A woman-led start-up aims to disrupt the men's footwear market
Delhi-based Attitudist, a D2C brand launched during the Covid period in July 2020, makes footwear – high-heel shoes, boots, lace-up shoes, slip-on, slippers, and sandals -- for men and claims that its products are vegan, cruelty-free, sustainable, and handcrafted
- Jul 9, 2023,
- Updated Jul 9, 2023 3:02 PM IST
Handcrafted. Vegan. Cruelty-free. Sustainability. Women empowerment. Made in India
These are some of the buzzwords that attract a lot of traction in the current era and start-ups are capitalising on these trends on the back of innovation and disruption.
While foods – healthy & organic kind of stuff -- is one huge category within which sub-categories like artisanal and vegan are fast gaining popularity, one start-up has taken the concept a step further, literally as well.
Delhi-based Attitudist, a D2C brand launched during the Covid period in July 2020, makes footwear – high-heel shoes, boots, lace-up shoes, slip-on, slippers, and sandals -- for men and claims that its products are vegan, cruelty-free, sustainable, and handcrafted even as the offerings are all in the affordable range.
A quick glance through its product catalogue on its website shows that shoes are available from ₹999 onwards.
“We started this brand with a cause. During the Covid period, we got to know through our friend that scattered small-scale offline artisans are not getting any business,” says Haritima Mishra, the 21-year-old founder of the start-up.
“After listening to their pain points, we came up with a solution for artisans by providing them an online sales channel without any hassle of online marketplace issues like return, marketing, inventory blocking, and also provide expensive looking design at the lowest price possible. So, it is a win-win situation,” adds Mishra.
Mishra may well just be 21 but has ensured that her venture not only makes sustainable footwear but also does its bit towards women empowerment – around 90 per cent of the staffers are women with the start-up boasting a staff strength of around 70 to 100.
Interestingly, the start-up works with small scattered handcrafted manufacturers across the country while selling its brand with a tagline – ‘Walk with Attitude’.
While selling footwear through its website is the start-up’s only source of revenue, the last fiscal saw the venture clocking revenues totalling ₹25 crore – a 4x growth when compared to the previous fiscal.
More importantly, it’s a profitable start-up with a current run rate of ₹3 crore per month but the venture is more focused on the cause than the financials.
“Our focus is always on social cause and its impact on society. Numbers are never our objective as we focus on people and change. Last year though our revenue was ₹25 crore,” says Mishra.
“We are however proud to say that our artisans contributed to our GST, as small-scale artisans typically work on ‘kacha bill’ but we educated them to make GST invoices and our artisans paid ₹1.44 crore GST last year,” she adds.
This assumes significance as industry reports pegged the size of the Indian footwear market at $13.49 billion in 2021 while estimating the revenue to grow at a CAGR of 12.83 per cent between 2022 and 2027 to reach nearly $27.84 billion.
Incidentally, the bootstrapped start-up aims to become the country’s first handcrafted vegan men's footwear brand worth ₹1,000 crores while promoting Indian manufacturing at a global level.
“We are first competing to be India’s leading footwear brand and then we will focus on the global market. The ultimate goal is to empower our Indian economy and Indian small-scale artisans,” says Mishra while adding that they are aiming to build a ₹100 crore brand by 2025.
Handcrafted. Vegan. Cruelty-free. Sustainability. Women empowerment. Made in India
These are some of the buzzwords that attract a lot of traction in the current era and start-ups are capitalising on these trends on the back of innovation and disruption.
While foods – healthy & organic kind of stuff -- is one huge category within which sub-categories like artisanal and vegan are fast gaining popularity, one start-up has taken the concept a step further, literally as well.
Delhi-based Attitudist, a D2C brand launched during the Covid period in July 2020, makes footwear – high-heel shoes, boots, lace-up shoes, slip-on, slippers, and sandals -- for men and claims that its products are vegan, cruelty-free, sustainable, and handcrafted even as the offerings are all in the affordable range.
A quick glance through its product catalogue on its website shows that shoes are available from ₹999 onwards.
“We started this brand with a cause. During the Covid period, we got to know through our friend that scattered small-scale offline artisans are not getting any business,” says Haritima Mishra, the 21-year-old founder of the start-up.
“After listening to their pain points, we came up with a solution for artisans by providing them an online sales channel without any hassle of online marketplace issues like return, marketing, inventory blocking, and also provide expensive looking design at the lowest price possible. So, it is a win-win situation,” adds Mishra.
Mishra may well just be 21 but has ensured that her venture not only makes sustainable footwear but also does its bit towards women empowerment – around 90 per cent of the staffers are women with the start-up boasting a staff strength of around 70 to 100.
Interestingly, the start-up works with small scattered handcrafted manufacturers across the country while selling its brand with a tagline – ‘Walk with Attitude’.
While selling footwear through its website is the start-up’s only source of revenue, the last fiscal saw the venture clocking revenues totalling ₹25 crore – a 4x growth when compared to the previous fiscal.
More importantly, it’s a profitable start-up with a current run rate of ₹3 crore per month but the venture is more focused on the cause than the financials.
“Our focus is always on social cause and its impact on society. Numbers are never our objective as we focus on people and change. Last year though our revenue was ₹25 crore,” says Mishra.
“We are however proud to say that our artisans contributed to our GST, as small-scale artisans typically work on ‘kacha bill’ but we educated them to make GST invoices and our artisans paid ₹1.44 crore GST last year,” she adds.
This assumes significance as industry reports pegged the size of the Indian footwear market at $13.49 billion in 2021 while estimating the revenue to grow at a CAGR of 12.83 per cent between 2022 and 2027 to reach nearly $27.84 billion.
Incidentally, the bootstrapped start-up aims to become the country’s first handcrafted vegan men's footwear brand worth ₹1,000 crores while promoting Indian manufacturing at a global level.
“We are first competing to be India’s leading footwear brand and then we will focus on the global market. The ultimate goal is to empower our Indian economy and Indian small-scale artisans,” says Mishra while adding that they are aiming to build a ₹100 crore brand by 2025.