Nucleus Shoe Website Update

[dp]

Any guidelines on sizing information? I wear size 11 quantums which are comfortably snug. What size Nucleus would you recommend I order?

[simplyqueen1]

Any guidelines on sizing information? I wear size 11 quantums which are comfortably snug. What size Nucleus would you recommend I order?

I believe size 11 would fit you for the Nucleus as well. We will allow exchanges if the sizes are an issue.

Thank you

[kam]

while i am sure that the shoes will perform well, i wouldn't be caught dead wearing them. Why does it seem impossible to make footbag gear look good?

As queency said, constructive feedback would be a bit more useful. What aspect of the shoe is a turn off for you? My guess is that it looks a bit plain as it's seen on the site right now. But that is intended so that people can draw and be artistic on their shoes.

Personally, I prefer the black version, or even the white version with black laces. But again, this is up to personal preference.

As for the website, we will eventually put pictures of the black nucleus, and there are plans to add a photo gallery with more photos of the shoes (possibly have user submitted photos to showcase everyone's artistic masterpieces )

[EoghanMcDowell]

Re-posting a question by Cale that got left behind in the creation of another page.

i have a question as well... on the rod laver, the mesh sort of "breaks-in" and stretches over time. this is the primary reason i am able to fit into size 13 lavers.... do the nucleuses break in in this manner? im not expecting a full size to be added on or anything, but a half size of break in usually happens with mesh lavers after hard use... is the canvas too tough to conform to the foot over time?

I'm really looking forward to these shoes. I want them to be my next pair of fooyt kicks.

Eoghan

[FlexThis]

I have seen and worn these shoes and can speak to the mesh and canvas.

This is a flexible and stable shoe. I was surprised at how much control of the shoe I had with my foot inside. As opposed to Lavers which act like bricks until they break-in.

The mesh is nice and durable and you can feel the bag right away. The canvas is also nice and not as stiff as other canvas shoes I have seen.

I cannot speak to the break-in process as I do not have a pair in my possession to break in. But am seriously looking forward to their release. I have pre-ordered and suggest anyone interested do the same or risk not having a pair when they come out.

[simplyqueen1]

Hello Everyone!

I have been going back and forth with financial advisers, business colleagues, and potential distributors regarding the price of the Nucleus Shoe. To be honest, a group of individuals were voting to increase the price for a better profit margin. After getting to know many footbaggers in the community, I've decided against the advice of these non-players and instead, cut the price in half to $39.99 so it's a little more than the cost of a good footbag. I think this will allow new players to be able to afford purchasing the right equipment which will in turn (more importantly) help to promote the sport. This project is not about making a quick buck, but to help ensure that reasonably priced quality equipment is available to both new and old players. Hopefully this will help give everyone a chance to enjoy the shoes! If anyone thinks/feels this is a bad decision, just let me know and I'll restore the price back up again.

I apologize for almost losing site of why this whole project was started in the first place.

Thank you
Queency Mateo
P.S. any feedback both positive and negative will be greatly appreciated.
P.S.S. Money will be refunded to those who have paid the full pre-order price of $76.99

[Jeremy]

Awesome. Sold

[calemccoy]

...and now im willing to buy a pair to try them =] sounds awesome!

[FlexThis]

Hot damn! I'm getting 2 pair

[zeroman13]

Is there an option of ordering a pair over the phone?

[simplyqueen1]

Is there an option of ordering a pair over the phone?

Yes, but please also send an email to either [email protected]. We need to keep track of all the orders to ensure accuracy for accounting purposes. I see that not everyone has paypal so please let me know your payment preference and I will consider.

Thank you!

[simplyqueen1]

For those of you that are wary about using paypal, instead of connecting your bank account or credit card to a paypal account, you can purchase a Visa Gift Card at any local grocery store. You will just register this gift card online, open up a paypal account and be able to purchase the shoes. A consumer has already used this method. Hope this helps!

[EoghanMcDowell]

I just pre-ordered a pair of the black. I'm really excited about these

[King Monkey]

Any info on shipping costs to Australia? In my experience it often costs more in shipping than the shoes themselves...

