Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., August 10, 2008 Av 9, 5768 | | Israel Time: 19:46 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Car Rental Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Second skin By Aviva Lori Tags: Mark Klein, Shoe Design  You can run, jump and dance in them. You can put a few pairs into a bag on the way to work and shove one into your pocket. They are the dream of anyone who has ever packed a suitcase the night before a trip abroad and confronted existential dilemmas about the one pair of shoes, two at most, that will fit. (Almost) weightless, colorful, they fold like clean socks after laundering, and in about a month you will be able to purchase them in dozens of stores in the United States. Say hello to the product that claims to be the next generation of shoes: Skins. The idea is simple. Skins are divided into two separate parts: an inner section of hard plastic and a "skin," including a rubber sole surrounding the inner part. The two parts are not glued to each other at any point, and don't have to begin and end their lives together. According to the manufacturers' vision, you buy a "bone" that suits your foot perfectly, once or twice, at most three times in your life - no more - and all you have to do is remove its skin occasionally and replace it with a new one. Or lots of new ones: one that will match the color of your dress, one to match the car, one for your bag, one for your mood or whatever else you feel like. For centuries, women's shoes were concealed under long dresses, thus becoming one of the most common fetishes - a passion for high heels, preferably very high and pointy. Mainly, and with or without any connection to the Cinderella story, it is women who are most likely to develop an obsession that is expressed in an uncontrollable urge for another pair, and another, and another. In the 20th century, hemlines crept up and exposed legs with shoes, which soon turned into a major fashion accessory. Advertisement But aside from fashion crazes, the basic technology has not really changed in the past 100 years. Every few years, women put on high heels and then take them off again. The '60s, the '80s, platform shoes, stilettos, baby-doll shoes and the cycle begins again. Mark Klein's new initiative is likely to change the entire system, with a breakthrough that will finally enable you to double the number of pairs in your closet without spending a fortune. Klein, 34, is an Israeli-American, a native New Yorker who studied business administration there and worked in marketing and sales in high-tech. Twelve years ago he immigrated to Israel, and lived in Tel Aviv until two years ago. He describes himself as a creative guy, who has always been involved in art as well. In Israel, he worked for Comverse and then ICQ, until one day five years ago he had a once-in-a-lifetime inspiration. "One day my wife, Gali, and I were invited for dinner with friends in Tel Aviv," he says in a telephone conversation from New Jersey. "My friend's a shoe freak, and looking down at his feet it just dawned on me that this guy's got eight pairs of the same shoe in different colors. Then it hit me like lightning. I asked myself: Why not offer Nike or Adidas a shoe that will always have the same base, with only the color of the top part changing? Afterward I thought that changing only the color was too simple, that it would be better to actually change the function of the shoe. From sporty to casual to elegant. At that moment I thought of the name Skin for the top part and Bone for the inner part. That's the whole idea, to replace one skin with another." Three days after his inspiration, Klein resigned from his job and began a feverish search for shoe designers. He approached the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, where they sent him to Kobi Levi, who in 2001 had completed his studies in jewelry making and clothing accessories. Klein knew exactly what he wanted: "Something very simple, without a zipper and without Velcro," he says, "something that allows a 70-year-old and a 7-year-old to effortlessly substitute one skin for another." Levi, 33, grew up in Tel Aviv and studied at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. At Bezalel he studied jewelry making and designing handbags, glasses, toys - but most of all he was attracted to shoes. When he finished his studies he took a course in fashion design in Denmark for one semester, and upon his return worked on bags with shoe designer Shani Bar, designed clothing and fashion accessories to order, as well as costumes for the theater. One day Klein phoned and asked to meet him. The two met for coffee on Sheinkin Street in Tel Aviv. "I explained to him that I had a lot of experience at raising money and putting together business plans," says Klein. "I can see the small details of every product and understand how to make it functional and logical for the consumer and the firm. When I worked in high-tech I went all over the world and saw that industry works on personalized products. They make a line of products that are unique to Italy or to India, they make watches with interchangeable colors or glasses with interchangeable lenses for hunting, for riding a motorcycle, for the office. Mass production, but with a kind of a personalized style." Their work together began with that conversation. Levi took Klein to his studio and showed him designs for shoes he had created in Bezalel - they were so wild that Klein was convinced that there were no limits to the imagination. "He asked me if that could be done," says Levi. "I told him that in principle everything is possible, but it's a big technological challenge. Many people thought of it before, but nobody has done it yet. The problem is to do it so that it's feasible not only in terms of production, but in business terms as well. I told him that if we wanted to solve the problem and break through the conservatism in the shoe industry, we had to be stubborn and go all the way." Where exactly is the technological challenge? "For it to be easy to assemble and take apart. The customer is not an engineer, and if assembling and dismantling cannot be accomplished at top speed, it won't succeed." Since then they have been stubborn. Klein raised $450,000 from investors in Israel and prepared a business plan, and Levi created the first model about four and a half years ago. Then they registered a patent on the product. "I made models in my kitchen," says Levi. "We got funding and began to work in Italy, and now we're working in China." Three years ago Skins Footwear was founded and raised $9 million, and a year later Klein, his wife and their son Ido, who is now 3 years old, returned to New York, where they opened the company offices, employing 12 full-time workers and additional employees through outsourcing. Levi is the firm's house designer. The New York headquarters of shoe designer Banfi Zambrelli works with him for the American market. Graphics and design are done by Studio Dror in New York, owned by Dror Benshetrit, an Israeli. The product is being developed by a team in southern China, not far from Hong Kong. "The entire development team is Chinese, except for the head of the team, who is British," says Levi, whose life is conducted at present on the Tel Aviv-China-New York axis. "The team is very good. They really liked the idea and understood what we wanted. They treat it like a high-tech shoe, and that's exactly our intention, to combine advanced technology with a fashionable shoe. We tried at first in Italy, but they are much more traditional in their outlook and they would get angry at us and fix the shoes for us, instinctively. I said to them, 'Don't fix our shoes, we want something different.' The Chinese are making the sketches for us, finding the manufacturers and supervising the entire process. We only bring the raw materials from Italy and Spain; they are much better than in China." In August 2007, the first line of Skins shoes was launched in the U.S. A quiet launching, little public relations, more attention to the store owners and consumers. "We sold 4,000 pairs of shoes at the time," says Klein. "It was a kind of test for us in a representative national distribution, to various consumers, even in stores that sell Gucci. As a result of this launch, we changed all kinds of things." In about a month from now, an additional collection of 4,000 summer shoes will reach the American market, and in late July, 60,000 pairs of shoes for fall and winter will reach stores all over the U.S. Afterward, Skins will be sold in stores in Canada and Europe, in selected boutiques in Milan, London and Paris, and at the same time Internet sales will begin. In Israel we can expect them beginning in January 2009, promises Klein. He is not concerned that the traditional shoe industry will "collapse" because of him - on the contrary. "[Traditional firms] are not afraid it will harm their production, but see it as a good niche for themselves, too, and want to cooperate with us. Very prestigious firms like Gucci, Stella McCartney and others are interested in this idea." In order for it to succeed, Skins shoes have to be very inexpensive compared to ordinary shoes. "We can make very cheap skins and very expensive ones. If I cooperate with Stella McCartney it will be expensive, but I can also make a skin for $50," says Klein. "There are people who have $700 shoes and $70 shoes in the same closet. For those who want to buy cheap shoes, there will be Skins for $50-$70, and if they want to buy special Skins they'll pay $200, but the skin itself will be less expensive than an ordinary shoe in the same category. If an ordinary shoe costs $150, the skin alone of the same quality will cost $100." The gimmick is particularly adapted to the era of Internet sales. Anyone who already has one pair of Skins shoes in his wardrobe will be able to purchase an endless number of new ones on the Internet, cheaply and without trying them on. Klein is well aware of the secret of sales promotion in the fashion accessory market - it's enough for a few celebrities from New York or Los Angeles to be convinced that it's the next hot item. "It will move 80 percent of our business and make everyone want to wear Skins," he says. Meanwhile, American magazines have been very enthusiastic, and many items have been written about Skins and its inventors in BusinessWeek, Vogue, i-D and other fashion magazines. "From now on we'll change shoes like T-shirts and collect them like Swatches," says designer Frank Zambrelli in an interview in the Italian edition of Vogue. At the moment, only men's and women's shoes in a casual sporty style are on sale. At the next stage, Skins will also produce high-heeled shoes and children's shoes. Klein believes that his fantasy has no limits, that the new technology will wake up the shoe industry. "And this is only the beginning," he says. "From what I hear from the stores, there's a lot of excitement; something like this that fires the imagination happens in the industry only once in a hundred years. So there's still a lot of work and huge potential."W Bookmark to del.icio.us   Going for the gold Israel's athletes made a forceful debut on the opening day of the Olympic Games. Cooking vs. driving As Ramadan nears, Hamas bans the use of cooking gas to fuel vehicles in the Gaza Strip.   1.   Skins Footwear 22:56  |  Tony Searight 14/06/08   2.   Skins and Sport Team Logos 22:18  |  manuel 17/06/08

