Blink Design Studios

Innovative custom headphone design ordering system from iFrogz

As you may be aware I have a favourite brand of headphones – namely Skullcandy Headphones- whose varied, innovative and just plain silly fun designs have always had a fan in me. Just recently however another contender in the headphone design market caught my attention whose designs hold a similar aesthetic and brand feel, iFrogz Ear Pollution. Their ready made designs are a lot cheaper, and if not quite as robust, seem fair for their lower price tag. They have some great looks which include stencil graphics, fun fur and all the other hallmarks of a comfortable and fun set of headphones.

iFrogz have also brought out a service where, for not much more than a cost of standard headphones, you can customise your set by changing the colours and graphics on them as a special service on their site for their Nerve Pipes, Flow and Fallout ranges.

I was really impressed when Nike started doing this with trainers a few years back with their Nike ID site which had a really nice interface and really made it fun to design your own trainers. iFrogz headphone design service is pretty much the same thing and is just as fun to use. You can have a go at designing your own headphones by clicking here. The site uses a fast loading and easy to use set of JS similar to the Nike ID site to allow you to easily colour and change the look of the headphones and then either buy them or add them to your  wish list for future purchase.

I really love the fact that more sites are offering this kind of custom service, and at a fair price. It only costs an extra 10-12 pounds for the custom set over one of the standard designs. I think products with a simple modular design, especially one which is essentially a set of moulded plastic parts, are ideal for this kind of customer led service. With the prevalence of mass produced and marketed products there is a real drive from some parts of the community to have something more unique, and they are prepared to pay more for such a service. It also ensures that companies can retain their customer base as the internet, as well as allowing this kind of long tail style marketing and sales structure, also means that if the headphones aren’t quite perfect, another provider online is likely to have something more ideal. The net has brought about competition between retailers on price and variety. Using this kind of model is likely to pry my brand loyalty slightly away from Skullcandy – whose current range doesn’t quite have a set that I think is idea (and I can’t afford to part with so much money for anything less) and this custom service is likely to be where my hard earn pennies end up when my current pair really give up the ghost and die.

With the rise of custom book publishing sites, custom t-shirts and the like, I hope this kind of services continues to become more popular.

I suspect I might be back on this site in not too long…

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