Hello Rodinhooders!!
Have you ever wondered why Lord Ganesha doesn’t wear any footwear? I mean, seriously, have you ever seen him wearing any footwear in any of the pictures? That’s probably because he didn’t get his size! Or his choice of footwear.:)
My name is Manish Bhagwani and I am building a Startup on custom made footwear. I left my job at Wipro couple of years back where I worked in manufacturing domain. During my studies at IIT Kharagpur all my internships were in manufacturing domain, because that’s where I want to make change.
My core passion is Lean Manufacturing, one piece Manufacturing and supply chain optimization. I love this Rodinhood community and generally I come down from Agra to Delhi for Rodinhood events. Simply put I feel blessed to be in.
So, let me give you a little background. I have been working on this idea for last 2.5 years. Although, I had some knowledge of the footwear and leather industry when I began, I was still missing out on the practical, on the job know how of the business. In last two years, I have grown my brand Walker Styleways from scratch to a level where I can safely say, that the consumers like my product.
But, currently I am doing handmade leather footwear in standard sizes. I am not doing Custom Fit range, neither am I making in different sizes. I am just making shoes of the standard sizes and am selling them on various platforms. The objective was to understand how does one sell online? And what are the various steps I will have to keep in mind while manufacturing footwear and what could be the various challenges. Now that I have completed my homework, I need help from all my fellow rodinhooders.
Please take out 2 minutes of your time and fill this survey. This survey will help us gauge the consumer point of view. We might make a best product, but if a consumer doesn’t like it, it’s useless. So please help me with this survey and you might win a pair of custom fit, handmade leather shoe for yourself! 
Idea: To make handmade, custom fit shoes on order using one piece manufacturing and lean manufacturing techniques.
Art / Technology: Today, almost all the big manufacturing companies are adopting this one piece manufacturing techniques so as to reduce Supply Chain and inventory cost. We will use the same technique to make custom fit leather shoes for consumers.
Science / Research: Research indicates, that 60% * of the population doesn’t have standard feet sizes. There could be much kind of uniqueness to ones feet, like Wide feet, high arc and different feet sizes for both feet. Shoe companies save their costs by making standard sizes and we adjust our feet somehow in standard sizes.
USP: Pure leather, handmade shoe, which is just made to order for you. Plus it gives us an opportunity to play around with design a bit on basis customer inputs. In fact, we can even make different sizes for different feet. i.e. size 7 for Left foot and 8 for right foot.
Competition: There’s no specific company doing made to order shoes 
on scale except a few studios offline. Internationally there are a few companies working on the similar principal. Like poppy barley and a major one called “Shoes of Prey” . They have recently raised $5.5 Million series A funding.
Ask: Kindly fill this survey form and help us reach out to as many people as we can. This will help us take this idea forward. Also, below are the links for measuring guide and the current website. If you have any feedback on that as well, please feel free to share.
For any feedback / discussions, I can be reached at manish@walkerstyleways.com or 9972921908
asha chaudhry
hey manish,
looks and sounds awesome. do you have a twitter handle? it would really help while tweeting!!
Manish Bhagwani
Hi Asha Ji,
Thank you!! yes just created 🙂 @WalkerStyleways
Rgds,
Manish
Kamal Kalra
Hey Manish, Thanks for the guide , I did try to measure my feet and apparently, I got to know today that my left foot is smaller than my right one 🙂
Form filled !
Manish Bhagwani
Hi Kamal,
Glad you came to know your feet measurements. Yeah!! This is quite common having one feet smaller than the other, So if you generally get shoes depending on your smaller feet than your right foot (bigger one) must have felt little tensed in a full day wear. And if you get the shoes depending on bigger feet size than your left foot arch and fingers must be putting extra effort to hold the shoes while walking. though this mechanism can be quite unnoticeable if difference is not much.
Thank you so much for filling out survey!!
P.S : I know this because my right foot is wider and smaller than left foot and problem becomes apparent after full day wear.
Sridhar Rajendran
Hey Manish,
I remember reading another post last week about Dnuvo who are into custom footwear too; I guess customization is the next wave. I filled up your survey, hope it helps. The website looks nice. Just one suggestion, the pricing seems to be bit tad high. Especially for suede leather shoes, even good one usually don’t cost more than 3k.
Normally I spend up to 3k on a new shoe. Since I have flat foot, I take an insole with me while I go shoe shopping. It is a frustrating experience albeit necessary or I end up burning a lot of money. The formal shoes listed on your site cost upwards of 6k. While I do appreciate the concept of custom made shoes, I am just wondering if that price is justifiable. My insole costs me Rs.1000 and I keep changing it across the shoe I wish to wear. So my total cost would be max 4k. Perhaps you guys could do some research on what is the average amount a customer spends for a good shoe.
Good luck!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Is there a deeper tan color available? The maroon tan?
Manish Bhagwani
Hi Alok,
Yes we have made 10 designs in dark Tan. they are gone for professional shoot. Will update you.
for maroon Tan, can you show me some expectations?
Regards,
Manish
Manish Bhagwani
Hi Sridhar,
First of all, many thanks to you for taking out time and for giving us such a elaborated feedback.
costing is an ongoing survey research part, however a good ready made shoe can be priced 3-4k, but the premium for customization, then remake guarantee – reverse logistics, forwards logistics and shoe correction those components need to be well taken care of.
I understand the frustration consumer go through in case of flat feet. So I will call you and understand more on it and I would love to make custom made pair for you, that shoe will already have cavity for your flat feet insole, in this way you don’t have to buy 1 size higher to accommodate flat feet insole.
Regards
Manish
Sridhar Rajendran
Ok, the remake guarantee must add up to the cost.
Ashish Sethiya
What an awesome name – Walker Styleways – fabulousooo
Just saw your website Manish, I think the shoe designs are awesome. I have also filled the survey.
One thing I would like to say is that I guess a lot of poeple would perhaps suggest you to reduce the prices.
My sense is firstly they are anyway not your customers because no matter what you do, they will always be costlier than standard shoes. I think customization, persoanlization is mostly about vanity than utility per se and reducing the price may not help your brand.
If your proposition is something else than that’s a diffrent thing. But I will assume it’s primarily vanity. As even though shoes are physically distant from heart but are emotionally very close 🙂
Anyway I think if you keep some shoes which priced at let’s say 25000 (let’s call them decoy – using the term from the book by Dan Ariely called Predictably Irrational) or may be even more and than most of the other shoes in the catalog costing what they are currently, the visitors on your website will tend to compare them with 25000 Rupee shoes. It’s no more relatively expensive.
Think about it and do let me know if you think it is one of those MBA type gyan you get from MBAs 😉
Thanks
Ashish
asha chaudhry
happy b’day manish! how are things progressing at walker styleways?!
would love to hear an update from you!
Manish Bhagwani
Hi Asha Ji,
wow!! Thank you thank you. 🙂
Things are actually progressive for walker styleways. we are getting custom made orders organically. many of them are very challenging too. 🙂 but so far no return, all customer happy..
My work around these days is to build content about us and have good SEO done till wedding season starts.
Best Regards,
Manish