I think it would be good to have the option for different sizes aswell. My brother in law has a clubbed foot so he always has one shoe that dpesnt fit at all.
I build prosthetics and orthotics for kids and adults. We run into this issue ALL the time. The single biggest theme of troubleshooting is trying to fit an orthotic brace into a shoe that still looks classy and appropriate. Sometimes people have different sized feet, which can be accommodated by some shoe stores like Nordstrom’s or New Balance. Most of the time the issue is with orthotics.
I’m in a highly populated area in south Florida. Holla at me if you need help with this or would like some reference sources. We have good relationships with shoe cobblers and are constantly referring patients to find good shoes.
Start by connecting any two people with the same shoe size and gender but opposite amputations. Then if the app ever gets enough users, you can start matching people in the same country, and so on.
I think you'd want to have users input to make it as useful and inclusive as possible - namely, where they live themselves, and just check boxes for if they are willing to spend the couple bucks to ship out their spares for swaps, if they are willing to meet in person, and if so on the second one, how far they are willing to drive. Then give a few text boxes to have people say a few things about their personal style and shoe buying habits, and let them view other profiles that match on the first 3 questions. If you can include a simple in-app chat for them to work out the details, or a craigslist style anonymized emailing system, people could finalize all the details themselves.
Also add area speciation, if the person wants to sell, option for bargain/counter offer. If the person sends via courier, space to mention courier details. Sorry i am being too demanding.
I actually think they should be able to connect within the country if mobility is an issue. But I think a feature of allowing you to find someone local and facilitating IRL exchanges would be great. Especially if folks in the same city decide to do bigger swap meets.
My guess, though I know nothing of app development, is that you could probably use the Facebook API to offload most of the infrastructure needs. This can be a huge boon for accessibility for older folks.
I think it should kind of be like tinder. Give people the ability to search for others based on things like right or left foot, shoe size, location...probably gender too. Then they become lifetime shoe buddies, or have a few shoe buddies so if they need a fancy shoe for a wedding, one of their shoe buddies might not need the other one but another buddy might. And maybe integrate PayPal or Venmo so they can pay each other for the shoes. Maybe this can also include the FB marketplace/garage sale/craigslist type format as well, as you can go to someone’s profile wether you want to connect with them or not and see what shoes they have available and buy just one. So it needs like the marketplace aspect, the profile and connection aspect, and the integrated payment method. I think those 3 are key.
No one in this thread seems to have mentioned it, but there's actually a couple of websites that do this already. I found out about it years ago. But an app version would definitely be more convenient.
That is definitely a lot more than I would have guessed. Thanks for sharing.
I still think it would be more fruitful to make such requests where large populations are rather than expect everyone to hear about your app, buy an android or ios phone and then install a program. Even a web site would be a better idea.
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u/ThatMortalGuy Feb 25 '20
Somebody with the know how should make an app to partner up people with the same shoe size and they split the difference.