Founded in 2020, Sneakinn is a premium sneaker cleaning service in Gurugram that also restores shoes and luxury handbags. The brand recently secured a deal on Shark Tank India Season 4.
In 2020, Sahil Jain and Arunima Singhal Jain faced skepticism when they launched a sneaker restoration and cleaning startup.
In just four years, Sneakinn has become a trusted brand for over 20,000 customers, offering luxury sneakers, shoes, and bags.
Sneakinn operates three retail stores in Delhi and Mumbai, along with a centralized workshop and a nationwide pick-up and drop-off service.
Startup founders recently secured a Rs 90 lakh funding deal from Anupam Mittal on Shark Tank India Season 4.
Early Life and Background
Sahil Jain returned home to manage his father’s business after studying at The University of Manchester.
Arunima Singhal studied at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi and then began her career as a designer for brands like Address Home and Sarita Handa.
The Moment of Realization 🌟
Sahil loves sneakers and enjoys buying premium sneakers but encountered an incident that made him aware of a significant market problem.
There is no laundry service targeted to care for luxury sneakers, shoes, and bags. And this he realized when he gave his sneakers to a dry cleaner, and they ended up ruined. ☠
Probably, dry cleaners used some sort of shoe polish or something, and the shoes ended up like that. Moreover, cherry on top, it was impossible to reach them via phone, and there was no customer service support where Sahil could contact them.
That is when Sahil realized the huge market gap where general dry cleaners could not manage to provide required care to premium bags, shoes, and sneakers. Also, there is no place where these products, if ruined, can be sent for restoration.
In 2020, the duo launched Sneakinn with the mission to professionally clean and restore luxury shoes, sneakers, and bags.
The service startup not only restores and cleans premium sneakers and luxury bags but also offers home-use products. This includes a basic sneaker cleaning kit, a complete sneaker cleaning kit, a crease guard, and a dust bag for handbags.
Journey to Success: Not a Path of Roses
The founders of Sneakinn, new to the industry, began their venture in Sahil Jain’s empty terrace room. It served as their first office and workshop to launch the service startup.
Now comes the team, for that they hired a person with a dry cleaning background and trained him in premium shoe and bag care. It took a month for Arunima to join the team with Sahil, but she never returned to her job afterward.
Social Media’s Benefits
Sneakinn gained popularity in its early weeks due to an effective social media campaign, particularly on Instagram, planned and executed by its founders.
It was the 1st year of lockdown, and everyone was turning into a social media influencer, or Instagram influencer I should say. The founders identified the vast audience they can reach via this platform.
Bang! In 2020, Buy 1 Get 1 Service was introduced on Instagram with personalized notes to the orders. 😁
Customers were inspired to showcase their reviews on their stories, and word-of-mouth popularized Sneakinn sooner than expected.
Challenges
Now, as their popularity increased on social media, Sneakinn’s founders faced training challenges as their social media presence began to attract paying customers.
Obviously, the concept was new in the market, and no employee was aware of how to properly handle luxury items, let alone restore them. But not applying what they (laundry background workers) already knew was more difficult than learning new things. 🙈
However, things started improving eventually with training and implementing strict standard operating procedures for the team.
Expanding the Business
So, in its first year, Sneakinn’s team grew to 10 people. And slowly, with extensive YouTube training and market research, Sahil and Arunima began expanding their business after successfully serving customers from their terrace room. 😊
Eventually they opened 3 retail locations in Delhi and Mumbai and have a central workshop. Customers can visit retail outlets or use the national pick-up and drop-off service.
Convincing the Sharks
Appearing in the Shark Tank India Season 4, Sneakinn founders received offers from Ritesh Agarwal, Anupam Mittal, and Vineeta Singh. To that, they accepted Anupam Mittal’s offer of Rs 90 lakhs for 6.5% equity.
But their appearance on Shark Tank India resulted in more popularity, more inquiries about outlets and franchises. Overall, this led to creating a reputation for Sneakinn in the bag and sneaker service market.
The startup has restored over 75,000 items for 20,000 customers nationwide since its start. Sneakinn’s customers are not confined to those who wanted to restore their premium products. Some customers also prefer to buy the affordable, easy-to-use products instead of using our full restoration and cleaning service.
Revenue
The premium sneakers and bags service startup reported a revenue of Rs 5.9 crore for FY24 and expects to grow to Rs 7.3 crore in FY25.
What Now?
Sneakinn’s founders, Sahil and Arunima, plan to expand their service startup nationally by opening retail outlets in major metropolitan cities. The entrepreneurs’ goal for brand recognition leads them to consider franchise opportunities in specific cities as they want Sneakinn to become the go-to brand for cleaning, restoring, and maintaining luxury sneakers and bags.
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