Miista: cheaper with a tweet

I love shoes. And I love a shoe bargain. So when I read about Miista's Cheaper with a Tweet campaign, it sounded too good to be true. I'd never heard of Miista before this campaign - you can read about them here. They have a slightly Jeffrey Campbell-esque vibe to them: tough styling (buckles, zips, hardware, chunky heels, dark colours) and very 'blogger'.

Cheaper with a Tweet kind of did what it said on the tin: you tweeted about one of their shoes and that shoe came down in price. By how much depended on your Klout score (though goodness knows those things seem to fluctuate willy nilly for no discernible reason). So, in theory, the more socially influential you are, the more you have the ability to lower the price by. The more people that tweet about a style, the cheaper it gradually gets and you can jump in and buy at any point. So far, so social media friendly and story worthy and I've seen it talked about on loads of sites in the last few days.

It all begins to get a wee bit lengthy here:

Initially, as I touched upon, I thought that the premise might be too good to be true. Turns out it wasn't and I got their £175 Andee boot for a quid. Yup, £1. One pound. Including delivery. I fully expected them not to turn up or for the sale to be cancelled but the boots arrived today! Here they are on some fake grass. Why? Why not people, why not?

I'm dead excited it worked so well for me, the boots look good, feel quality and, added bonus, they fit too!

But how did the campaign work? I'd have though something with such a great hook would go viral very quickly (especially on Twitter) and that the shoes would all be slashed in price and snapped up! But, five days after I ordered there are still shoes sitting there, some with barely any tweets against them, which suggests the Twitter response maybe wasn't as hoped. That could be lack of brand recognition or maybe the tweets didn't clearly enough outline the idea. That said, the fact that loads of sites picked up the story and the fact that I'm sitting writing about it now suggests it has value as a story. Though that may be down to the fact that I follow a bunch of folk who report on stuff like this, increasing the likelihood of me hearing about it, in comparison to your average Twitter user and fashion lover. I'd be curious to hear what you think!

It looks like Miista are planning to utilise the Blogosphere going forward which feels like a pretty nice move. This came in my shoe box.

I might give it a bash...you've got til the 13th to bag your bargain.

And so you're back!

From outer space! No not the start of a Gloria Gaynor fest (though, let's be honest, everyone loves crucifying a bit of the Gaynor on a karaoke. Who am I kidding, I'll happily murder anything on a karaoke, as evidenced by my recent Singstar episode. My friend cracked out Singstar Disney, I humphed about how it would be crap and I wouldn't know any of it. Five minutes later I'm wrestling the mic off anyone in my way and merrily wailing along to Walt's finest.), more a celebration of my return to blogging/blog reading after a hiatus. Of just over a week. It feels like ages though! Work is CRAZY right now (the company I work for turns 30 this year and we're organising lots of stuff to celebrate and it is keeping me SUPER busy. Sometimes my head's so far up my behind I'm afraid it might somehow come back out my mouth again.) and the last thing I want to do when I get home is switch on the computer. Plus, I've been totally being good at gym classing/swimming which has been eating my evenings.

Anyhoo, I am back and presenting, for your delection/indifference shoes #55 in my shoe wearing challenge, my shiny new Converse trainers.

They were a total BARGAIN off Branch309 (I've told you about them before - totes check 'em out!) and cost a mere £12! My old Cons - the classic white Ox - gave up their final ghost quite some time ago but I've been sort of living in denial and still have them (they're famous too so I'm loathe to get shot. These are my actual shoes in these articles!). The fabric is thread bear, the inside is held together with plasters and there are holes in the soles. Who woulda thunk it from one whose shoes are usually so lovely!? I'm actually thinking of doing a post on shoe death as I've had a few this year. It's traumatic, alright?

The red lining will stain white socks a bugger!

Anyway, I begrudge buying a new pair of white Oxes, partly because I love the old ones and I hate the breaking in process - both because they usually take a bit of breaking both comfort and looks wise - and partly because, working in shoes, I know that they're one of the bestselling shoes out there and, well, it's just a bit dull, isn't it. I guess dems the breaks with a classic, innit? Anyhoo, I figured 12 quid for this little starry pair in nice plain nautical primary colours wasn't a bad job and bingo, bango, they joined the shoe closet.

trainers: Converse @ Branch309 £12, dress: Matalan £14, cardi: Sainsbury's from local charity shop £3, necklace: Lady Luck Rules OK (bought ages ago)

Does anyone else think I look the tiniest bit like Jack Nicholson here? Heeeeeeeere's Llara! I thought I'd embrace the Americana of the trainers and wear them with frilly socks and a little dress. Why not, eh? I picked up the dress at the weekend on my first trip to Matalan in ages! It's cute (pretty flowers and a Peter Pan collar) and was fairly bargainous. Winner!

Lookee! Isn't the necklace adorable. I think I picked it up in a LLROK web clearance where you got £100 worth of stuff for £25. I was an actual fool for those things and ended up with all kinds of tat and duplicates as a result!

Anyway, here lie-eth my resolution to be well more regular on this baby so, with any luck, I'll see you soon!

I'm off to watch Coco before Chanel. Ooh, la la!

New shoes!

It's official people: I have a new favourite shoe. Well, I don't have it yet but, come mid February it's SO happening. Let me explain. 

I work with shoes (no, I don't get free shoes and yes that is the question I'm asked most often about my job). And, on the system at work, a wee while back, I clocked this little number. "Cute enough", I thought. The quilting effect is sweet, they have a platform and there's something interesting going on between the heel and waist and something's DEFINITELY happening up back. However, I didn't give them much more thought and carried on window shopping working

However, this week saw our bi-annual staff range preview and that's when I first laid eyes on the shoes, the Irregular Choice 'Sweety Bird Back Flower', in real life.The things is, for me, less isn't always more. Whether it's "should I wear another ring?", "should I wear florals, polka dots and leopard print at the same time?" or "should I leave some Haagen Dazs for another day?", some times too much just isn't enough. Which is why, when I clocked the full glory and eye popping colour and pattern of the back flower, which juxtaposes beautifully with the otherwise fairly plain styling, my heart was WON. I can't WAIT for it to be mine!

 

 ps - if you're so inclined, my insider info is telling you the black version arrived in the building this morning and will be on site, probably early in the week! Eek! 90 quid. Get saving.