The Art of Customization - Part I

We live in a world where virtually anything can now be customized.  Our me-centric culture is becoming so out of control that customization is ironically becoming mainstream.  Huh?  What’s up with that?  Is that even possible?

Customization used to be more of a “once in a lifetime” concept.  Maybe your husband might have a custom piece of jewelry crafted for your 10th wedding anniversary.

In the first half of the 20th century, it’s true that houses were much more customized.  But once you had your “dream home” built, you pretty much stayed there for the rest of your life.  Clearly, lifestyles are very different now and few people are able to, or want to, remain in once spot.  So while new homes built today are not customized as they were in the 1940’s, our transitory lifestyles may allow us to try a wider variety of home styles.  So it could be said that this is somewhat of a more customized living experience, comparitively.

Customization was also something that was generally reserved for those with deep pockets who could afford to have couture.  But you no longer need Oprah’s budget to have your very own high stylin’ stuff with your stamp all over it.  In theory, it really is a cool concept!  Narcisstic?  Perhaps.  Egotistical?  Maybe.

Having been a runner for a long time, I used to run with a clunky portable CD player that chewed through batteries faster than the speed of light.  I had to stop every half hour or so to change out batteries.  What a total pain!

These days, life is good.  I create my own playlists when it’s convenient for me and when it’s time to run, I just clip on my matchbook-size ipod and I’m good to go.  No dead batteries to change and I’m armed with enough music to last me through a marathon!

Not only that, but I also have my own customized Nike running shoes.  For days when I’m feeling high maintainence, I slip on my girly-girl pink pair.  For more typical days, my blue and green pair serves me just fine.  Either way, they’re stylized in my favorite colors with metallics and stripes where I want, whoosh-symboled my way and full of mantras and initials meaningful to ME.

The customized music provides me with a meaningful personal experience that makes my life more positive because I’m listening to something that makes me feel happy, inspired or motivated.  The resulting experience I get back from the customized music selections has a subjectively measurable benefit to me.  Most likely, the other runners I see daily probably receive similar benefits from their playlists.

But what about those customized shoes?  Despite all that personalization, we me-centrics are still wearing the same stuff.  I don’t know how it gets executed on the production line at Nike, but I do know we each chose from a set of parameters Nike provided us, meaning it still remains somewhat ”homogenized”.  In the end, we me-centrics are still just wearing Nike running shoes.  Sure, we each have our own favorite colors and markings, but running shoes are still running shoes.  The initial experience was fun, but I’m not so convinced the customization part does much for our minds, bodies or souls…