[acxel22]

Just ordered a pair, looking forward to try this

[atze]

wow, i don't know what to say. while i must admit that as a player (consumer) i wholeheartedly applaud your step and your honorable motives. but i have some reservations which i would like to share with you and the community:

what footbag doesn't need is "cheap" (as in not costing a lot of money) entry segment equipment. especially not equipment which is as sophisticated as the nucleus or hand sewn "player bags" for $20.
what footbag needs is a sustainable source of funding for tournaments promotional work, etc. footbag in itself is a cheap sport compared to any other sport in the world. there is not much money to be made for anybody with any type of footbag equipment. consequently there is not much funding to be had from any footbag related company. they simply don't make enough money to even survive. and the footbag scene, unfortunately, is continuously doing its best to make their life harder still.

newbs in forums are continuously told to buy a player bag instead of, for instance, a mr. sandman from freedom footbags. footbag shoes (whether it be lavers or anything else) are bought at the cheapest possible source instead of at dedicated footbag companies. anybody who has learned his/her first tricks starts to sew footbags and sells them at dumping prices which ruin the market for dedicated footbag companies or "professional" sewers like richie.

on the other hand there are continuous complaints that there are
-not enough footbag tournaments
-events are not professionaly run
-events like worlds charge too much registration fees
-etc., etc.

take this year worlds. anybody who has followed it or who attended will most likely have seen a high class event. probably the best footbag event ever produced. an event of this magnitude will easily cost $500'000 if run professionally. the berlin crew maybe had 1/10th of these funds available. i would estimate that a maximum of $10'000,- were provided by footbag companies. all the rest they made up with hard, hard, hard work. something nobody can expect from anybody in their right mind. and that is why a worlds like this will probably never happen again in the next decade or more.

with a product like a professional footbag shoe, footbag companies for the first time would have a product in their hands that would generate enough profit to actually survive and generate a sustainable source of funding for tournaments, etc. planetfootbag tried to make this step but failed miserably because they didn't manage to solve the quality issues. I was seriously hoping that the nucleus would succeed, where the quantum failed.

now you are telling us that you want to sell the nucleus at a price where the profit margin must necessarily be extremely small. either this is a deliberate step to establish the shoe within the community and prices will go up once you have reached that goal, or you are seriously driven by the noble thought to supply high class material dirt cheap to get new players into the sport. the first motivation would be a good one. the second, in my opinion, unfortunately not. no matter what you do, the footbag scene is small. unless you have spectacular markets beside the footbag players in mind, you will not sell more than 1000 pairs of shoes a year. with your decision to cut the price of the nucleus by half you have effectively decided to give away $40'000. 40'000, which in my opinion would have been a great help to any potential candidate for hosting worlds in the US next year and would have gone a long, long way in sustainably promoting the sport in the US and worldwide.

Of course I'm making a lot of assumptions as to your motives, actual markets, your strategies, etc. A lot of these are probably wrong. I'm actually writing all this (and hoping it get's read) for the sake of all the people who only see the money they, personally, are saving. I wish the footbag community would sometimes be more considerate of the bigger pricture. we really, really need more money to work with to sustain footbag and we're missing a great opportunity to raise some of that money with the nucleus.

[Tsiangkun]

In terms of actually getting enough of the shoes made and delivered, the lower price might be better, since more people can commit to a pre-order.

I think everyone is excited to see these arrive at their door, so sooner is a good thing.

[Green Lanturn]

I know a couple of people have posted regarding the sizes but I have a question regarding proper sizing. I normally wear an 11.5. However, I have a slightly wider foot and need a 12.5 in the Lavers because of the way they are cut. I know there can be exchanges, but I'd like to try to get the correct size. I guess my question is, how is the width of the Nucleus as compared to the Lavers?

[simplyqueen1]

As a brand new company, we are far from bearing the responsibility of significantly funding tournaments. It is one of our goals down the line but not our main focus right now. At this point in time, our immediate and primary responsibility is to meet the needs of the consumer. Most players are not thinking about how their share contributes to the bigger picture (i.e. tournaments) but rather, whether or not the product was worth their dollar especially in this economy. I do, however commend the efforts of Planet Footbag with the Quantums as they have provided us and anyone after us, with a gateway of learning from their experiences. It’s not easy to be the very first company with a specialty shoe out so that courage deserves acknowledgement & appreciation from everyone involved in the sport.

We have read feedback from the Quantums and have had an uphill battle with the problems associated with them. As a result, it was realized that it is still a concern in the back of players minds whether or not the Nucleus shoe will suffer the same manufacturing issues. So building value was a challenge we’ve had from the start. We’ve been faced with consumers continued reluctance to risk their money partly due to this and we have attempted to respond accordingly.

As with any new start up companies, it is very common that discounts, 50% off coupons or any promotional techniques are introduced to change the mindset of shoppers. How else will they be curious enough to risk their money in a product without lengthy history, hundreds of feedback or a solid reputation? Price was a major issue monitored in various forums granted recent events. The market was tested in different countries to see their reaction towards different prices for the Nucleus Shoe in comparison to the three already out there. The higher the prices were proposed, the more negative the comments were and we brainstormed ways on how to generate more positive responses. We have basically 3 major shoe companies to compete with: G-Units, Lavers and Quantums. Competitive pricing was a strategy to get their loyal consumers to at least try our version of the shoe. To us, the shoe is well worth twice as much based on so much work put into it by professionals in the shoe/apparel industry and athletes in this sport but translating this value into real dollars from the masses will take some time.

