Hyderabad: Conscious of the large-scale environmental damage fast fashion does to the planet Earth, the husband-wife duo of Shashank Pawar and Lizy chose to do away with a merchandise T-shirt business and shifted focus to sustainable footwear brand that told a story and didn’t impact nature.
They started Murtle, which was all about modular footwear where one can change the straps of the sandals and sliders whenever and however they want.
“How many times do we buy shoes or sandals on a whim just because they match an outfit? Countless times, everyone has done it. But after one or two wears, we forget about it and then the footwear ends up in a landfill. We didn’t want that. Instead we chose to use upcycled materials and encourage artisans by using environmentally-conscious methods to create footwear that lasts a long time,” says Shashank Pawar, owner, Murtle.in
Working across a range of fabrics such as handweaves, leather, synthetic leather or uppers, cloth, jute, their artisans create pairs that come with three soles and changeable straps with different designs or embroideries. So, what one gets to pick from are birkenstockish like footwear, padukoids and mojris for both men and women.
The duo collaborates with artisans across the country and abroad to create unique straps. Every element is handmade, from dyeing to finishing. For their first capsule collection featuring ikkat, they worked with Pochampally weavers, then as word of their unique concept spread, their patrons themselves would suggest other artists with a similar sustainable goal. “The word of mouth popularity was so strong, we didn’t need to spend anything on marketing,” adds Shashank.
Later, they came out with collections by Pattachitra, Ettikopaka, Kutch artists, etc. The duo is now coming out with a new capsule collection with a Chennai-based artist who goes by the name Madraskarri. “This artist works with tailor waste and creates running fabric out of it. We used this fabric to make straps for the all terrain footwear and sliders (eazys). We don’t believe in keeping large stocks as making more than needed will defeat the purpose of our core value of not adding to the landfills,” shares Shashank.
The brand also has an upcycling option where patrons can send in old shoes, sandals, sliders to them with a fabric of their choice to be turned into a brand new style, and thus elevating its shelf life. They are also busy figuring out an art project in a team up with a US-based artist who plans to use their footwear as a medium to teach art.
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