"Affordability does not mean a low-priced product. It means delivering maximum value to the customer.”
--V. Noushad, founder & managing director, Walkaroo International
Affordable footwear is often associated with compromise — on design, comfort or quality. Walkaroo built its business by challenging that assumption.
When the footwear brand was launched in 2012, the idea was straightforward: make stylish, comfortable and quality footwear accessible to the mass market without losing sight of value.
For Walkaroo, affordability was never meant to simply mean a lower price. “Affordability does not mean a low-priced product. It means delivering maximum value to the customer,” says V Noushad, founder and managing director of Walkaroo International.
That philosophy has helped the company grow into India’s largest PU footwear brand and one of South India’s biggest footwear players.
Today, Walkaroo records annual revenue of more than ₹2,700 crore. It has 18 manufacturing units spread across seven states, with the capacity to produce more than 20 crore pairs of footwear annually.
Its market reach is equally extensive. The company has more than 750 dealers and over 1.75 lakh retail touchpoints across the country.
Walkaroo’s growth also mirrors the transformation of India’s footwear market. Footwear is no longer viewed merely as a functional necessity. Consumers increasingly seek products that combine fashion, comfort, durability and affordability. Walkaroo has built its portfolio around that shift.
Its product range includes sports shoes, sports sandals, PU and EVA footwear, slides, flip-flops, hawai footwear, casual footwear and athleisure products.
The objective, according to Noushad, has been to make footwear part of an active and healthier lifestyle rather than position it merely as another consumer product.
This thinking is also reflected in Walkaroo’s brand-building initiatives. Through walkathons, marathons and activities promoting walking, fitness and sports, the company has attempted to build a relationship with customers that goes beyond the point of sale.
That ability to become part of the consumer’s lifestyle has been an important element of the brand’s evolution.
There was no single turning point behind Walkaroo’s rise. Instead, much of its growth came from recognising changing consumer aspirations early.
Indian buyers were becoming more fashion-conscious, but there remained a significant gap in the market for footwear that could offer contemporary design, durability and comfort at accessible price points.
Walkaroo saw an opportunity in that gap. Its strategy was to make fashion and comfort more democratic — bringing features once associated with higher-priced footwear to a much broader customer base.
But identifying demand was only one part of the equation. To serve a large and diverse market, the company also needed manufacturing scale, supply-chain efficiency, technology and professional management.
These capabilities gradually became the backbone of Walkaroo’s growth model.
In footwear, tastes change rapidly and speed matters. Walkaroo introduces more than 1,000 new designs every season, allowing it to respond to shifting trends across different consumer categories and geographies.
Handling such a large portfolio requires significant operational discipline. The company has invested in automation and modern manufacturing systems to manage scale and variety. Lean manufacturing practices have helped it reduce production costs while maintaining quality.
Digital tools have also become central to decision-making. Demand forecasting, real-time data and sales and operations planning, or S&OP, allow the company to respond faster to changes in demand and manage inventory and distribution more efficiently.
These systems support Walkaroo’s large dealer base, extensive retail network and growing product portfolio.
Walkaroo’s manufacturing footprint is another pillar of its strategy. By locating production facilities closer to major markets, the company can reduce logistics costs and respond more quickly to regional demand.
The benefits of large-scale manufacturing, Noushad says, are ultimately intended to reach the customer through a combination of competitive pricing and better quality.
This balance between scale and affordability has been especially important in a market where price remains a decisive factor for a large section of consumers.
The next phase of growth is being shaped by younger consumers and changing lifestyle preferences. Walkaroo is now focusing more strongly on youth-oriented products, sports footwear, athleisure, lightweight EVA products and comfort ergonomics.
The company is also increasing investments in robotics and sustainable manufacturing.
These initiatives are aimed not only at improving efficiency but also at preparing Walkaroo for a more technology-intensive and sustainability-conscious footwear market.
Walkaroo’s ambitions increasingly extend beyond India. The company is now attempting to replicate its domestic business model in overseas markets where affordability, scale and mass-market distribution can offer similar opportunities.
It has already established manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh and Tanzania and has built a presence in the UAE and Singapore. The next target markets include other parts of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
The international push marks an important transition for a company that began by addressing the needs of value-conscious Indian consumers.
Walkaroo is aiming to cross ₹5,000 crore in annual revenue by 2030. Yet its long-term ambition is not defined by revenue alone. The larger goal is to build a global consumer brand that originated in India and earns recognition in international markets.
For a company that began by making fashion and comfort accessible to the ordinary consumer, the next challenge is considerably bigger: proving that an Indian mass-market footwear brand can successfully build a global identity.
