Every year, worldwide, about 350 million pairs of shoes are discarded while 2 billion new pairs are produced. There are no specific numbers for Mumbai, but one could estimate that shoes numbering in the thousands find their way every year to hawkers, garbage collectors and ultimately, to the city’s landfills where they may eventually be burnt. Or they could simply stay there, degrading ever so slowly (soles are typically made from rubber, polyurethane and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), materials which don’t degrade for hundreds of years).
Contrast these numbers with the millions of people in India, and around the world, who don’t have proper footwear and you have a unique problem.
It’s one that entrepreneurs Shriyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami sought to tackle when they founded Greensole, a company that recycles and repurposes old and discarded shoes into comfortable, eco-friendly footwear and distributes it to those who need it most.
The two became friends back in 2012, when they were both practicing for marathons. Mr. Bhandari, who is from Udaipur and went to Mayo school in Ajmer, was just starting a Bachelor’s degree in management at Jaihind College. Mr. Dhami comes from a poor family from Uttarakhand, and has no formal education; he had come to Mumbai years earlier to try and be an actor, ending up as a runner instead.
Off the blocks
The business partnership stemmed from the running too, when they spoke about how they both discarded five or six pairs of running shoes each year. “It was Ramesh who first got the idea of using an old shoe for making a slipper by just keeping the sole and refashioning the upper,” Mr Bhandari explains. “I figured out the potential of the concept and from there we just took if forward as a small idea with potential.”
Their fledgling company — and their idea — got its first validation when they got selected as one of the top 30 innovators at an exhibition at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad, in 2014. In fact, most of their initial investment of Rs. 20 lakh came through wins at competitions: like the Technology and Sustainability Award at Eureka, a competition in IIT Bombay, and second place at another competition, R-Idea National B-plan.
In April 2014, they set about doing some proper research on shoe manufacturing and it led them to the Thakkar Bappa Colony in Chembur, a place famous for its markets selling locally-made shoes. “There are about two lakh people in this colony,” Mr. Bhandari explains, “and most are involved in producing shoes. So we took their help and produced a couple of prototypes.” They then set up a small production unit just outside Thakkar Bappa and, in 2015, started operations.
Accelerating
Greensole has a hybrid business model.
The company distributes their refurbished footwear to economically disadvantaged people in far-off villages; they learn about where their goods are most needed from NGOs like Goonj and Pratham. Greensole had already distributed over 25,000 pairs of sandals and slippers in villages in Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP, and Telangana. They fund this from a tie-ups with the corporate CSR efforts of companies like Axis Bank, Tata Power and L&T. “We have about 25 partners like this,” Mr. Bhandari says. “The cost of refurbishing and donating one footwear is about Rs. 200, so they sponsor that. Plus they undertake a collection drive among their employees to provide us with the raw materials: discarded shoes.” In addition now, he says, thousands of old shoes also come in from the collection centres they have set up around Mumbai as well as from individuals couriering them to their office.
Eventually, they want to set up workshops in various locations that can teach locals how to recycling and produce the footwear they make and give them employment.
In for the long run
But they do not plan to rely solely on corporate giving. Step two, Mr. Bhandari says, is for the company to generate its own profits so they can fund the distribution themselves. So they have now entered the retail space through e-commerce. To scale up manufacturing and design, last year Greensole tied up with Ram Exports, one of the largest footwear exporters in India, which makes shoes for brands like Aldo, H&M and Kenneth Cole.
For their retail offering, they do not use the donated shoes (those are meant only for redistribution to the needy). Mr. Bhandari says, “We purchase old sports shoes from recyclers and other third-party dealers in the city. We use the sole and, if we can, the upper parts of the shoes are also used in making components like the strap.”
Mr. Bhandari, who currently handles the front-end business and retail operations (Mr. Dhami streamlines their distribution network across various villages), says “We want to sell these as eco-friendly shoes because, by buying these, users can ensure the new shoe isn’t produced from scratch. According to research from MIT, manufacturing a pair of shoes involves assembling up to 65 different parts in 360 steps, which generates 30 pounds (13.6 kgs) of emissions, equivalent to leaving a 100-watt bulb burning for a week.” Buying Greensole footwear, he says, should make customers feel good about themselves.
The end-product is a range of slippers and flip-flops in vibrant colours, priced competitively — between Rs. 800 and Rs. 1500 — and, the partners hope they will appeal not just to those who’d like to support a good cause.
The partners say every month brings the promise of a new partnership or collaboration, and the business is evolving. There are plans, to tie up with the likes of &M and Zara to retail Greensole in their stores, and they’re also looking at tie-ups with athletic shoe brands. They’re also trying to get celebrities to donate their old shoes or wear the refurbished footwear to build awareness. They’re building a brand, after all, and the visibility and name recognition is crucial.
