Traditionally, individual pairs of shoes have been sold in shoe boxes. Although the style and size of shoe boxes can vary widely, most include a cardboard box sufficiently large to hold two shoes, as well as a box cover or lid. FIG. 1A shows one existing type of shoe box used for, e.g., a pair of athletic shoes. Box 1 of FIG. 1A includes an attached (or “clam shell”) top 2 and a bottom 3. Shoes 4 and 5 (shown in silhouette with uneven broken lines) are typically placed into box 1 with the soles and rears of the shoes facing the box sides. Box 1 would typically be formed from corrugated fiber board, cardboard or other similar material. In particular, and as shown in FIG. 1B, a pattern 6 for box 1 is cut from a blank and then folded into the configuration shown in FIG. 1A. Although the size of the pattern would depend on the desired size of the shoe box, a typical pattern would be cut from a blank having a height (h) of approximately 26½ inches and a width (w) of approximately 26⅞ inches (approximately 4.95 square feet of cardboard). When shipping multiple pairs of shoes (from, e.g., a manufacturer or a distribution center to a retail store), boxed shoe pairs are placed in a larger box. This larger box is often referred to as an MOC (“master outer carton”), also known as a secondary package or as a distribution package. FIG. 2 shows an MOC 7 used for shipment of individual shoe pairs contained in boxes such as box 1 (FIG. 1A).
Packaging each pair of shoes in an individual box presents numerous disadvantages. As is clear from FIG. 1B, a significant amount of cardboard or other material is needed for each shoe box, resulting in substantial material expense. Use of shoe boxes is often not an environmentally-friendly practice. Although many shoe boxes can be recycled, consumers may fail to do so.
Shoe boxes also present problems at the retail store level. In many modern self-service shoe stores, a customer is able to select a box of shoes from a shelf. The customer may then remove the shoes from a selected box and try those shoes on. Although many stores attempt to arrange shoe boxes in an orderly manner so that a customer can easily find a desired type of shoe, the orderly arrangement may quickly disappear during busy shopping hours. Customers are then forced to open multiple boxes to find the desired shoes. Customers may then leave these multiple opened boxes lying about, further compounding the problem. When shoes are re-boxed they may be put in the wrong boxes, causing still more confusion for later customers.
Shoe boxes can also be an inconvenience to sales personnel in traditional shoe stores. In these types of stores, a customer usually identifies a particular shoe from a display, and a salesperson then retrieves an appropriately-sized pair from a storage room. When searching a storage room for a pair of shoes requested by a customer, the salesperson may be forced to open multiple shoe boxes. For example, a particular type of shoe may be available in several colors. The color may not be indicated on the box, or may not be indicated on a part of the box that is easily viewable. In order to find a shoe pair of the proper color, the sales person must potentially open multiple boxes.
Shoe boxes also increase the amount of space associated with each shoe pair. In other words, once placed into a shoe box, a pair of shoes occupies a larger volume. If the amount of space associated with pairs of shoes could be reduced, shipping and storage costs could potentially be reduced. Moreover, reducing the amount of space required for each pair of shoes could allow shipping more shoe pairs within a given volume, potentially increasing shipping efficiency and reducing fuel consumption.
For these and other reasons, there remains a need for improved systems and methods for footwear packaging.