[MyPerson] Customized Sneakers Are the Trend... The Person Who Created 'OneSpec'

Interview with Gong Sejin, R&D Center Director
Consistent 20-30 Customers Monthly
Using 'Customized' One-Spec Service
About One Month Needed from Production to Delivery

"The era when shoe companies sold shoes saying 'just wear the shoes we made to fit your feet' is over. Now, it is important to understand what the wearer thinks and how they perceive their own feet. We study the unique 'sensibility' of the domestic native brand Prospex, which reflects the diverse demands of consumers."

Gong Sejin, Head of Prospex R&D Center.
Photo by Moon Hyewon

On the 11th, Gong Se-jin, head of the Research & Development (R&D) Center at Prospex (LS Networks), explained the reason for launching the custom sneaker service 'ONE SPEC' in the second half of last year during an interview with Asia Economy. ONE SPEC is a service for consumers who have wide feet, high insteps, or significantly different sizes between their left and right feet, making it difficult to wear ready-made products. It helps analyze consumers' foot size and shape through smartphones to recommend ready-made products or enable custom production if necessary.

Customers simply take a photo of their feet with a smartphone and upload it to the official Prospex website. Based on the measured data, they can select fit, cushioning, and initial inscriptions. They can also choose one of three levels of softness.

Image related to Prospex's OneSpec. [Image provided by Prospex]

Although Gong officially launched ONE SPEC last year, he said the project actually started in 2019. This means a considerable amount of time and effort was invested.

Gong explained the early stages of the service: "We selected about 50 consumers who truly needed custom sneakers from five key regional stores nationwide?Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, and Gwangju?and met them in person to hear their stories and measure their foot sizes before starting custom sneaker production." He added, "After traveling nationwide and collecting stories from over 2,000 people, we progressed to producing 120 pairs of custom shoes and introduced foot measurement services in major stores across the country, laying the groundwork for commercialization."

Currently, centered around Gong, who majored in biomechanics, 11 experts from various fields such as sports science and mechanical engineering gather at the R&D center to provide comprehensive support for the stabilization of the ONE SPEC service. Gong shared, "One consumer with very wide feet said they could never buy ready-made sneakers that fit well and wore slippers even in the middle of winter. After experiencing Prospex's ONE SPEC service, they were able to have custom sneakers and enjoyed a warm winter for the first time in a long while, which was very rewarding to see."

Since the ONE SPEC service started in September last year, 20 to 30 customers have been using it steadily each month as of today. Usually, it takes about a month from order to production and delivery. Gong explained, "Because these are not mass-produced factory-made products but require assembling and attaching many parts such as the sole and upper by hand like robot assembly, the process inevitably takes relatively longer."

Gong also expressed his goal to expand the ONE SPEC service, which is currently operated for limited models. He said, "As more customer usage data accumulates, we are thinking of creating a separate application and expanding the service targets and scope."