Men’s shoes: now stylish, affordable, homegrown
A small, exclusive set of homegrown shoe labels is changing the way men are dressing up their feet, finds Dhruv Munjal
The great Christian Dior once said, “You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes.” It’s a fair assertion — shoes, arguably, make up the most vital component of any wardrobe, often more important than the clothes themselves. But what if, in spite of your exquisite taste and impeccable eye for detail, the right pair forever eludes you? What if nothing matches your sensibilities?
For many years, Abhishek Chopra and Sagar Sarin stared at the same problem before coming up with a rather extreme solution: founding their own shoe company. “What we realised was that there were a number of international brands selling decent products, but none of them had that ‘wow’ factor. We were desperate to change that,” says Chopra, a Jalandhar boy who once performed marketing roles for companies in India as well as the UK, the most recent of which was at Philip Morris.
The quest to find their kind of footwear saw the launch of Churchill & Company in December 2015, a homegrown shoe label focused on offering contemporary, versatile designs that promised to blur the lines between formal and informal. “For some years now, Indian men have been wanting more modern-looking shoes, but big companies have failed to recognise that. That’s where we come in,” says Chopra.
Churchill & Company is among a string of new brands trying to fill that “gap”. Nishant Kanodia, for instance, couldn’t find anything to his liking once he returned to India after living in London for 15 years. Inspired by the neat, minimalistic approach of Scandinavian shoemaking, Kanodia started Sko — Danish for shoe — in 2018. “The Scandinavian region is known for its clean yet colourful designs. I wanted to incorporate some of that aesthetic into my shoes, and I was pleasantly surprised by the kind of response I got,” says Kanodia.
That his family has been manufacturing shoes for the last 30 years helped. In order to fine-tune his skills, Kanodia took a course in shoe handcrafting at Carréducker, a prestigious bespoke shoemaking school in
London. Two years later, Sko is already an established online brand, selling a limited but elegant mix of sandals, loafers, mules and sneakers, all priced roughly between ~2,000 and ~9,000. Kanodia, 38, says that his objective is to bring out a 20- to 25-style collection every three months, something that has been made possible by Sko’s impressive in-house capabilities. Only the raw materials are sourced from Italy — everything else, from conceptualising the design to rolling out the finished article, happens in Mumbai. “Compared to other brands, this allows us to react quicker to changing trends,” says Kanodia.
In terms of what’s in vogue, it’s the younger generation leading the way. Once known to not put enough thought into their footwear, Indian men, thanks to greater exposure to international trends through social media, are now embracing stylish cuts, colours and designs. That’s perhaps a reason why the shoes in all these online stores are never bunched together, but carefully categorised as oxfords, brogues, derbies, monk straps, and so on. “Customers — particularly the younger lot — are prioritising design more than ever,” says Abhinandan Jain, co-founder at Monkstory, a Chennai-based label that only makes shoes from vegan, or synthetic, leather. “Youngsters today need a different pair for each occasion, and there was no brand offering good-looking, vegan footwear in the ~2,000 to ~3,000 range. So we saw a market there,” adds Jain. Jain launched Monkstory with school friend Nilesh Jain around four years ago. The two opted for the somewhat puzzling name because they saw all prospective customers as monks — people willing to abandon products made from animal hide and adopting cruelty-free fashion. “Some still view synthetic leather as ‘cheap’, which isn’t true. That’s why luxury and vegan fashion is a difficult balance in the Indian market,” feels Jain. “But at the same time, we are offering designs that were once only available at Gucci or Louis Vuitton.” A lower price point has been a major driver of success for these brands. Mikhil Mehra decided to venture into footwear with Pellé Santino — a part of The Dapper Man, an umbrella brand that also offers ties, cufflinks and bracelets — in early 2016 after realising that his shoe preferences were either too expensive or of shoddy build. With Pellé Santino, Mehra is making sure that buying shoes is an experience in itself — one that doesn’t hurt your pocket. Mehra’s is already a spectacular success story — Pellé Santino sells 1,500-2,000 pairs a month, with the likes of Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ayushmann Khurrana and Diljit Dosanjh endorsing its products.
The affordability, however, doesn’t necessarily mean inferior quality. At Churchill & Company, Chopra and Sarin claim that all their shoe designs come from the once-famous shoemaking town of Northampton in England, and then put through a manufacturing process that involves 252 different steps. They have even added a touch of modern technology to their craftsmanship — their trademarked Softherapy promises a softer foot strike around the midsole. The response has been encouraging: Churchill is currently shipping out 5,000 pairs every year.
Over at Pellé Santino, Mehra is set to introduce a “Goodyear welted” — shoes crafted with a costly technique that allows the soles to be replaced — collection in the next few weeks. “This is the finest form of craftsmanship, and we hope to make a real mark with this. Plus, we will surprise a lot of people with the price we’ll be offering the collection at,” says Mehra.
‘SCANDINAVIA IS KNOWN FOR ITS CLEAN YET COLOURFUL DESIGNS. I WANTED TO INCORPORATE SOME OF THAT AESTHETIC INTO MY SHOES’
NISHANT KANODIA Founder, Sko
‘SOON, WE’LL BE LAUNCHING A ‘GOODYEAR-WELTED’ COLLECTION, WHICH IS THE FINEST FORM OF SHOE CRAFTSMANSHIP’
MIKHIL MEHRA Founder, The Dapper Man-pellé Santino