Read & React Foreign Ministry: Israel recognizes Georgia's territorial sovereignty Responses: 87 Gideon Levy: Livni, Mofaz, Barak, Bibi - none of them will end the occupation Responses: 32 In depth / Contrary to popular belief, war with Iran is not imminent Responses: 38 Editorial: Freeing 450 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit will not harm our security Responses: 21 Were Jewish partisans depicted in new Hollywood movie murderers or heroes? Responses: 57 More Headlines 19:30 Foreign Ministry: Israel recognizes Georgia's territorial sovereignty 19:11 Jewish Georgian official: Our army has IDF training to thank 17:40 Slain Assad aide reportedly gave anti-aircraft missiles to Hezbollah 17:54 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to be laid to rest in Ramallah 15:42 On Tisha B'Av, rightists see Gush Katif as symbol of loss 17:34 Two Israeli swimmers secure places in Olympics semifinals 18:32 Were Jewish partisans depicted in new Hollywood movie murderers or heroes? 18:36 Haaretz newsletter: All the news from Israel direct to your inbox 16:40 Despite regional tensions, Russia's Israeli basketball coach shakes hands with Iranian team 15:02 ANALYSIS / Someone timed Russia-Georgia crisis to coincide with Olympics 17:14 Berlin suspects Al-Qaida trained militants plotting attacks in Germany 17:33 Kiryat Shmona man, 70, suspected of bludgeoning wife to death 12:30 Jewish militia's 1946 written threat to British sold in London Previous Editions Select Day 08 aug 07 aug 06 aug 05 aug 04 aug 03 aug 01 aug 31 jul 30 jul 29 jul 28 jul 27 jul

Special Offers Advertisement Fattal Hotel Chain Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel. Isaac Maimon at Dreamshoppe Special summer sale. Make an offer now. You will be surprised. MBA in Israel in English APPLY NOW! Limited spaces available Israel's Premier Real Estate Website www. israel-property.com Yossi Avrahami Presents: New Luxurious Projects in North Tel Aviv & Eilat Your vacation starts here Israel Travel Center Guaranteed Lowest Rates Hebrew Summer courses From $39.95 ISRAEL BONDS Build Israel Israel bonds - a multi-purpose way to celebrate Israel's 60th Eldan Rent a Car Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations Junkyard Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt

Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |

Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel

birthright Israel | Search engine marketing

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.

© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved