For the second March Madness in a row, Touchlab partnered with creative agency droga5 to remind America how easy it is to order from Pizza Hut. We were the mobile innovation partner on a very fun build with great partners. In year one, 64 pairs of these Bluetooth-enabled high-top sneakers were created by Dominic Chambrone, AKA “The Shoe Surgeon.”  Based on the great success of the first edition, year two will see the first opportunity for the public to purchase these revolutionary kicks, this time in limited edition “marinara sauce” Red and “pizza crust” Wheat.

Client Challenge

Pizza Hut needed a mobile innovation partner capable of meeting strict March Madness deadlines and with enough experience to introduce a radical form of mobile ordering.

Touchlab’s Solution

The Pie Tops app, completely separate from the brand’s main app, integrates the Bluetooth tech embedded in the shoes and allows consumers to order their favorite pizzas to their current location.

Our Doppl code sharing platform gave us the speed boost we needed to build two native apps (Android & iOS) in the almost impossible time of 3 weeks in year one. Close collaboration with the creatives & producers at droga5 and the mobile development leadership at Pizza Hut & Yum helped us accomplish quite a bit in a short period of time.

_“_We were pleasantly surprised to hear that Touchlab was launching their cross-platform development tool, which builds both versions in approximately the same time as developing just the Android version. We knew this was the way to go.” —Grace Wang, droga5

In year two we expanded functionality, added deeper integration with the brand’s APIs, deployed to the Google Play Store & Apple App Store, and encountered all the normal unexpected surprises that come with every software build. Thanks to great relationships with great partners and a strict adherence to our DRY mobile innovation methodology we delivered on-time and on-budget. Post-release iteration  and support is greatly simplified because of the Doppl-based standardization of the code and architecture.

Outcome

Delivered native Android and iOS apps on-time and on-budget using our Doppl code-sharing tech. Our DRY mobile innovation methodology improved collaboration among many teams helping to produce an innovative product that yielded great results for our client and partners.

Final Thoughts

Innovative solutions are easier to produce through great collaborations. Pizza Hut partnered with the great minds at droga5, who in turn sought out the talented Shoe Surgeon and were kind enough to bring us into the mix on the mobile side. We’re quite proud of what we’ve all produced together and of what our team’s inventions and processes brought to the table.

_“_It was very collaborative working with the Touchlab team. We were able to talk through user scenarios and come up with the best solution for all of the unknowns. It was reassuring to know we were working with such experienced developers. If any bugs came up, we were able to quickly resolve the issue.” —Tasha Cronin, droga5

Related Links And Videos

• Adweek
• AdAge

You can probably skip this section

Finally, of course, since you read all the way to the end you deserve a reward. So here are two, very innovative, incredibly professional, and almost offensively punny, shoe jokes.

• I bought shoes from a drug dealer, I don’t know what he laced them with but I’ve been tripping all day.
• If a crocodile makes shoes, what does a banana make? Slippers.