The Shoe Grows Bigger on Men’s Footwear

Perhaps the Chinese get a kick out of making shoes as China produces over 60% of global production when it comes to footwear. Make no mistake, India is the distant second producing a total of 22 billion pairs and accounting for around 9% of global production. But then, two things play their part when it comes to demand for men’s footwear viz. Disposable income and knowledge of the fashion trends internationally. Nevertheless the men’s footwear industry has clocked a steady growth in recent times.

A close look at the market reveals that casual players dominate the Indian scenario accounting for nearly 2/3rd of the total retail market. Non-leather footwear is a substantial 1.23 billion pairs occupying 56% of the market size; not to forget that the entire market is dominated by men’s footwear cornering 58% of the total retail market. However, while the industry is dominated by the unorganised sector in India, lifestyle changes have altered consumer behaviour pushing up the organised footwear retail segment.

Over recent times, International players have been quite attracted to the men’s footwear market, in spite of local brands playing up on the “Indian” card. But then the changing tastes and fashion affinities of Indian males are redefining market rules and style and sensibilities are taking an upward curve. Compounding this is the new charm of online stores which have caught the imagination of young male consumers. The mushrooming of e-commerce has extended reach and penetration bringing urban, rural and semi-urban markets into the same wide net. This harbours well for the industry. And cashing in on this are Indian manufacturers who have resorted to extensive use of online mediums to connect, inform and woo fashionistas through personalised programs. 

Understanding buying sentiments has become the key to success and footwear brands are aggressively pressing the right emotional buttons to drive the buying sentiment in Indian consumers. Experience zones are the secret mantra of offline footwear stores to persuade indulgence and appeal to the evolving consumer’s sense of chic. And all these are cemented strongly at the back end through a variety of factors like evaluation of user friendliness of website, paying attention to their check out experiences, interpretation of payment satisfaction, grievance redressall systems, post sales smiles, transactional ease, briskness of despatch, aggressive value delivery... Fine, major brands are at war on the pricing front, but the soul of these brands are insulated and well protected, their awareness kept intact for a long term engagement with the consumer and the fashion trends that they follow.