FitMyFeet is a design kit to create custom flip-flops for people suffering with clubfoot. It's designed to work with the centuries-old tools of the vast street-cobbler network of India, allowing for it to be activated across every street-corner of India. The walls behind the street-cobblers have been used as a means of advertising, by painting them with vibrant street-art. And by virtue of activating the kit through the cobbler network, every pair of flip-flops cost a mere USD 2.40.

Clubfoot, a congenital abnormality that leads to misshapen feet, affects 1.3 million people in India. Since surgical options are limited to early years and custom footwear is expensive, people are forced to live with a lack of mobility, dignity and opportunity.

On the other hand, India has a large network of street-cobblers. Part of the 30-million unorganised labour-force of the country, the cobblers are present on almost every street-corner of every town.

This gives us a unique opportunity to design a kit for customizable flip-flops, that worked specifically with the tools of this centuries-old cobbler network. This allowed the flip-flops to be cost-effective at just USD 2.40 and leverage the large-scale distribution of the on-street network.

Clubfoot, a congenital abnormality that leads to misshapen feet, affects 1.3 million people in India. Since surgical options are limited to early years and custom footwear is expensive, people are forced to live with a lack of mobility, dignity and opportunity.

The brief was to come-up with a footwear solution for clubfeet that could tackle the high cost of creating footwear while keeping it customizable.

Our objective was to not just crack the design and cost-effectiveness, but also figure out large scale distribution of our design solution.

The creative idea of FitMyFeet works on two levels:

The Design Solution

The FitMyFeet kit is a unique DIY design solution to make custom flip-flops. Packed with 2 sheets of rubber soles (one hard and one soft), tracing paper and adjustable length straps, the kit allows footwear to be cut to any shape or size.

The Culture Solution

The kit has been uniquely designed to work with the centuries-old tools of the street-cobblers of India. Part of the 30-million unorganised labour-force of the country, the cobblers allow for a cost-effective means of production and distribution.

People suffering from clubfeet are usually found below the poverty-line. While club-foot is classified as a birth-defect, there are multiple environmental and economic factors that lead to the abnormality. Given their income-strata, they can't afford the expensive surgical or footwear solutions available. And living with clubfeet leads to loss of not just mobility, but also opportunity and dignity.

Our approach was to not just create a design that could create bespoke footwear for the problem, but also make it cost-effective, widely distributable and scalable. Which is why the FitMyFeet kit was specifically designed to work with the vast street-cobbler network of India.

We started designing the kits were designed in collaboration with orthopaedic doctors and footwear designers late last year, and early this year we started testing them with street-cobblers. Once the material-testing and learnings were finalized, the kits were launched with a test-market in Mumbai.

Since this is a scalable activation, we haven't put a final timeline to it. We kicked off the pilot on 22nd February 2024 and since then over 228,000 custom flip-flops have found their feet.

The placement of the kits is with street-cobblers.

We plan to scale to pan-India by the end of the year.

FitMyFeet successfully managed to create customized flip-flops for clubfeet at just USD 2.40 a pair, while also generating a new revenue stream for cobblers.

So far more than 228,000 customized flip-flops have managed to reach its consumer.

With every customized flip-flop, we enable mobility, opportunity and dignity.

Working with over 4.5K cobblers and sticking to advertising on the walls behind them, we've managed to create a smart and cost-effective means of generating awareness.