The Indian King Of Sustainable Sneakers The company plans to continue intensive research and product development toward exploring diverse natural and sustainable materials

The sneaker culture worldwide has always been talked about. India arrived late to the sneaker game. However, the sneaker culture and footwear industry are taking huge strides in India. According to a Stratview Research, the Asia-Pacific region will be foreseeing the most significant and fastest-growing sustainable footwear market by 2025, with China and India being the major growth propellers.

Neeman's was incepted in 2018 with an aim to disrupt the Indian footwear industry by becoming the country's first brand that uses natural, renewable, recycled, and biodegradable fibres in its shoes. The company was formed when two brothers, Amar Preet Singh and Taran Chhabra planned a voyage to Spain and discovered a gap in the industry of finding one pair of shoes that would suffice their various requirements during the trip. Both of them decided to make wear anywhere and adding an eco-friendly aspect to the shoes.

"When we entered the footwear segment, the overall market was $10.6 billion in 2019, but growth was predicted, and it was expected to reach $15.5 billion by 2022. Moreover, India was predicted to grow 8 folds by 2030, as per Invest India report. Today, 47 percent of the total population is connected to the web and hence, for us, building a digital-first brand was a definite, so our first stop was launching via our website. Moreover, e-commerce penetrated, and people adopted more to this convenient shopping means. This showcased the market was considerable with the Direct to Consumer business model," said Amar Preet Singh, co-founder and COO, Neeman's.

Having started a D2C brand, the company and the founders had to go through obstacles. According to Amar, the online footwear segment is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive with offline players entering the domain which has made customer acquisition, scaling up, quality control and maintaining individuality essential. The company has forayed into a range of products and attained tremendous growth, expanding 20 times since the pandemic.

The company plans to continue intensive research and product development toward exploring diverse natural and sustainable materials. The company is also looking to expand categories and reinforce commitment to the planet by being a sustainability champion. Being a Made in India brand, the entire sourcing to manufacturing process is in various cities within the country. The company has been working with designated companies that keep quality as its priority. Every piece of footwear is checked and re-checked for the colour, stitch, steam to properties such as anti-skid and sturdy.

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