Keeping with their trademark of reporting on a trend too late,yesterday’s New York Times reported on the increasing popularity of customized footwear.

After the success of design-your-own-shoe sites like Nike ID and Tupli, Steve Madden has joined the action, creating an option for customers to design their own fanciful footwear.

The article features a shoe-loving guy who made a pair of custom Steve Maddens for his girlfriend’s birthday online:

“Starting with her size, 9, he clicked through the site to select a style, heel and color, putting together a navy gingham open-toe pump with cork heel and sole that Mr. Klemm thought “would look good with everything from jeans to dresses.”

We’d be dubious if our boyfriend bought us a pair of Steve Madden shoes for our birthday, but even more: We find the idea of our boyfriend designing our shoes fairly horrifying - unless he sticks to Vans or Converse, or something very cool and easy.

But maybe if he customized a tote bag inspired by the Fendi canvas clutch, we’d like it a little better…

—ALISON COOL