Merrell vs Teva...Who Does it Better?
As someone who’s always looking for her next adventure, any brand related to both travel and travel apparel is appealing to me. Right now, I want to focus on two similar but different brands: Merrell and Teva. For a little background, Merrell is a brand that manufactures everything from shoes to clothing for all different activities like backpacking, working out and just working. But, they seem to be the most known as a popular brand for backpacking shoes. I personally have a pair and absolutely love them for hiking and camping. Teva is a brand that only sells shoes but they also have everything from boots, to sandals, to flip flops. Again, they have one thing they’re mainly known for and it’s sandals. While I don’t have Tevas at the moment, I will be purchasing a pair in the future for hiking and traveling.
Since both of these brands have a high audience base of those who are travelers and those who love adventure, the content they create revolves around that. Mainly focusing on their Instagram, they both offer content highlighting their products being used in the outdoors. Below are two examples, one from each page. When it comes to that specific type of content, they are still different in their own ways so you can easily distinct them. While both pages both repost from their customers and post their own content, it’s all different from each other, yet I’m drawn to both of them. Both of the photos below are reposts on their pages which both give a good insight into the kind of content they are all about.
Credit: @joshletchworth)
Credit: @_child.of.the.wild_
Now onto another kind of content, Youtube videos. My favorite kind of content videos are ones that don’t necessarily make me want to buy a specific product, but it makes me want to go on an adventure or do a certain thing that would THEN make me want to buy that product. Merrell and Teva both do this extremely well.
I want to focus on each channel as an individual and then I’ll wrap around and tie them together. First, let’s start with Teva. Teva has a GREAT Youtube channel. It has everything from lookbooks, to adventures, to tips, to interviews and so forth. They aren’t just a shoe brand channel, they are an adventure lifestyle channel. I could watch their videos all day. One of my favorites is posted below. It’s lifestyle, it’s adventure and it throws in how Tevas get you through it all. And the best thing, it’s entertaining. It’s compelling. THAT is what content needs to be! If it’s not compelling and valuable, just throw it out. Here’s one of my favorite videos from their channel. It’s very lifestyle based while still implementing the adventure that their brand represents. It focuses on an artist and how he goes around finding objects to turn them into art while wearing his Tevas.
Next is Merrell. While also an adventure based brand, they manufacture both clothing and shoes. They are also focused on outdoor adventures and backpacking and using your Merrell products to explore the world. Their Youtube videos are all about the great outdoors and include everything from just exercising to backpacking. Their videos feature tips, how tos, new things with Merrell and straight up adventures. Their videos have something for everybody and show the variety of people and activities that can take advantage of Merrell products. I personally use my Merrell shoes for backpacking and hiking so of course, those types of videos would appeal the most to me. Here’s one of my favorites posted below. It really focuses on being connected to nature and I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to put my Merrell hiking boots on and explore. While it focuses more on the brand and the shoe, it’s amazing content and it’s captivating to someone like me who essentially is their main type of audience.
So, who does it better? In the end, that was the point of this post. And no, “better” does not imply who has the most followers or success, but who does it better according to me? What is most compelling, what makes me want to go buy their product without even thinking about it? Drum roll please….MERRELL! While I may be slightly biased because I love my Merrell shoes, I absolutely love their content. Don’t get me wrong, Teva is wonderful too, but Merrell just speaks to me more, especially their Youtube. Their content on their Instagram is what I just absolutely love to see and it has me itching to book my next adventure and THAT is success to me.
