Sneaker brand KOIO took its retail marketing up a notch for a new product launch by using Endear to invite local customers to shop in-store.

What happens when a brand that was born online opens its first stores? The website still does most of the selling, but the stores give it something the website can't: a room where customers can try on the shoes and meet the team.

KOIO, the New York sneaker brand known for handcrafted Italian leather sneakers, had exactly that setup. When it launched a new style, its stores had a job to do. In this case study, you'll see who KOIO is, how its store teams used Endear's clienteling tools to turn a product launch into a local in-store event, what the results were (a 36.2% open rate and 10.7% of launch-weekend in-store sales), and how you can run the same playbook for your next launch.

Let's start with the brand.

Key takeaways:

• For a sneaker launch like KOIO's Tempo, let each store host. An invitation from the local store team is more personal than a brand newsletter.
• Segment by neighborhood so every recipient can actually show up, instead of blasting the whole email list.
• Include a way to buy online in the same invitation, so interested customers who can't attend still have an option.
• Send store invitations from a platform that attributes sales. KOIO tied 10.7% of launch-weekend in-store sales to associate outreach.
• Follow up after the event with thank-you messages and personal recommendations to turn one-time visitors into regulars.

About KOIO: The Italian-Made Sneaker Brand Behind the Story

KOIO is a New York-based sneaker brand delivering Italian craftsmanship to modern consumers looking for comfort, quality, and style that can go anywhere. All this at a fraction of the price of traditional luxury sneakers on the market. Since their inception in 2014, KOIO has quickly become a social media sensation, recognized around the world as the footwear of choice for influencers, jetsetters, and busy working professionals alike.

A few quick facts about the KOIO brand:

• Founders: Johannes Quodt and Chris Wichert, who met while completing their MBAs at Wharton (AlleyWatch). Before business school, Wichert spent two and a half years in investment banking at J.P. Morgan (WHU).
• Where KOIO sneakers are made: Handcrafted in Florence, Italy. KOIO says it visited 34 Italian factories before choosing its manufacturing partner (KOIO). A few lines are exceptions (per KOIO's FAQ, Ostuni is made in Spain and Pale Blue Dot and Carrara in Portugal).
• Business model: Direct-to-consumer, with no middleman. In 2019 the founders told AlleyWatch they sold "all products on our own website and KOIO storefronts."
• Price point: TechCrunch reported in 2019 that "the average shoes on Koio go for about $250" (TechCrunch).

KOIO stores: from digital-native to brick-and-mortar

The digitally-native brand has since expanded to two permanent brick-and-mortar locations in New York and Los Angeles.

KOIO's retail footprint grew quickly around the time of this campaign. In August 2019, Glossy reported that KOIO had gone from one store to six stores (plus a Los Angeles pop-up) in a year. According to Glossy, the brand's sales at the time broke down to roughly 60% online, 30% in-store and 10% wholesale. KOIO's team told Glossy that "the lifetime value of a customer who buys in-store first is much, much greater."

That's the key point. For a DTC brand, a store is more than a place to sell shoes. It's where customers try the product on, meet the team, and become loyal. (If you want to know where to buy KOIO sneakers today, koio.co is the place to check for current store locations.)

KOIO and Endear

As one of Endear's inaugural customers, KOIO has augmented their strong digital presence through store-based marketing efforts. A steady stream of associate-driven follow ups, personal product recommendations, and thank-you messages has helped KOIO maintain and boost their customer engagement and extend their brand's voice via a personalized and memorable in-store experience.

So what happened when KOIO had a brand-new sneaker to launch?

The Challenge: Launching a New Sneaker Beyond the Inbox

In anticipation of the launch of the Tempo style sneaker in July 2019, the KOIO team developed a marketing strategy combining social media, e-mail, and IRL in-store engagement.

Social media and brand email reach a lot of people, but they don't come from anyone the customer knows. Bringing individual stores into a launch raises three questions most omnichannel retail teams will recognize:

• Who to invite? The launch needed to reach customers who actually live near each store, not the entire email list.
• How to reach them at scale? Associates can text a handful of regulars from their personal phones, but that doesn't scale and the data doesn't stay with the brand.
• How to know it worked? Without attribution, in-store outreach is a feel-good activity, not a sales channel you can measure.

The Solution: Local Store Marketing With Endear's Segmenting and Bulk Messaging

To help launch the new product, KOIO turned to Endear. To promote their new shoe to their stores' local customers, select KOIO locations and pop-ups implemented an event-based marketing campaign using Endear's segmenting and bulk messaging capabilities to target shoppers in each store's neighborhood and invite them to their store's launch event.

!Koio using clienteling platform, Endear, for a local store marketing campaign and product launch

KOIO using clienteling platform, Endear, for a local store marketing campaign and product launch.

These messages touted the launch of their newest silhouette and extended an invitation to celebrate in-store or, of course, make a purchase online.

Here's how the pieces fit together:

1. Segment by store. Using Endear's retail CRM, each participating location built an audience of customers in its own neighborhood, instead of blasting the whole list.
2. Send in bulk, store by store. Endear Campaigns let each store send its invitation to that whole audience in one go, instead of associates texting customers one by one.
3. Give two ways to say yes. The invitation asked shoppers to celebrate the launch in person or buy online, so nobody was left without an option.
4. Attribute the sales. Because the outreach went through Endear, KOIO could connect launch-weekend sales back to associates' messages.

