Once upon a time, there was an environmentally conscious person who fell in love with golf. When he thought about a concept to recover all these lake balls that keep getting lost, a robot was born. Then later a shoe brand; LAKEFRONT .
Review of a brand whose models and colors have been defined by the community and which is launching its ambassadors program now.
From a robot to design shoes
When Alexandre Vignal, 24, discovered golf, the question of lake balls was a clear observation. What to do with these balls that pollute the ground?
A robot which capture the balls, of course. For the sake of profitability, and with all these golf balls on their backs, only 50% of them can boast of finding a second life. But what to do with other half? Can we recycle them?
To tell the truth, not really. The golf ball is made from a thermosetting polymer which makes recycling almost impossible. To meditate the next time your slice will make your ball unretrievable.
Despite this strong hurdle in his brand storytelling and keeping in mind the environmental aspect and a limited offer, the young man launches the golf shoe made out of recycled materials. More precisely in the spring summer shoe with a classic design but with a combination of pastel colors. And even if the shoe is not made of recycled golf ball, recycled rubber is available in abundance. Kind of like plastic. Besides, Adidas will be one of its main competitors with the Primeblue, whose sole is made of plastic waste.
A colossal market and a community approach
Launching a shoe brand is complicated, even if the premise is focused on the environment. Taking advantage of its experience in the United States, the concept is directly developed in French and English. By announcing the obvious, it is clear that a new golf brand cannot miss 28 million US golfers without counting all the other markets using the language of Shakespeare, as a second language. For example, northern Europe or the countries of the former Commonwealth. In short the language of golf is English and LAKEFRONT will be on the front. As if to close the deal, Alexandre will seek an American partner. DJ is a US friend who has an expertise in digital marketing and who will be the brand relay in the United States.
Any part of the community that shares the same values
Before communicating on the desire to produce shoes partly made from recycled materials, the two partners lead test groups on the style and general design of the shoe. Then a test phase will take place with an ambassador program and finally once the models have been decided, the crowdfunding campaign will take over.
The objective is to test and create demand to obtain the most satisfactory possible product.
inner sole 
Model preview 
TERRA – I the first golf shoe model from LakeFront
Since the 17th of July, LakeFront shared the first model TERRA – I. Despite what we could have seen during the development phase that colors may have been part of the mix, for now it comes in white.
Ambassadors who share the same values
In order to promote the LAKEFRONT brand on all routes, the brand will launch an ambassador program on Saturday 27th of June. All details will be revealed on Instagram. First, you will have to prepare to shoot a video and have followers on social media if you want to have a chance to be shortlisted! Know before you start your video that you must also share the values of the brand. Indeed, LAKEFRONT wishes to educate golfers on their ecological impact but also participate financially in the cleaning of the courses.
The first ambassador has been found. It’s @thekosherpanda, a golf amateur with more that 10 000 followers on Instagram. However, she will not be alone, you can still apply to be one of the brand ambassadors.
Crowdfunding to get the project on track
In late September, LAKEFRONT will launch a crowdfunding campaign to close the finances and give the final manufacturing order to the factory located in Portugal.
Nothing could be seen during my conversation with Alexandre regarding the retail price of the shoe. On the other hand, on the subject of distribution, Alexandre introduced me to the concept of the Asphalt brand. Each new product is manufactured if demand has reached a satisfactory level. Rather than launching entire collections whose models will end up rotting in warehouses.
If LAKEFRONT goes on this ground, they will definitely stick with their values.
