Hung Shoe: A Range of T-shirts in 'Hundred Percent Creative Cotton'

Hung Shoe is a start up that holds a slightly lopsided view of the world around us and expresses it on a canvas called the t-shirt. Hung Shoe t-shirt designs are available exclusively on its web site in ten unique categories – ranging from ‘mush tees’ to ‘weird tees’.Hung Shoe targets the b2c segment – and is very customer focused. The customer chooses a design and a color of t-shirt and they print it and ship it to the customer at no extra cost. Hung Shoe also caters to the brand merchandise segment by designing customised t-shirts for brands revolving around their basic brand promise. They work on 20-25% margins and their revenue model is 2-fold, i.e. B2C and B2B.

Launched in August 2011, Hung Shoe works with t-shirt manufacturers in Bangalore. They retain stock of plain t-shirts and print on demand. As soon as an order hits their system, they print and ship within 24 hours.

Target Audience

The typical customer for Hung Shoe from B2C is someone who loves t-shirts, is creative and edgy and is not afraid to break away from the norm of displaying a famous brand’s logo.

They believe they currently are afloat with their market size and are trying to come up with innovative marketing campaigns to extend their reach. Although focused towards online marketing as of now, in the upcoming months, they are looking at retail presence in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. They also aim to work out a presence near colleges/educational institutions across the country. Apart from that, they are working on a strategic tie-up with Home Shop 18 and Shopo.in to market their t-shirts. Talks are underway.

Starting up

Hung Shoe is founded by Rama Manoharan, an advertising professional and writer who has worked with several agencies in India and Dubai. With over 15 years of experience in advertising, he believes it is only natural for him to attempt creating a brand from scratch. With a keen eye for good talent, Ram is passionate about t-shirts and the impact it has on the party circuits.

“India is moving from the blue suit-tie culture to a more relaxed dress code and t-shirts are an integral part of it apart from jeans. Moreover, the idea is to move from creative services to creative products and thereby lay the foundations of a brand of fashion garments/accessories that could capture the imagination of the young at heart,” he says.

Currently, they are a lean team of 5 professionals from creative designing and printing. With about 12-15 lakhs of capital invested so far, Hung Shoe has been self-funded.

He faced several initial challenges while starting up. Right from getting the product and packaging right, down to grabbing eyeballs over the internet. As a self-funded venture, finances, he believes, are a challenge all the time.

“We are working on a business plan that will catapult Hung Shoe onto the retail platform in a big way. We are looking to connect with Venture Capitalists/Angel Investors to help us actualize the business plan. We, at HungShoe, truly believe that our innovative streak and creative strategies will help us compete with the bigger players,” he concludes.