Footsy.in – Let your feet flirt with colours!

We always tend to concentrate on the right kind of footwear leaving the humble socks way behind.

I fondly remember shopping at my favourite Sarojini Nagar Market in Delhi where I would pick up some of the coolest pairs of socks that complimented my shoes during winters.

Almost everyone who noticed my socks admired how cute the pink strawberries, Snoopy, the fluffy sheep looked and couldn’t help but ask where I picked them up from!

But alas, not everyone could visit Sarojini Nagar from Mumbai. I believe you can pick up some trendy socks from the Elco Market area in Bandra in Mumbai, but if you don’t get the time to visit, here’s an alternative – drop by at Footsy.in right away and place your order!

Footsy is one such cool place where you can pick up a wide range of socks for men, women and children which includes leggings, tights, ‘snugglers’, crochet shoes, shoe laces, leg warmers and other accessories.

The Lifestyle Portal chatted with the founders Pooja Mehta and Seema Seth about their inspiration and ideas behind launching Footsy.

Meet the proud founders of Footsy – 28-year-old Pooja a Graduate in Design Management from Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA), while 32-year-old Seema a Graduate in Communication Design from Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore.

The girls teamed up and put their minds, heart and ‘feet’ together to create one of the funkiest socks brand called Footsy in February 2012.

How did it all begin?

It all started when Seema was pursuing her degree in design when her fetish for socks was born. In an environment where everyone took to dressing up unconventionally, Seema’s intentional mismatched socks were the perfect ingredient to make a bold statement and the effect lingered on.

Nine years on even after setting up her own Communication Design studio Seema wanted to seriously work on something different; and that’s when she got in touch with Pooja about a creative and unique product line dedicated to socks and foot accessories!

Pooja being a Design student herself took up the offer, as she always wanted to work on something funky, cool yet experimental.

Putting their minds together both Seema and Pooja decided that socks would be a unique product line as it is still a novel concept for the Indian market.

Challenges faced

“Multi-tasking is one of the major challenges we face. We’re a very small team, so sometimes it gets a bit manic playing several roles, and wearing different hats. But we’ve managed quite well so far and the rest as they say, is history,” smiles Seema.

What makes Footsy so unique?

Internationally socks are funky fashion accessories and Footsy wants to achieve that in India as well. According to them, what makes them unique is that they are the only e-commerce brand in India that focuses entirely on socks.

Pooja opines, “In India, people usually wear boring grey, brown and black socks as it is mostly considered an ‘undergarment’ and therefore never given a second thought. We tend to hide them under our jeans, shoes, leggings and trousers. But at Footsy we want you to play; sport your socks over your jeans if you like, it can really look great!” quips Pooja.

Sourcing raw materials

Footsy works with manufacturers and suppliers in various parts of the country where each entity has a different speciality.

Seema mentions, “It goes without saying that the process of prototyping and sampling takes the longest to perfect. When you hold a real sample in your hands (instead of staring at it on your computer screen) that’s when you realise ways of improving it. The sampling process takes anywhere between 1-2 months. The actual production is completed in a matter of hours since socks knitting machines churn out a pair of socks every few minutes!”

Pricing and Marketing 

You can pick up socks from Footsy that range from INR 45 to INR 1500 approx. “We have affordable everyday socks for college students, as well as superior quality cotton socks for those who pay attention to detail such as fabric mix, design element,” adds Pooja.

Footsy conducts maximum sales through their e-commerce website – www.footsy.in and they also have tie-ups with various other brands, (zivame.com, fashos.com, futurebazaar.com) online and offline (Buzzaria in New Delhi, Bliss in Pune & Mumbai, Loose Ends in Mumbai) and they also use social media platforms like Facebook (Twitter & Pinterest as well) to maximize their reach in the market.

Design and Maintenance

“We try and stay in tune with global colour trends. During summers we had a pastel collection which was a huge rage. We also keep various international brands as well such as Happy Socks from Sweden and Sockaholic from Spain. These are popular because of their experimentation with different colour combinations and patterns which are not otherwise available in India. So I’d say, we’re quite relevant fashion-wise,” adds Seema.

If you pick up one of the funky and quirky socks from Footsy make sure you wash them at a regular 40º temperature, do not iron or do not bleach them. The woollen collection such as ‘snugglers’ as the girls call them are made of acrylic wool and therefore need to be hand washed only.

Feedback

So far, the response they have received has only been encouraging and almost 60% of their customers are from Mumbai.

“We have a lot of Footsy loyalists, who now only wear Footsy socks; and loads of repeat customers as well. What sets us apart is the fact that this is a very new idea in India and there are no other players in this segment yet,” beams Pooja.

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