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Shoe Story: An Inside Look at The Design and Technology!

Shoe factory, Trip, Agra, Travel, Footwear

Who doesn’t love a new pair of shoes? Well for me a new dress can wait but I can’t hold myself from breaking in a new pair of flats, sandals, boots or closed Footwear. 

As a travel blogger I love my feet. My pretty pair take me to places and in gratitude I always promise to take good care of them.  For this both skin care and shoe choice have a contribution to make. I would have loved to say that my footwear selection is always a blend of style and  comfort but at the end of the day I am a fashionable young lady who does fall in for the looks sans balance, later to end up in pains. And there I am reminded again- its important to be selective around footwear. I am sure I am not the first person telling you that wearing the right shoes keeps the foot problems away. None wants to go to a podiatrist! Right?

Here is all about my visit to a shoe factory!

Men or Women! Who knows their shoe choices better?

Well the answer to my question above isn’t debatable at all. Men know their shoes better in all ways. They always choose comfort over style. I say so because as a female I tend to give in to my pangs for style and fashion over comfort. I would love to flaunt a new pair everyday and more so I love the imitations too.

Well, Mr. Ishaan Sachdeva  (Director, Alberto Torresi) who launched Alberto Torresi (from the family of Virola Shoes Pvt. Ltd) in the year 2010 can’t agree better when he puts it this way ‘Man invests in a shoes while a lady buys it! Its still easy to make shoes for men. Ladies footwear industry is difficult and complicated in comparison.’

From the Meeting room at Alberto Torresi.  The man behind Alberto Torresi- Mr. Ishaan Sachdeva

Do you know Alberto Torresi?

Alberto Torresi enjoys their presence in over 600 sales points across 110 cities and more than 24 states in India which gained them the reputation amongst one of the top 10 shoe manufacturers in India and has won the “Most Innovative Brand of Year 2014-15”.

Recently I had an opportunity to visit Alberto Torresi’s shoe factory in Agra and understand the intricacies involved in assembling formal pair of footwear.  Believe me there goes a complete engineering right from the selection of leather to the final product. It was interesting to talk to the young entrepreneur who is not only committed to deliver durability, great comfort and appeal to his shoes but he wants to take the men formal shoes industry to a new level entirely. More, her loves to travel as it gives him an overview of emerging market trends with respect to shoe industry.

Here I would love to quote the Director again-   Shoe industry is close to car industry, lot of components go into its making.

Innovation and Colors in men footwear They make Women footwear too

Here, lets find out what Alberto Torresi has to say about its shoe engineering processes. More than comfort, it is here to make a name for its technology.  

  • The design process is very important
  • The foreign looks and designs just can’t be presented here, they need to be adapted and modified as per Indian choices
  • Optimal shoe design is about the right shape
  • A little variation in shoe design can be easily responsible for ankle pain, back pain, etc, thus its critical
  • Yes, a lot of problems come due to wrong usage of the shoes
  • Not just comfortable, a shoe has to be balanced too
  • There has to be the much needed softness along with balance
  • Yes, we make stress-less shoes too
  • Sizes matter but its more about fits and fittings
  • And here we use smart techniques like ‘Stress less’ , ‘multi density’, ‘Impact system’,  ‘Memory  technology’ in men’s formal footwear category.

All that happened in this bloggers meet at Agra

Agra in Uttar Pradesh is a well known hub for shoe market and leather goods. International Footwear Conferences take place there. Of course we all know it well for Taj Mahal but next time when you are there to explore the beauty of the marble marvel, don’t forget to go shopping for a leather product, maybe shoes!

I was keen to go to Agra for both. And what better than getting an option to do a road trip via expressway and take a unique experience of visiting a shoe factory. A gang of 8 bloggers started from Delhi and reached Alberto Torresi’s factory by 12:30. In sometime we were joined by Ishaan Sachdeva who handled our curious questions really well. Honestly, I hardly knew much around leather, shoes and its making and this visit acted as an eye-opener.

We went around the factory and met the workers too. From the carving of the outer design to the leather measurement machine to the finishing arena, we got a chance to peek into every aspect of shoe making. I picked on some interesting vocabulary too. So do you know what an insole, kidskin, contouring, last or instep girth is or what does a tannery do? I learnt it all there. To read more about shoes, go here!

This is called Last. It is a holding device shaped like a human foot that is used to fashion or repair shoes!

The discussion around leather was also very interesting. Well my friends who do not support leather products would not love it but I just have to say animals have always been slaughtered. If someone deliberately does for the leather, its bad but otherwise leather is just a bye product when an animal dies and the products are the best way to use it. In fact no waste is left out of leather. The cut outs from one factory go to another who need smaller pieces and further they go to another place to make something out of it. Every bit of is used in some form or the other.

Later, after the lunch we went to the leather storehouse too. There I learnt to identify different types of leather. After we were done with the factory visit, we went around Agra Fort too before returning to Delhi. And not to mention a road trip is always full of conversations. We had our dozes of laughter and fun. All in all it was an enriching and well spent day!

More GLORIES to him…

Mr. Ishaan Sachdeva was awarded the Business Excellence Award, 2015 by Times of India on Sunday, July 12, 2015 in Agra and I had a chance to meet him on 17th July.

Happy Traveling and Exploring!!!

Don’t forget to tell me how do you choose your shoes? What goes for you- Comfort or looks or both?

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