The Results: A 36.2% Open Rate and 10.7% of Launch-Weekend In-Store Sales

Messages sent as part of this campaign had a 36.2%* open rate, more than double the industry average, and 10.7% of in-store sales over the shoe's launch weekend were attributed to associates' outreach through Endear.

*vs. an industry average of 15% for U.S. retailers

While the brand has now been using Endear to connect with shoppers for over four years now, this was KOIO's first event-focused campaign implemented through Endear. But beyond directly attributable sales, this campaign and others like it serve to reinforce a sense of KOIO community and open the door for further storytelling opportunities via physical retail locations and, most importantly, the teams that work there. Fostering a conversational relationship rather than a purely transactional one is invaluable when building a loyal and valuable customer base and an essential part of what Endear offers to its users.

Planning a launch of your own and want to see how store-level segmenting and attribution would work with your POS? Request a demo and we'll walk you through it.

How Brands Foster Community Around Sneaker Launches

Brands foster community around sneaker launches by turning the release into an in-person moment: inviting local customers to a store event, having the associates they already know send personal invitations, and following up after the launch. That makes a product drop feel like a neighborhood event, not just another marketing email.

KOIO's Tempo launch shows what this looks like in practice. Here are the lessons you can take from it:

• Let the store be the host. An invitation from "your SoHo store team" is more personal than one from a brand newsletter. Local context gives the message a reason to exist.
• Keep the invite list tight. Neighborhood-level segments mean every recipient can actually show up. Relevance is what earns the open.
• Offer a no-pressure alternative. Not everyone can make an in-store event. A "shop online" option captures intent from customers who are interested but busy.
• Keep the conversation going. The follow-ups and thank-you messages after the event are what turn a one-time visitor into a regular. That's clienteling in a nutshell.
• Measure it like a channel. Attribution is what separates a store event that "felt busy" from one you can justify repeating (and budgeting for) next season.

Your Product Launch Clienteling Playbook

Want to run a KOIO-style launch at your own stores? Here's a simple sequence:

1. Pick your participating stores and set a launch date that works for each team.
2. Build a local segment for each store, based on the customers who shop there or live nearby.
3. Write one invitation per store in the store team's voice. Mention the product, the event and a way to buy online.
4. Send across the channels your customers use: email, SMS or WhatsApp, all from one clienteling platform.
5. Reply to responses in one shared inbox so the store team can confirm RSVPs and answer sizing questions.
6. Follow up after the event with a thank-you message and personal recommendations.
7. Review attributed sales in Insights and compare stores to see which approach worked best.

These days you don't have to build every list by hand, either. Endear's AI Opportunity Engine surfaces a daily queue of high-intent customers and drafts brand-aligned messages that associates review and approve before sending. One specialty retailer using it went from 60 outreach messages a week to 360 within six weeks, without adding headcount, and earned $35 in attributed revenue for every $1 spent on actioned opportunities. The AI Notetaker captures what customers tell associates during a store visit (the size they took, the color they're waiting on), so your next launch invite can be even more personal.

Want more examples? See how PAIGE used clienteling to drive in-store foot traffic, how Gorjana's SMS strategy achieved a 20% conversion rate, or browse all of our customer success stories.

Frequently Asked Questions About KOIO

Is KOIO a luxury brand?

KOIO positions itself as affordable luxury. Its sneakers are handcrafted in Italy from premium leathers, but because KOIO sells direct-to-consumer, it prices them at a fraction of traditional luxury sneakers. TechCrunch reported an average price of about $250 in 2019.

Where are KOIO shoes made?

According to KOIO, its sneakers are handcrafted in Florence, Italy, by a manufacturing partner it chose after visiting 34 Italian factories. KOIO's FAQ lists a few exceptions: the Ostuni line is made in Spain, and the Pale Blue Dot and Carrara lines are made in Portugal.

Is KOIO an American brand?

Yes. KOIO is a New York-based brand founded by Johannes Quodt and Chris Wichert. It designs its shoes in-house and manufactures them in Italy.

Can you buy KOIO shoes in stores?

KOIO sells mainly through its own website, and it has also run its own brick-and-mortar stores and pop-ups. Its store count has changed over the years, so check koio.co for current KOIO store locations before you visit.

How did KOIO use Endear?

KOIO's store teams used Endear for associate-driven follow-ups, personal product recommendations and thank-you messages. For the July 2019 Tempo launch, select stores and pop-ups used Endear's segmenting and bulk messaging to invite local customers to in-store launch events. The messages achieved a 36.2% open rate, and 10.7% of launch-weekend in-store sales were attributed to associates' outreach.

What is clienteling in retail?

Clienteling is when store associates build long-term, one-to-one relationships with customers, using what they know about each shopper's purchases and preferences to send personal recommendations, invitations and follow-ups. A clienteling platform like Endear gives associates that customer data and the tools to reach out by email, SMS or WhatsApp.

Turn Your Next Launch Into an In-Store Event

KOIO's Tempo launch shows what a DTC brand's stores can do when associates have the right data and tools. With local segments, store-level invitations and measurable attribution, a product drop became a neighborhood event that drove real in-store sales.

Your stores can do the same. Request a demo to see how Endear helps your associates bring customers back in-store for every launch.