A revolution is under way in India's trainer industry

It's apt that you person not heard of Taiwan's Hong Fu Industrial Group, but look down connected a engaged thoroughfare and you whitethorn good spot its products.

Hong Fu is the world's second-biggest shaper of trainers (sneakers) supplying shoes to Nike, Converse, Adidas, Puma and galore others. It makes astir 200 cardinal pairs of sports shoes a year.

So erstwhile it made a large concern successful India's market, the footwear manufacture took note.

Hong Fu is presently gathering a elephantine works successful Panapakkam, successful the authorities of Tamil Nadu successful southbound eastbound India. When afloat operational, immoderate clip successful the adjacent 3 to 5 years, it volition marque 25 cardinal pairs of shoes a year, employing arsenic galore arsenic 25,000 workers.

The task has Indian partners, including Aqeel Panaruna, the president of Florence Shoe Company: "The planetary marketplace is saturated and they [Hong Fu] were looking for a caller market," helium explains.

"There is simply a drastic summation successful non-leather footwear successful India. It has immense potential," Mr Panaruna added.

The Indian authorities is keen to pull specified investment, hoping it volition rise standards successful the footwear manufacture and boost exports.

To spur the industry, past August the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) introduced caller prime rules for each shoes sold successful India.

Under those standards, for example, materials volition person to walk tests of spot and flexibility.

"These BIS standards are truly astir cleaning up the market. We've had excessively galore low-quality products flooding in, and consumers merit better," says Sandeep Sharma a writer and footwear manufacture expert.

But galore successful India can't spend shoes from well-known brands.

Serving them is simply a immense and intricate web of tiny footwear makers, known arsenic the unorganised sector.

Their affordable products are estimated to relationship for two-thirds of the full footwear market.

Ashok (he withheld his afloat name) counts himself arsenic portion of that sector, with footwear making units each crossed the territory of Agra successful bluish India. He estimates that 200,0000 pairs of shoes are made mundane by operations similar his crossed Agra.

"Many consumers, particularly successful agrarian and lower-income municipality areas, opt for cheaper section footwear alternatively of branded options," helium says.

"Many organised brands conflict to grow their retail footprint successful semi-urban and agrarian areas due to the fact that we cater to them."

So however volition the caller authorities standards impact makers similar Ashok?

"It's complicated," says Mr Sharma.

"I deliberation the authorities is trying to locomotion a tightrope here. They can't conscionable unopen down thousands of tiny businesses that employment millions of radical - that would beryllium economical suicide.

"What I'm seeing is much of a carrot-and-stick approach. They're pushing for standards, but besides rolling retired programs to assistance tiny manufacturers upgrade their processes. It's not astir wiping retired the unorganised assemblage but gradually bringing them into the fold."

Making the concern much analyzable is that the unorganised assemblage is well-known for making counterfeit shoes of large brands.

While fashionable among Indian shoppers looking for a stylish bargain, different countries have long-complained astir the losses caused.

Meanwhile, a big of caller Indian trainer-makers are springing up, to service India's increasing mediate class.

Sabhib Agrawal is trying to get those buyers funny successful barefoot footwear - shoes which, their makers say, are steadfast for the ft arsenic they promote natural, oregon barefoot, movement.

Mr Agrawal says his company, Zen Barefoot, is antithetic arsenic overmuch of the Indian footwear manufacture is not precise innovative.

"There are precise fewer radical who are acceptable to instrumentality clip and put successful caller technologies here. Indian manufacturing is simply a precise profit- archetypal market, ROI [return connected investment] driven.

"And successful a batch of cases, adjacent the authorities is not acceptable to alteration these industries done grants oregon taxation relief, which makes it rather difficult."

Comet is 1 Indian steadfast looking to innovate.

It claims to beryllium the archetypal homegrown trainer marque that owns the full accumulation process, from plan to manufacturing.

"This level of power allows america to experimentation with materials, present innovative silhouettes, and continuously refine comfortableness and acceptable based connected existent feedback," says laminitis Utkarsh Gupta.

He says the Comet shoes are adapted to India's clime and roads.

"Most homegrown brands trust connected off-the-shelf soles from the market, but erstwhile we started Comet, we realized that these were lacking successful quality, durability, and grip," helium says.

Change is coming to the footwear assemblage helium says. "The displacement to precocious worth is present happening."

"Many precocious worth brands request to determination their manufacturing to India. In 3-5 years, we should person a robust ecosystem to vie successful the planetary sneaker market," helium adds.

Back successful Agra, Ashok hopes that the unorganised assemblage is not neglected amid the maturation of India's footwear industry.

"The authorities should springiness america accreditation and certificates truthful our factories don't adjacent down. Once we excessively are included successful the organised assemblage nary 1 tin bushed India successful the footwear manufacturing industry."

But Mr Sharma says alteration is inevitable.

"The marketplace is decidedly going to shift. We'll spot the bigger players getting bigger - they person the wealth to accommodate quickly.

"But I don't deliberation the tiny guys volition vanish completely. The astute ones volition find their niche."