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The Leather Laundry: My start up story!

By Mallika Sharma on 19 Comments / 6401 views



Ever wondered how to fix a colour rub-off on your expensive leather bag? Or how to fix a mud stain on your favourite suede shoe? I am sure you must have tried some of those expensive leather care products available on the market, but to no avail. If used without proper guidance, their application almost aways turns out to be counterproductive! Leather is an expensive item! It needs professional care from time to time! Everyone also thinks twice before discarding an expensive leather possession!Leather being a product of nature, has a specialised cleaning process designed to preserve its look & feel and certain unique characteristics. 

We here at The Leather Laundry offer professional cleaning, colouring, refinishing, deodorizing and repairing services for leather apparel, accessories and shoes! 

Armed with 30 years of industry experience in leather, we strive to provide fast, courteous & knowledgeable service in caring for your treasured leather possessions. 

We use modern equipment, solvents and finishes to revive and replenish your leather products, thus making them last longer!

We are not a traditional laundry service! The time and skill levels involved in restoring each leather item are very high! It is more like art restoration , where the technician has to work on several elements like stains, loose thread, dirt lining etc. Our services are analogous to that of a surgeon’s, both in terms of time expended and expertise involved!

The Leather Laundry is the brainchild of of me (Mallika Sharma) and my sister Neha Sharma. What was floated as a casual idea over evening coffee, soon started taking the shape and form of a full-blown venture. Followed by a lot of thorough research and meticulous planning, The Leather Laundry was thus conceived. Armed with post-graduate degrees in Finance and Economics from the UK, both of us swear by the venture, constantly striving to innovate and improvise.

I am also a certified professional leather care technician, who has trained with the globally reputed leather care company, LTT in the UK. LTT is one of the most coveted leather care brands in the world today. I learnt everything, from adopting the best practices to clean and care for all types of leather to colour mixing, repairing and leather restoration and recolouring. The Leather Laundry’s technicians work under my expert guidance and supervision.

Besides laundry services, we also offer customisation services (like embossing of names, initials, messages etc). We also offer made-to-order or bespoke leather apparel!

Motivation behind our start-up!

1. A genuine dearth of professional leather care experts in India

2. People with laundry requirements for their expensive leather products, directly approach the stores of these brands, who then have to send these products back to the workshops in Europe. This is cumbersome in terms of time and money both! 

3. The idea is not absolutely unique/novel. There are players who are dabbling with this concept in India already! But we stand apart because of an enviable experience of 2 decades in the leather industry. Besides having all the synergies at hand, we are constantly innovating and improvising! Nothing is unique, how you package and sell is what really matters!

How do we stand out?-The idea would never be to undercut competotirs by indulging in a price war of sorts!.We simply want to provide stellar quality service that is timely, courteous and extremely professional!

The concept is at a nascent stage in India, but considering the size of our burgeoning economy along with rising consumerism (due to escalating disposable incomes), the market will only grow!

The idea is to see The Leather Laundry grow as a brand and not a mere service provider! Money is not the motivation, building up on this concept, is!

What do you think? Will this idea tick with the Indian consumer?

info@theleatherlaundry.com

+919711255431, +911122795768

Free pick-up & Drop-off service in Delhi/NCR

We cater to all major Indian cities!

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19 Comments

  1. wow. this is so cool mallika!

    you are based in delhi, right? do mention that on the post.

    which cities do you cater to? i’m going through your site as we speak…. and will add more stuff!

    let me ping sushrut of hammer & mop asap – you two must connect!

  2. Thanks, Asha! 🙂

    This sounds amazing, Mallika, and I’m sure it’s a real need. Many of our customers ask us for leather expert referrals, there are very few people out there to take good care of good leather. I run Hammer and Mop, we’re a premium cleaning company based in Mumbai. Do let us know once you launch here. Best wishes.

  3. Hey Asha ,

    Just added the details!

    Thank you so much for getting me connected to Sushrut!

  4. Hey Sushrut!

    Thanks so much for the best wishes 🙂

    I have sent you an email on your official email id 🙂

    Talk to you!

  5. mallika,

    alok shared your post over fb and there are quite a few comments on it. do check – https://www.facebook.com/rodinhood

  7. This is interesting and definitely useful for expensive leather items for the price ranges quoted on your website. Curious, how big is the market for high-end leather products in India? Also curious how the response has been so far?

  8. Hey Rishi!

    Thanks for the positive feedback 🙂

    Well Rishi it depends, cities like Chandigarh, Delhi, Ludhiana Patiala, Bangalore and Mumbai could be big markets ,as disposable incomes are high, and people are willing to spend good money on the up-keep of their possessions. The concept is still at a very nascent stage in India and it may take a while for it to tick with potential consumers, however i am still positive that we will get good traction. (No doubt the market is very niche). The venture is very new! All our near and dear ones, friends and acquaintences are loving the concept and have also availed our services! I would eventually also want to diversify into leather furniture cleaning which i feel has massive potential for growth! But this would be in the later stages of our start-up story 🙂

  9. Makes sense. Best wishes! 🙂

    btw, I find the ‘How It Works’ section on your website a bit confusing. You might consider rethinking+rewording it.

  10. Amazing idea!!! 

    Keep us updated.

    My Best wishes. 

  11. Thank you so much Sunil 🙂

    Will keep you all posted!

  12. Hey Rishi,

    Sure thing! I will review it 🙂

    Thanks for the feedback 🙂 You are right, i will make it simpler!

  13. Hi Rodinhooders!,

    This is to let you know that my start-up story got featured one HerStory 🙂

    Check out the link : https://her.yourstory.com/mallika-sharma-0719

  14. Sorry – off topic, but how does one take care of leather shoes?

    For instance, is a shoe shaper (the one that goes in and stays there when you are not wearing it) help?

    Is polish even important?

    Thanks for rather selfish questions!

  15. Hey Alok,

    You can always ask 🙂

    See below-

    Allow leather to dry naturally, away from direct sunlight and direct heat sources (like heat vents) that can dry out the leather(making it crack). Use a high quality cream polish that matches the shoe colour, then buff to a shine. To remove dirt, wipe gently with a dry cloth to remove any dried-on dirt and dust.

    Always use shoetrees when storing leather shoes and boots, to keep them in shape! 🙂

    Hope this helps 🙂

  16. hey mallika, 

    how are things at your end?

  17. Hey Asha, I am doing well! Hope you are good too! 🙂 Could you connect me to interesting people i can tie up with, for my service, in order to reach out to Mumbai for my services?

  18. as you know mallika, trh is totally DIY – so the best way to go about it would be to go through our showcase section and see if you have any synergies with any ventures featured there. or use our search. it usually works!

    good luck!

  19. Hey Mallika – would you consider a marketing campaign on a natural type in domain, where all traffic is directed to your website.  The domain we have in mind for your business is:

    leather.in

    Looking forward to your feedback.

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