Don't compromise on comfort for style and cheap pricing when it comes to choice of footwear emphasises IS Paul of Drish Shoes
It’s a situation many of us would be familiar with. You are out shoe-shopping with your toddler and are instantly attracted to a ‘pretty’ pair not really bothered whether it is real leather or not. You get your child to try on a pair and then ask them if it fits right, often pinching the front of the shoe to see if you can ‘feel’ the toe and get a sense of the space.
According to IS Paul, the managing director at Drish Shoes, it has been observed that 90 percent of children can’t tell if they are wearing short shoes. “This is because children’s feet are all cartilage and soft bones that can easily be bent and squeezed. So a child does not feel the pressure and constriction of a short shoe. Therefore, the responsibility of determining the correct size and fit of children’s shoes lies with the parents.”
Paul is just the person to be talking about the importance of the right footwear in a child’s developing years. With nearly three decades of experience in shoe manufacturing (primarily exports to leading stores around the world), Drish Shoes is brand that stands for quality par excellence.
The company has also acquired two German brands—Fortuna and Manz. Paul Drish, an online brand has been launched in the US. Prestigious names likes Van den Assem and ABCD have joined the customers list. A children’s shoe collection for the Indian market is among the recent forays and also available in Chandigarh at their store in Elante Mall.
“Parents who squeeze their child’s feet into the wrong-sized shoes could be condemning them to a lifetime of problems. Most of the foot problems like hallux valgus, bunions, in-growing toe nails, verrucai, hammer toes and foot pain that adults encounter have the roots in wrong choice of footwear during childhood,” asserts Paul who has spent years on R&D. “Through our research and foot surveys, we have conclusively established that Indians have some of the widest feet per unit centimetre of length in the world. Therefore, we offer more than one width for every size for the benefit of the Indian customer. There is a lack of awareness among the Indian customer about the foot size,” explains the footwear expert speaking to us at his factory in Panchkula.
Incidentally, kids’ feet undergo up to three times the stress than an adult foot because children have much higher activity levels than adults. “Too large shoes are just as bad for children as the short ones. There is no organized effort in our country to make ‘correct’ shoes for children to ensure foot health,” points out Paul who offers pure leather shoes for children that not only look good but offer support, comfort and most importantly, the right size.
To take that forward, Drish Shoes offers ‘Accu Foot Size’, a patented app which gives the correct shoe size in a few simple steps. It helps the customers derive their shoe size including length and width of the foot, making it easy for them to pick the perfect shoes for themselves and children while shopping online. It is the only 2D app in the world, which gives the length and width of the foot with less than 4 mm margin of error. This app is available on iOS as well as Android store.
