Sneakers, now at a store of their own

VegNonVeg, India's first multi-brand sneaker store, is trying to make the shoes more about fashion and less about sports

In India, more often than not, the utterance of the word “sneakers” almost invariably reminds people of running. In the West though, sneakers have been all the rage for several decades, an indispensable fashion symbol that is accompanied by abundant brio.  The 1980s in the US was witness to the spawning of the sneaker culture. A large chunk of American youngsters became sneakerheads — the moniker used for people who collect sneakers — almost instantly. The major contributors to this frenzy were Michael Jordan and the now eponymous Air Jordan shoe, and of course, Hip-Hop music, a hubristic revolution that stormed the American psyche unlike anything before. 

India, for long, was a passive spectator to this fashion shift. So, when VegNonVeg, India’s first multi-brand sneakers store, opened its doors in May, sneaker aficionados were expectedly ecstatic. “The popularity of sneakers is at a very nascent stage in India. So, we came up with the concept of a sneakers store. The idea was to expose the audience here to the sneaker culture,” says Uday Shanker, brand and culture manager at VegNonVeg. 

The store, located in a quiet corner of New Delhi’s Mehar Chand Market, pays a fitting tribute to all things sneakers. A round staircase leads to its first floor space, where a host of tidily arranged shoes are placed under glistening lights against a green background. The walls are festooned with old classics and the odd picture of rapper Kendrick Lamar, whose new Reebok limited-edition sneakers were unveiled here earlier this week. On the side is a tiny café that sells sandwiches, pizza and coffee.

Only a month into operations, VegNonVeg  is only sticking to vintage brands for now: Nike, Adidas, Onitsuka and Vans. “We buy shoes from these companies that are mostly not available anywhere else,” says Shanker. Among the more popular ones are Adidas’ Stan Smiths, Air Jordan and Air Force 1 by Nike, and a pair of Onitsukas, once made famous by Bruce Lee. All cost between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000. 

“I think we have a lot of sneaker enthusiasts in India. Just that we’ve never had a place solely dedicated to sneakers. This just isn’t a store, but a meeting place for all sneaker lovers,” adds Shanker, who himself is a sneaker lover and shoe blogger. 

The store’s name incidentally comes from the founders’— Anand Ahuja and Abhineet Singh — food choices. “One of them is a vegetarian and the other is a non-vegetarian. It’s the same with shoes; some are made of kangaroo leather, other are manufactured with eco-friendly material,” explains Shanker. 

Mumbai-based shoe blogger Tanya Kapoor says that this is a brilliant idea that will find resonance with a lot of people. “India has a big sneaker audience. We finally have a place where we can go and try out all sorts of sneakers,” she says. 

VegNonVeg next plans to take the online route. We have sold shoes to people in Chhattisgarh as well as South Africa, says Shanker. “The goal is to make sneakers available to everyone,” he announces proudly.