From pretty paisley to Game of Throne characters, Lazy Jojo lets you print on your shoes
Bootstrapped startup Lazy Jojo customises printed canvas shoes with a range of colours, quirky patterns and designs.
Startup: Lazy Jojo
Sector: Retail
Founder: Saket Agarwal
Year of Launch: 2017
Where is it based: Delhi - NCR
Funding: Bootstrapped
Saket Agarwal loves to discover new places and draw inspiration from his travels. At different destinations, he came across a motley of cultural trends and quirks. In Greece, he chanced upon a machine that could print just about anything.
“While exploring the street markets, I came across a tiny stall offering customised printed products. The machine could print whatever the customer asked for, right then and there,” says Saket.
Thinking of the incredible creative possibilities such a thing could lead to, Saket considered having something similar back home in India to make printed shoes. Besides, research told him that not many brands offer customised printed shoes in the Indian market.
He says, “Consumers don’t get to customise their shoes; even if they do get the option, they can just have pre-designed printed shoes. While industries such as clothing and accessories thrive on new and trendy prints, the footwear market remains ignored.”
One’s shoes must be comfortable, but need not be boring. Owing to his passion for shoes, Saket decided to bring the quirk factor in the bland footwear industry; hence, in April last year, he founded Lazy Jojo.
An online retail brand for customised printed canvas shoes, Lazy Jojo allows consumers to get almost anything printed on their canvas shoes.
Customise your shoe
Consumers can customise their shoes with a range of colour combinations, quirky patterns and designs available on the website. Lazy Jojo provides 100 percent digital prints ensuring the durability of the prints and colours.
Saket says, “With a click of a button, our newest high-end software technology can turn a dream design into reality in merely 15 minutes. We offer a choice of high ankle and low ankle shoes with over 300 fun and quirky designs, besides the option to customise the pair yourself.”
The designs are available and can also be customised across categories, which include Bollywood, doodles, patterns, travel, high life, music, cartoons, superheroes, sports, and romance.
Saket has over 10 years of experience in the areas of timber trading and stock trading, and Lazy Jojo is a whole new ball game for him.
He says, “It was a challenge to figure the gaps in the market, understanding whether people in India needed custom canvas shoes. I realised that no other brand offered digitally printed custom canvas shoes in India. There were a few who offered handprinted canvas shoes and they were booming, but there was none that offered digital prints.”
Soon after, he struggled to procure the advanced and seamless technology for printing in India. He visited different countries to source the parts, and then started the venture.
One user at a time
Lazy Jojo’s five-member team comprises professional artists, creative designers, and a techie, who turn the consumer’s most colourful designs into reality. Saket’s wife Kitty Agarwal, who has an MBA in Marketing, helps the team design the template for the canvas shoes.
Since the launch of its website in mid-2017, Lazy Jojo has received nearly 80,000 clicks. With 15,000 active users, it has shipped over 900 shoes till date. The price of each pair ranges anywhere between Rs 1,100 and Rs 2,000.
Saket says, “We have also created plenty of offline orders through participation in various college fests and flea markets, and we hope to continue doing so in near future.”
The startup’s revenue model is B2C and 70 percent of the money comes from the website and 30 percent from offline events. It will soon list its products on e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Myntra, among others.
Bootstrapped so far, Lazy Jojo uses a software to interact with the consumers and helps them create their own design. It has a manufacturing process to turn the design into reality with its technology in no time.
At present, it offers high ankle and low ankle shoes, which are manufactured in-house, and plans to add more variety in the future.
Saket says, “We have a customer friendly customisation tool on our website which is fun to work with. One can also call us to order their ideal shoe designs. Our customisation tool is very easy. It involves a very simple three-step process: pick a design that speaks to you, it could be any picture you liked on the Internet; place the picture on the white canvas shoe available on our website; and the final step, add to cart and you’re good to go.”
The company uses digital print to allow more durability of the product, and deliver the customised or template design canvas shoes in a maximum of seven working days.
Emerging opportunities
The footwear industry is one of the most rapidly expanding globally. Increasing demand for new and innovative footwear, and the emergence of various global as well as regional brands in the footwear category is primarily driving the market. Innovative and trendy footwear is being consistently manufactured by leading market players due to advancement in the footwear manufacturing process, technological innovations, and development of new material.
The global footwear market stood at a valuation of $215.7 billion in 2016 and is expected to be worth $278.8 billion by 2025 in terms of revenue, rising at a CAGR of 3.0 percent between 2017 and 2025.
Talking about its differentiator, Saket says, “The factor which sets Lazy Jojo apart from its competitors is the delivery of high quality, durable, funky and customised canvas shoes at a very affordable price. As compared to other brands, our shoes start for as low as Rs 1,100. With a brand like Lazy Jojo, the aim is to empower the creative minds of the consumers, allowing them to think bold and offering them a piece for every occasion.”
For the future, Lazy Jojo is planning to expand its presence through renewed tie-ups and aggressive marketing, along with a long-term roadmap to populate the offline space. “We will be participating in more flea markets, making our presence felt strongly. We are also planning to diversify the style of our shoes and get them listed in other e-commerce portals like Amazon, Myntra, etc," says Saket.