is the convenience. Carrying out different tasks spread across different platforms can be costly in both time and resources, so they have found Flowbox’s interface extremely helpful.

“I appreciate being able to do everything in one place: finding the product references in the catalog and assigning them to a post, the possibility of sending a media rights request via Instagram directly on the Flowbox platform, and being able to filter all the posts that come up on the tool.”

Mélisande Caratis, E-commerce Manager at K-Swiss

The implementation of the Flowbox platform on the K-Swiss site was quick and seamless. K-Swiss also found appointments with the Flowbox team useful to see how they could get the most out of the platform.

“We were able to start integrating the widgets and using the platform very easily. An appointment with the Flowbox account manager afterwards was beneficial to be able to go further with our use of the platform and identify new opportunities for our eCommerce site.”

Mélisande Caratis, E-commerce Manager at K-Swiss