Mass Customization As a Strategy to Prevent Plagiarism and Copy Cats in Fashion: Freddy&Ma Designer Handbags

This is an interesting new perspective on strategies for mass customization: If you are in a fashion business where your products are copied by copy cats rapidly, mass customization can help as it is impossible to copy this huge variety of styles. This is the motivation of Freddy&Ma, a designer of handbags and accessories, who announced yesterday the opening of an online boutique for designing custom handbags. The website enables shoppers to direct the design process by combining different prints, leathers and hardware options to create original products.

From the press release:

"Most designer handbags are copied within weeks of release. Because Freddy&Ma ensures originality through millions of possible combinations, an F&M customer is unlikely to ever see another person carrying her unique design. (...) President Anthony Pigliacampo notes "Unique is the new black. People want bags that no one else has and that are a reflection of their own style. Our goal is to give them the tools they need to express themselves and to create bags that are truly distinct."

While I challenge this statement a bit (high end designer handbooks are such a hot item exactly as everyone who can afford to get will get the same design, and the satisfaction from these products comes from peer recognition), there is some truth behind: If the web site allows to design your own bag within a restricted design space so that there is still a distinguish brand image, this is a good strategy.

Freddy&Ma's bags are produced just outside of NYC and shipped to the customer within three to four weeks. The initial collection offers six distinct bag silhouettes that serve as starting points in the customization process. The collection ranges from small purses to large, laptop-sized, totes with prices between $150 and $350 dollars.

Their configuration toolkit is well done, no special features, but a good example for a user friendly layout. But compare it with the 121TIME.com website I wrote about in the previous post, and you will see while I regard 121TIME as the leader in BtoC customization (even if their site is really slow sometimes).

Update: Use the discount code "masscustom" to get a 20% discount at check out when you design their bags (Disclaimer: I have no business relationship or affiliate marketing agreement with this company.)