Issues with a new company doesn’t bode well for the future

Capitten made a minor splash on social media when they announced that they were the boot suppliers for Andres Iniesta. A little further digging makes it appear that the Andres Iniesta is heavily involved in the design of the boots themselves and looks like he is even the owner of the company. So, a big name designing his own boots with a strong message towards Iniesta’s own beliefs about what his company’s mission is made for a solid start. There was even the fact that one lucky person would get a pair of his matchworn boots, provided you stump up the cash for one of the 888 pairs of the super expensive white/gold models. These white/gold models are also each signed by Iniesta himself, so some strong incentive to pick up a pair.

The company even has midrange and junior models available to try and cover as many bases as possible. Even smarter, Capitten also makes their own apparel, which means there are options for people who might not want to buy the boots but still want to get into the brand. Giving customers choices is almost always a net positive for a company as long as there are not too many choices. And as long as product can be delivered. Unfortunately, here’s where things take a turn for the ugly.

The first pair of Capitten One Pro I ordered was reserved back on October 18th. At the time of writing this, it is now November 18th, and there are still no signs of the product being shipped. The order page still says the order is “processing”. But even worse is that I cancelled this order two weeks ago and still have not received a response or update. I figured it be better if I just ordered from one of the stores that seemed to have stock. So I did. That was on October 27th, and that order is also still “processing”.

Now, I did reach out to Capitten (through Instagram since their email was unresponsive) and got told two and a half weeks ago that I should expect the boots the week after next. There have been no updates since then. The retailer I ordered from also does not have a time scale for when the boots are to be delivered. A follower of mine joked that they probably needed to start from scratch and that’s the reason it has taken so long. I am almost inclined to believe that to be true at this point.

Obviously, it is never a good thing when a company cannot give accurate delivery times for it’s own product and even worse that a brand new company is already struggling to fill orders less that three months after launch. One would think that surely the brand would make sure that there is plenty of stock available for the first few baches of orders. After all, that’s what market and launch planning are for. The Capitten One Mid, TF and Junior models all seem to be available with no issues. But their headline product seems like it sold through the initial batch very quickly. There is no good answer for the reasons why this is happening that does not reflect poorly on the company’s planning.

One would think that this is then end of their issues, but even the One Pro model, and by extension their Mid, TF and Junior models, have major issues. Followers of my blog and my Instagram will notice that I never did a tech write up on the boots themselves. That is because all of their “tech” was able to be summed up with one Instagram post. There is very little in the way of USPs “Unique Selling Points” to the boots. They’re kangaroo leather with a synthetic midfoot and heel. No idea what kind of synthetic, because it is not mentioned. The studs are made of Nylon and good for grass. The kangaroo leather is great for touch (Well yeah) and the provide a good fit. But there is no explanation into how any of these things are accomplished. The boots are not even made in Japan, so they do not have even that going for them. The entire USP seems to be that Iniesta wears them and that they hark back to the 80’s with their design.

Supposedly, the designer of the boots used to work at adidas and then Athleta doing footwear design, so one would think that they would understand that USPs are important. But apparently, somewher along the way that either got forgotten about or that they so strongly believed in Iniesta’s selling power that they believed that would be enough. The second part of that reasoning actually makes the most sense since they are selling limited boots at twice the cost of other brand’s limited editions and even their ”regular” colourways of the One Pro models ends up being the same price as a pair of Superflys are in Japan (around 30000 yen). It is a big ask even for a more established company to try and charge that amount, especially if they are not one of the Big Three.

All of this is a shame because I am a huge proponent of more companies entering the marketplace to shake things up and provide more competition. But if Capitten continues to provide terrible customer service, not deliver product in a timely manner and not make unique product, then there is no point in them bothering. Hopefully things change for the better.

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じゃあね！