Sujata Sachdeva, India’s footwear industry is growing at a compound annual growth rate of about 15 percent and a total market share of Rs 26,300 crores, reveals a study by industry body Assocham and consulting firms Technopak and Tecnova India. Emergence of customised and designer options: People earlier visited cobbler shops to get a simple pair of customised leather footwear cut to their size. Today, the same concept has emerged in a modern avatar with brands and designers creating styles on a ‘made to order’ basis. With an annual production of nearly 300 crores footwear, the industry is at a positive turn in the country. Fashion savvy consumer seeks branded footwear in more styles and variation in footwear design, which is pushing brands to invest in offering 'bespoke footwear' according to the consumer needs. Footwear designer Aprajita Toor, for instance, who started working four years back with fashion store Mogra in Bengaluru, incorporated old techniques of footwear and made them with different styles at her Chembur factory, giving them an international flavour. At the Amazon India Couture Week in New Delhi, acclaimed designer Sabyasachi collaborated with the noted French footwear designer Christian Louboutin, whose signature red heels added glamour to the ramp, also indicating importance of footwear in today’s fashion world. Last year, designer Shweta Bathija launched a footwear line called Baha for online customers, with a range customised to suit wearer’s attire. Even other Indian designers like Manish Arora, Namrata Joshipura or Kallol Dutta, introduced trendy footwear to match their collections on the ramp, last year. While Manish Arora’s Autumn/Winter collection at Paris Fashion Week had sports shoes in different silhouettes, fashion fabrics and high-platform heels, Joshipura's Spring/Summer collection at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week 2014 flaunted Adidas originals designed differently. For Kallol Dutta's show, models in dresses, tunics and saris flaunted blood-red sneakers. Keen attention to sizing issues: While footwear size till number 10 is easy to find, getting a size bigger than that was difficult some time back but now brands are focusing on catering to the needs of such customers. Bata, for instance, is test-marketing a pilot project to ensure that people with large and hard-to-fit feet will get a wide choice in shoe styles. Along with Bata, other brands like Puma, Metro, Adidas and Arvind are now focusing this exclusive customer base demanding bigger sizes. As the market gets competitive with several global and domestic footwear labels vying for a pie of the market, the effort not to lose a single customer for any reason is becoming very important. For instance, Japanese brand Asics, which has just entered the Indian market with its first store in Delhi and is offering running shoes with extra width variants (2E and 4E). With India's geographical regions too witnessing changes in foot sizes unlike in the past when average foot size - 9-10 was dominant in Delhi and Mumbai, 8-9 in south India and 7-8 in Kolkata, the footwear companies are maintaining a good mix of sizes to cater to the changing dynamics. Also maintaining a large inventory was a constraint earlier due to smaller store sizes, with advent of ecommerce and omni-channel model, brands are able to showcase their entire range online while letting the customer try and pick the product from their physical stores.Source: https://fashionunited.in/
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