Christian Louboutin Responds

In the Beginning…
In my first-ever blog post, called Christian Louboutin: Seeing Pink?, I wrote about an idea for high-fashion shoe designer Christian Louboutin to create and sell a pink-soled shoe that could raise millions of dollars for breast cancer research while increasing his brand awareness.

Recently, I received a response from a Christian Louboutin representative in New York about my idea. This was the response I received from Christian’s Director of Communications in New York:

Dear Mr. Scarpino,

Thank you kindly for your interest. However, while your event is certainly worthwhile, we will be unable to help you. Due to the trademark of our red soles, we cannot ever produce a shoe with anything but the red sole, nor would we.

Please do not hesitate to offer any further ideas in the future, and we would be happy to review for consideration.

My Response
While I am happy that someone from Christian Louboutin’s company took the time to write me back, I don’t think that she took the time to really read about my idea (after all, she called it “an event”). So, I responded with this message:

Thanks so much for the response. I really appreciate it.

Just to clarify, I am not asking for help with any specific event. I'm simply suggesting that the Christian Louboutin brand could raise a lot of money for breast cancer research AND score huge publicity by producing pink-soled shoes that sell for a suggested price of $100.

I understand your trademark issues. If you were still interested in the idea, I would suggest that you create a separate organization (most likely a non-profit) in order to produce the shoes. That way you'd be free from restrictions that you've created by trademarking the red sole. Where there's a will, there is certainly a way.

Since publishing the idea on my blog, I've received an overwhelming amount of support for the idea. Note that I don't stand to make a dime from this idea, and that's not why I'm proposing this idea. I, along with a ton of other people, simply think that the idea could raise a lot of money for a great cause and could also be extremely positive in terms of brand awareness for Christian Louboutin's other shoes.

If you could hear the outpouring of support for this idea that I've heard, you wouldn't even think twice about going forward with this idea. There's really nothing to lose. Oprah would bring Christian Louboutin on her show to promote this idea. Breast cancer research and Christian Louboutin would do very well for themselves as a result of this idea. Thousands and thousands of women who have never been able to buy a pair of Christian Louboutins would purchase a pair to support a good cause. I'd love to buy my wife a pair and I'd be first in line to do so.

I understand if you do not want to change your mind, and I appreciate you reading my response. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Next Steps?
I have yet to hear back from the representative who contacted me.

I didn’t start this blog to start a crusade or push my ideas on companies, but I really think that Christian Louboutin could raise a lot of money for breast cancer research by producing pink-soled shoes. So I open it up to you – my readers. What should I do next? I’ve written Oprah several times to no avail. Many of you have done the same, to no avail. Should I contact breast cancer research foundations? Should I let it go? I’d appreciate your thoughts!

Add This to Your To-Do List
Let me know what you think. What should I do next? PS This is NOT an April Fool's joke... I swear!

There’s never a lack of ideas.