Time to take a bow

Happy feet

The City has no dearth of people who want to try their hands on different kinds of crafts. It is this urge that became an impetus for two IT professionals, Namitha Srinivas and Ashwini Bhat, to start ‘Goody2shoes’. This four-month-old startup crafts quirky footwear that is becoming quite a rage.

“I was always fussy about footwear as I never found the right kind of shoes for myself. That is when I started crafting my own shoes and my sister called me ‘Ms Goody Two Shoes’. What started off as a self-beautification interest resulted in this venture,” explains Namitha. She and her colleague Ashwini became business partners and started the venture after sourcing shoes from Surat and Jaipur, which they then customised. Mirrors, buttons, ribbons, bows...everything quirky became a part of their workspace and they stuck them all together meticulously to give the humble shoes an elegant look.

Bellies with jewelled embellishments, heels with mirror work, hand-painted loafers and Converse shoes with miniature decorations — they have a wide range of footwear that makes the feet smile. “We even do customisation as per the client’s requirements,” she says.

With the overwhelming response received for their collection through various exhibitions around the City, they now hold pride in providing their own designs to the shoe manufacturers, which is then completed with a quirky handcrafted customisation. “The positive feedback has led us a step forward and we are designing our own shoe patterns too,” she explains.

What makes the shoes quirkier is that they do not design the pair similarly. She explains, “There is a difference in the left and right shoe. We believe that the beauty of our shoes lies in the difference and hence we design contrast pairs and not similar ones.”

Lovers of traditional embellishments, they are also looking forward to expanding their venture by sourcing bags from the traditional craftsmen of Surat and Jaipur. Namitha adds, “During my trip to Jaipur, I was fascinated by the bags there that had rich mirror work. We now look forward to getting these traditional bags into the City.”