Dipchand Bihari
Post news network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 2: Shanti Bhusan Nayak, an MCA, has opened an unique shoe “laundry” where old and worn-out shoes would be made anew.
This is the first of its kind of shoe “laundry” in Orissa opened at Satsang Vihar in the city. Shoe “laundry”, Nayak’s brainchild, tells us a very unique tale. Taking a cue from Sandeep Gajakas of Mumbai who pioneered in adding new look to old shoes, Nayak ventured for his own “laundry”.
Nayak’s journey began with his love for a pair of Woodland shoes. He wore his Woodland shoes for five years, but did not have the heart to throw them away. But five years of dirt, grime and soil made it totally un-wearable. So, he started thinking to find out ways to restore shoes. He began surfing internet for various shoe cleaning techniques.
“I could manage to clean my dirt Woodland shoes after learning various techniques from the internet. Amazingly, I still wear those shoes and have now coloured them black from olive. This success fascinated me to find out more about shoe cleaning techniques. Now I have my own shoe-laundry shop,” said Nayak.
As he is a MCA student, so he tried his hand in computer parts business, but he had great desire to open shoe “laundry.” Eventually, he began to experiment with cleaning shoes and leather product with various internet techniques.
“I began to do experiments with the shoes of my parents, brothers and friends. In fact, I spoiled many shoes during experiments. But internet helped me so much to discover various ideas to improve my skills,” he said.
He found financial problem during franchise arrangement. It was `7 lakh to open a shoe “laundry.” He didn’t lose his hope and kept continuing experiments.
“Due to passion, I contacted a lady from Bhutan who runs Shoe manufacturing there, and fortunately she was ready to teach me. We had arranged 7-day training programme in Delhi. The programme cost me too much, however, I learned many thing which caused me to open shoe “laundry” in 2013,” said 35-years old entrepreneur. Now, Revive Shoe Laundry has achieved popularity in capital city and other parts of the state.
Many shoes from the cities like Puri, Angul, Cuttack, Paradip and Rourkela have been brought to the laundry and 100 to 200 pair of shoes from food industries and corporate clients.
Nayak’s shoe “laundry” specializes in cleaning shoes made of leather, canvas, and suede and nubuck material. They also clean leather bags and other leather items.
“When we receive a shoe for cleaning, it passes through 6-7 processes like cleaning, conditioning, odor removal, disinfection etc, and takes 2-3 days. We charge `120 for normal cleaning of shoes; we also mend shoes for extra charges. The charges might differ for different shoes and the amount of work needed on it,” explains Shanti.