Had I raised the introductory price to >$100, (combined with shipping fees) the sales would more than likely dwindle, the project would fail before it even got off the ground and any involvement towards future tournament funding would be non existent.

In review of profit margins, the lowered price doesn’t necessary mean that we have decided to give $40,000 away as you have said. Sufficient sales in quantity can still generate great results. In addition, this loss is arbitrary, as one can also perceive the same loss incurred by a company during the middle stages of growth; if price is set high but discover that defects harmfully impact sales, for example. Repetitive issues can negatively impact sales trends and profit margins in the long run.

In terms of contributions to tournaments, many of the successful events I’ve been involved with orchestrated by both for profit and non profit organizations have allowed me the opportunity to work with some of the most creative professionals for fundraisers. I believe more money can be raised without solely relying on footbag companies and individuals to contribute but we can go over this detail at a later time. I attempted to gather info from people from IFPA and several individuals on what the planning of the event or any tournament entails. It may have been bad timing due to Worlds…but have not had a response. We still have plans to try to host a Worlds Tournament, tour globally to sponsor smaller tournaments and arrange televised events in the near future but again, financial goals must be achieved before we can even attempt to coordinate efforts of that magnitude. I am slowly collecting information towards that goal.

And yes- although your 1000 pairs/year is probably accurate with the footbag community, we are planning to pursue other markets as soon as issues have been ironed out with the sport’s target market first. I’m relying on Abshire to secure agreements with various distributors and push pre-sales. Channels of distribution have been mapped out and stages for marketing strategies the community is not aware of will be initiated once the company picks up more momentum. Access to more of my contacts and resources will be utilized based on evidence of progress with sales being made. The market will dictate how far this project will be taken. There are many other strategies and marketing techniques I wanted to share early on with Planet Footbag but until we’ve reached financial benchmarks, we will have to wait patiently to share some of the info so dedicated footbag companies will have the opportunity to also expand their market.

I’ve had quite a few investors open to providing a significant amount of capital for celebrity endorsements, televised commercials etc. but the numbers just weren’t there to warrant that kind of risk yet. The initial projections that I received prior to my official involvement were inaccurate. In addition, the shoe would not have stayed true to its purpose—as promotion with other markets too early on would have had investors input morphing the shoe into something else. I still maintain connections with various investors, people in the entertainment industry and executives from the shoe/apparel industry but must build a better market base to be able to present more appealing statistics to potential investors to launch the project on a larger scale. Experimenting with supply & demand and lowering prices for both players/non players will essentially create a wider market and hopefully will generate outside interest and funds that will far surpass my personal capability.

With the shoes current price, there is no promise at any time frame for how long the $39.99 will last. It may or may not last, depending on business advisors, sufficient market analysis & consumer response. Right now, it serves as a pre order incentive. To our surprise, there were numerous emails suggesting that we restore the price back up as these individuals have seen the value in what was put into the project so far and are concerned of a devaluing effect and that the lowered price will not be sustainable for the longevity of the company. Whether or not this is a bad decision, it has been creating a critical buzz in the community that has generated a spike in sales.

We have carefully taken the time the past year to analyze the market and understand its culture. We’ve spent many hours addressing individual concerns and although we will not satisfy everyone, we’ve made every effort to try and incorporate feedback from the majority towards all aspects of the company in terms of website & shoe design, business techniques, networking, relationship building, marketing & pricing strategy. We have made this project an ongoing collaborative effort with the consumers to identify and create solutions in response to their unmet needs. It builds confidence that the shoe is in fact created by the players, for the players. Hopefully this relationship will gain trust, increase value and ultimately earn more of the market share for a mutually beneficial future and eventually pave the way for making other footbag related projects & events possible.

[simplyqueen1]

I know a couple of people have posted regarding the sizes but I have a question regarding proper sizing. I normally wear an 11.5. However, I have a slightly wider foot and need a 12.5 in the Lavers because of the way they are cut. I know there can be exchanges, but I'd like to try to get the correct size. I guess my question is, how is the width of the Nucleus as compared to the Lavers?

The widths are similar but if you are unsure, you can go into any shoe store and utilize their measurement tool to get a more precise reading for your width. Feel free to email me and we will try our best to help you figure out which size is more appropriate for you. If there is a huge demand for wider width shoes in general, we will try our best to accommodate extra wide shoes in the production line.