New shoe shopping experience

A woman with good shoes is never ugly’, said Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel, a French fashion designer.

However, finding that ‘good’ piece of footwear which also suits her taste can be a tedious job. But Oceedee, a footwear brand founded by Neha Kumthekar and Anshul Sood, lets you design that perfect and exclusive pair of shoes online at their 3D shoe designing studio.

“Oceedee is an apt fit in today’s time where most women know what they want but struggle to find the right pair. It provides an easy design experience where customers can customise their shoe style, texture, colour, heel and size,” says Kumthekar.

The brand specialises in flats, heels, wedges, sandals, boots, brogues and offers a ‘design on demand’ service that enables customers to book an appointment for a one-on-one session with their team of experts to discuss the designs and personally customise their footwear down to the last detail.

All their shoes are handmade by craftsmen from Delhi and it takes two to four weeks for the design to take shape of a shoe and get delivered right at your doorstep. Prices range between Rs 3,000 to 7,000, depending on the designs.

It was Kumthekar’s struggle to get the right pair of shoes that led to the conceptualisation of Oceedee. “My real struggle began when I couldn’t find the perfect shoe for my graduation ceremony. Either it was the colour or the heel type or the size, something wasn’t right. During my search, I met Anshul who had identified the similar market gap in the footwear segment for women in India as a part of his MBA project. It was then we set out to create a unique shoe shopping experience and conceptualised a footwear brand that allows women to customise their own shoes and never compromise on fashion again.”

However, Kumthekar notes that getting the right material and skilled craftsmen for her brand has been a difficult job. She notes, “Being in a customised footwear business, sourcing leather in smaller quantities becomes a major bottleneck. Most of the leather dealers sell in wholesale quantities, which do not suit our need as we have to stock smaller quantities of every colour and texture in a variety of leather types.”

She adds, “Getting experienced and skilled craftsmen is also a challenge. People who can work with footwear and understand the entire process of shoe making are not easy to find.”

Launched in January this year, they claim to have sold about 45 to 50 pairs in Delhi and Mumbai. They are open to business through their website (www.oceedee.com ).