Fuego

Gliding onto the world stage in 2019, Fuego is ushering in a new era of dance footwear with its uniquely engineered sneakers.

Founded by Wharton MBA and dance enthusiast, Kevin Weschler, Fuego dance sneakers came into being as a result of Kevin’s desire to replace antiquated dance shoes with something that was less formal and could be taken directly from the street to the dance floor.

While many of today’s dancers already opt for street shoes instead of their more traditional counterparts, this footwear is not ideal for dancing as the grippy soles can make pivots and turns challenging, potentially causing joint damage or injury.

Driven by a fire to blend the performance of traditional dance shoes with the fashion and comfort of modern sneakers, Fuego was born. Within months of launching the company’s patented dance sneakers, Fuego shoes waltzed their way into numerous countries, achieved endorsements from a variety of professional dancers, and worked their way onto thousands of dance floors across the world.

This is all, in part, thanks to Fuego’s revolutionary design. As Fuego’s Director of Marketing Leah Lapic confidently asserts, “We sell the world’s best dance sneakers.”

Even with such bold beginnings, Fuego knew that there was still considerable room for growth.

Finding the Right Spark

With Fuego bringing an entirely new dance footwear category into existence – the dance sneaker – educating consumers was a primary goal. However, working with a small and scrappy team meant that Fuego would need a smart marketing strategy, paired with a world-class platform to support the company’s efforts.

Understanding that dance is a tight-knit market when word-of-mouth is king, Fuego opted to drive brand awareness and generate sales by leveraging the voice of influencers while simultaneously transforming existing customers into ambassadors.

Knowing that affiliate marketing was the ideal way to reach the company’s target audience, Fuego enlisted the help of Refersion’s affiliate marketing platform to alleviate the burden of managing such a program manually and allow them to scale their efforts much more efficiently and effectively.

Fueling Fuego’s Fire

With Refersion’s technology backing the brand, Fuego went to work creating an ambassador program which would incentivize those who have purchased from Fuego in the past to educate others and pull them into the fray. These ambassadors, which the company calls “Fuego Fam,” span the breadth of dance styles and networks. From swing to salsa, hip-hop to ballroom, dance fitness and beyond, the Fuego Fam exists across the dance spectrum, which is partly why the Fuego affiliate program has been such a blazing success.

Through Fuego’s affiliate marketing program, the company is able to recruit average buyers and build strategic partnerships with influencers to promote its dance sneakers to friends, family and followers, thus helping spread the word about Fuego like wildfire.

Additionally, through Refersion’s platform, Fuego can quickly and easily onboard ambassadors, influencers and affiliates, track their performance, and get them paid promptly, thus helping to ensure that they will continue to sing the praises of Fuego’s incredible design.

A Small Spark to a Mighty Flame

Thanks to the combination of Refersion’s platform, Fuego’s revolutionary design, and the company’s fiercely passionate fans, Fuego now has an exponentially expanding network of affiliates, ambassadors, and influencers who adore the product.

This has translated into considerable results for Fuego. Leah Lapic, the company’s Director of Marketing, summed it up this way:

“With a very lean team, Refersion’s automation has been invaluable to helping us scale our business. Being able to scale our ambassador program has meant that we’ve been able to connect and build relationships with dancers around the world. That, in turn, has helped us create a truly global #FuegoFam and we’re now worn in over 100 countries!”

Leah Lapic, Director of Marketing

In the three years that Fuego has employed Refersion’s platform, the company has:

• Achieved a 900% increase in annual revenue
• Driven 4,000 affiliate-driven conversions to date
• Increased their network to 1200+ new active affiliates

Looking at the growth trajectory of Fuego’s ambassador program and the company overall, it would appear that this brand is poised to leave a lasting impression on the dance footwear industry.