Cobbling together a winning plan

How many urban residents actually take the time to get their branded shoes repaired these days? Most showrooms charge exorbitant prices to mend them, and customers tend to buy a new pair instead of going through the hassle. 

Recognising this, Pranavnath, a second year MBA student at VIT Chennai, came up with a business model to connect the cobblers from the road margins and clients from the luxury of their household. “I started working on this project for the international youth festival conducted by the Union Urban Development Ministry. 

The feedback from the fest motivated me to transition into a start-up and launch Fling Cobbler. 

Most brands actually don’t even offer repair services. I did a lot of research, ran analytics and then finalised it,” he says proudly. The model is simple: customers can call them whenever their footwear needs mending, and Flying Cobbler will be at their doorstep in a jiffy. After giving them an affordable estimate, the footwear is then taken to the cobblers who work out of the brothers’ factory now and retuned back in three days’ time. 

“As our dad comes from the leather manufacturing industry, we had a good idea of how the business works. Also, when a household calls us, we usually get four to five pairs of footwear from all members of the family. So even though we are just a month old, business has been excellent,” the brothers tell us. Next up, they are planning to open factories in other cities  across Tamil Nadu, and  eventually India. 

“Coimbatore is next in line, and we will meet all the roadside cobblers and give the best of them this opportunity to come on board. Hopefully in a few years, Flying Cobbler will be empowering those in the profession across the country,” Pranavnath concludes.