Behind the happy feet

A shoe fetish is something most women won’t deny, right from celebrities and actors to all other fashion conscious ladies.

Their room may not have space for other necessities, but they will surely make place for the many varieties of footwear that they possess. Shoes, in fact, hold a place of pride in the hearts of many fashionistas.

Their wardrobe, or rather personality, remains incomplete without some trendy and stylish pairs. Building upon this notion is an interesting and innovative start-up called ‘Tappozz Lifestyle Pvt Ltd’, co-founded by Debadyuti Roy Chowdhury and Rupali Naidu. The venture, started earlier this year, manufactures neutral base shoes that can be worn as multiple pairs with several different attachments of straps.

This, the duo says, provides greater utility by saving space and easing things while travelling. “It all started with a product labs pitch when I was studying at the Institute of Product Leadership in last year. Product labs is a concept to market practical module covered ideas as part of the Executive MBA programme. The idea was taken up by a few of us and we did extensive market research to understand if customisation, uniqueness and interchangeability are features that potential customers would like in different products. The first thing that struck my mind at this point was footwear,” shares Debadyuti.

He adds, “My sister has close to 70 pairs of footwear but last year she said that she didn’t have one to go with her sari for my wedding reception and I had to buy her an expensive pair. Also, I saw a few of my friends, who were travelling abroad, carry around 10 to 12 pairs of shoes for a trip of the same number of days. I thought that was really inconvenient. Both these scenarios spurred me to think on the lines of getting several looks from one pair of footwear.” While delving deeper into the idea, Debadyuti met Rupali, a designer, through common friends and they carried out an extensive research on it.

Their study revealed that women normally own 8.6 pairs of shoes and spend, on an average, Rs 1,500 per pair in a month but end up wearing only two to three pairs regularly. The data they collected showed great scope for fashionable footwear with customisation, convenience and interchangeability in a single sole. At that point, the duo co-founded Tappozz.

“We created a fashion brand under Tappozz called ‘Fuuchsia — Many Emotions, One Look’. It comprises fashion footwear wherein one can choose a neutral colour base and sole in every style (be it heels, stilettos, flats or wedges) as per their size and multiple colourful straps to go with it. This way women can easily flaunt great footwear to work, as casual wear or for a party and every other occasion,” says Rupali.

“Quality is of prime importance to us and we assure maximum diversity in terms of the look and design,” says Debadyuti. Right from college students to working women, anyone can change the look of their feet in a flash without difficulty.

They are also working on large-scale manufacturing of the products. “We have received quite a few orders and people have appreciated the concept and designs,” they say. The team soon plans to launch an app wherein customers can get greater creative control — they can design their own shoes, choose their straps, soles, base, insole, heel-size, design, colour and materials to come up with exactly what they want. One can check out the  merchandise on fuuchsia.com and place orders there.