We spend the majority of our life in shoes.
Anyone may go out and buy a new pair of shoes based only on how they appear, but proper footwear is worth its weight in gold for someone who is always on their feet. Consider your feet to be the basis of a building; if the foundation is faulty, the entire structure will be faulty.
Footwear is about much more than how a shoe looks on the foot. Poor footwear may result in injuries or have long-term consequences for our posture, so investing in a good pair pays off in the long run.
Proper footwear should depend on the type of activity you are doing and also the type of feet you have. Running shoes are different from shoes for standing for a long time. Feet with wide tops or knee heels require special kinds of soles.
Trishla Surana brings to you a new generation of orthotic insoles that will change your life and health for the better. Let’s find out more about Surana’s brand, Your Foot Doctor.
Building The Foundation: From Feet Up
Trishla Surana had a personal dilemma of being unable to find footwear for her large feet. She soon figured out that problems like these plagued thousands of other people.
This led to the creation of insoles for all types of footwear for comfort and support, beginning in 2016.
Her company was in lifestyle footwear. People approached her with foot problems; they’d ask Surana to help them. This made Surana consider getting into the healthcare market while dealing with shoes! She had a solution in mind for these people.
Surana’s husband Rajeev Surana is a co-founder, the marketing head, and a fundamental pillar of the company. He also supported Surana in her past endeavor Colour Me Mad! The project was aimed to help people immortalize their children’s doodles into footwear art.
Walking The Rocky Roads
Surana started her footwear brand in 2015 but scaled up Your Foot Doctor in 2017. She did a lot of research beforehand and faced a lot of problems and criticism.
Being a female entrepreneur in the male-dominated footwear industry, she was subjected to mean comments and blatant sarcasm. There were times when she felt depressed because of this.
However, Surana persisted and worked her way through all the obstacles. She wanted to give others and herself the comfort of perfect shoes. Surana worked with doctors, shoe artisans, and other experts to come up with the innovation we know today as YFD.
The biggest challenge was to develop the products in a dusty, unhealthy environment. But Surana believes in “if you win, you lose some.”
She had her heart set on achieving her goal, even if it demanded sacrifices. She wants to serve, above all else, and YFD’s vision is to want more happy feet and more people to have a normal life.
The Nitty-Gritty of YFD
YFD provides a solution for such issues through our specialized insoles for shoes, slippers and heels. Slipper insoles from YFD can be used in any flat footwear, including slippers, sandals, and even ballerinas, to provide the comfort and support needed for an active lifestyle. YFD also makes insoles for kids between the ages of 3 to 10.
YFD also offers insoles for people with LLD (Leg Length Discrepancy) and LHD (Leg Height Discrepancy). For the former, the insole for one leg has fillers to make it longer. For the latter, one of the fillers has more depth.
The mission of YFD is to keep you mobile and pain-free.
YFD made the difficult choice to depart from the footwear sector since our ambition has grown to include our insoles in every type of footwear in the world.
A Big Step: Getting Featured On Shark Tank India
On the 2nd of February 2022, Your Foot Doctor appeared on the Shark Tank India episode. Getting funding offer on the program by Emcure Pharma’s Namita Thapar was a huge turning point for the firm.
Surana is immensely grateful to Shark Tank India and Sony Television for letting her share her story. She says the experience is seamless, and the platform has let her share exactly the kind of message and content that she wanted.
The showrunners make you feel very comfortable, she says. As most of these entrepreneurs aren’t trained orators, the Shark Tank team works with them so that they can properly present themselves and their stories. In the show, she talked about how flat feet are a serious problem that affects 2 out of 5 of every Indian.
Following the success of Shark Tank, YFD received an outpouring of support from clients all around the world, and its custom insoles have become the talk of the town, pushing it to launch a prototype at-home service in Mumbai.
Shark Tank has also helped consumers grasp the severity of the situation and how the foot is the foundation of our body, just as the face reflects our body. It has struck a chord with the general public, the footwear industry, and doctors alike.
The Future of Footwear
YFD’s dream is to partner with large footwear brands to help them relook at comfort, ergonomics, and support using YFD technology. It wants to make footwear that can fit anyone from narrow, petite feet to broad and large feet.
YFD’s revenue in February and March 2022 was 10 and 7 lakhs, respectively.Its goal is to reach a revenue of one crore by September 2023 and to expand its insole and the socks category, which will be included by May 2022.
We are targeting a Turnover of 2 crores by Sep 2022. Also the parent company, Colour Me Mad Pvt. Ltd. will be crowdfunding on Tyke Invest and going live on 30th May.
