The idea of user-generated fashion puts ‘trends’ for the first time into users’ hands allowing them to dictate styles to the fashion industry. Chicago-based company Threadless has found success with its user-generated t-shirts and it seems the phenomenon has caught the eye of the sneaker geeks at RYZ too.

At RYZ, anyone can submit their shoe designs by choosing a template, designing their shoe in Photoshop, uploading their designs to their RYZ workspace, and submitting it.

RYZ puts all shoes to public vote, producing only the most popular designs with  all sales of produced shoes being shared with the designer who receives a $500 for being chosen as well as a $1 royalty on every shoe sold.

“The corporate design team is limited by its walls,” Ryz founder Rob Langstaf, a former Adidas America president said in a Seattle Times article here, “The corporation shouldn’t be dictating what the consumer wears. The consumers should.”

The site adds a new shoe template each month creating a contest out of the new design. The site currently has thousands of creative entries that can be voted on from past contests, current contests, and entries that are just made for fun.

Although the site has an uncanny similarity to Threadless the idea is still brilliant and like Threadless, the company is sure to find similar success (if it has not found it already).