Mihir Joshi, a singer and talk show host, showed me his sneaker collection over a video call.

He owns more than 100 pairs. Indian sneakers too. But most of his collection consists of global heavyweights like Air Jordans, Onitsuka Tigers and ASICS.

And some other sneakerheads I spoke to don't own a single Indian sneaker.

That’s surprising, because right now, there’s a real sneaker wave in India.

Companies like Comet and Gully Labs are dropping fresh shoes. Some of which have a distinctly Indian design too.

So, why’s that? And what's going on in India's Rs 33,000 crore worth sneaker market?

Tune into the latest episode of The Signal Brief to learn more.

The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at feedback@thecore.in.

TRANSCRIPT:

Kudrat (Host): Mihir Joshi is a singer and talk show host living in Mumbai. He’s also a collector of all things cool.

During our video call in early June, he gave me a tour of his collections.

First came the comic books. Then the action figures. And finally, he turned his camera toward a wall lined, floor-to-ceiling, with sneakers.

Mihir: I can't remember exactly how many pairs I have, but I know I've crossed 100 pairs now.

Kudrat (Host): His collection consists mostly of global heavyweights: Air Jordans, Nikes—the kind that light up resale forums and hype videos worldwide.

Mihir: I think during the lockdown, I watched The Last Dance documentary on Netflix, and that just kind of reminded me... growing up, I'd watch all these American movies, people wearing Jordans. Especially the Jordan 1 silhouette—which is what I'm sitting in front of, like a huge wall of them. And I said, "I need to get my first Jordan 1."

Mihir is part of a massive global tribe of sneakerheads—mostly men, but growing numbers of women—who trace their obsession back to the same holy trinity: Michael Jordan, hip-hop, and basketball.

In India, when Mihir was growing up in the '80s, collecting sneakers wasn't on the menu. It was Bata or Action for school, maybe a knockoff if you were lucky.

But that changed in the late 2010s. Multi-brand stores like VegNonVeg and Superkicks started popping up in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore—curating drops in real time.

Right now, India's sneaker market is already worth nearly Rs 33,000 crore and is growing fast.

But here's the thing.

While Mihir owns some Indian sneakers, the vast majority of his collection comes from global brands. And many of the sneakerheads I spoke to owned only one Indian pair—or none at all.

Which is odd.

Because today, India has its own crop of homegrown sneaker brands. Companies like Comet and Gully Labs are crafting shoes with distinctly Indian design DNA—bold, pocket-friendly and made here.

So, why aren't the country's biggest sneakerheads buying them? And can India create a sneaker culture of its own?

My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In today’s episode: can India build a sneaker culture?

Kudrat (Host): When he was growing up, Mihir says that Indian men had maybe two or three pairs of footwear. Chappals for home, sport shoes for exercise, and a pair or two of formals.

Globally, sneaker culture traces its origins to basketball in the 1980s—and specifically to Michael Jordan.

Mihir: When Michael Jordan debuted that shoe in an NBA game, the story was that the NBA banned it and they said, "You can't wear it because the colors don't go with the theme of your team." And Nike said, "You know, it's okay. You can fine him every game. We'll pay the fine."

And they made an entire marketing campaign out of it that he couldn't wear it or the NBA banned him from wearing it, but nobody can stop you from wearing it. It became such a powerful thing for fans, like, "Wow, man, firstly, this guy was unbelievable. Watching him fly and do the kind of things that he was doing on a basketball court was amazing."

And everybody said, "You know, I need to have those shoes." And people started collecting those shoes. And then every year thereafter, when he put out a new shoe, people were like, "Okay, I gotta have this one, and I gotta have this one." And Jordan 3 came along, which kind of revolutionized the game even more. So, as his career progressed, sneaker culture, in a sense, kind of progressed. People started wanting to have sneakers to collect and not just to wear for functional purposes.

Kudrat (Host): In India, only the elite few—who had visited the West or had family coming in—had access to real sneakers.

Then, around 2016, VegNonVeg opened as India’s first dedicated multi-brand sneaker store. Superkicks followed, expanding across cities. Suddenly, Indians too could access legit drops in real time.

Here’s sneakerhead Allen Claudius, who works in fashion, talking about this.

Allen:  I think the community began to really slowly, gradually grow in 2015, '16, '17, '18. But around 2020, it really saw a massive explosion because, by then, all of these brands, either via their multi-brand stores or by themselves, were bringing in product that the Indian consumer really wanted. And from 2020 till about '24, the growth was exponential. Everybody identified as a sneakerhead. It was no longer just a piece of their wardrobe, but I think people would build their entire outfit around the footwear, and that's where it grew all the way up to '24, '25.

Kudrat (Host): Walk into a sneaker store in Delhi or Mumbai today, and it feels nothing like a regular shoe shop.

In Superkicks, the walls are lined with red. At another multi-brand store in South Delhi, the AC is turned up high, the walls are pristine white.

The consumers too appear to be examining art, rather than shopping for the most comfortable or stylish shoes. Some don't even plan to buy anything. They just want to see the latest releases in person.

Soon, some entrepreneurial Indians noticed a contradiction.

There was clearly a sneaker craze in urban India. People wanted to stay plugged in, they wanted shoes that looked cool. Still, Indians were buying stories that weren’t Indian. The icons were American. The mythology was American.

So they wondered: why couldn't India have its own sneaker mythology?

Here’s the founders of emerging Indian sneaker brands Comet and Gully Labs talking about their company’s origin stories.

Clip 1: Comet's Mission to Rewrite India's Sneaker Story | Day One | Elevation Capital

Clip 2: Founder GL story

Kudrat (Host): When these brands launched, they borrowed many of the same playbook tactics that global sneaker brands use: limited-edition drops, collaborations and carefully managed scarcity. They generated buzz.

On paper, this sounds like exactly what Indian sneakerheads had been waiting for.

Except, many of the sneakerheads I spoke to still weren't buying them.

Here’s Allen again.

Allen: Among sneakerheads, I would not think so. Honestly, I would think that if a sneakerhead weren't seeded a pair of Comet shoes or Gully Lab shoes, or did not have a monetary gain out of it, I don't think they would actually buy one of them. I know this is a controversial take, but this is something I honestly feel because I know sneakerheads, right?

Kudrat (Host): I asked sneakerheads whether price played a role—Indian brands like Comet sit in the Rs 4,000–8,000 range, while a pair of hyped Air Jordans can easily cost Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 at retail, and much more on the resale market.

Could it be that they prefer Air Jordans simple because they’re more inaccessible?

Allen agreed that’s part of it.

Allen: Yeah, you know, it is— I mean, there is no denying that a lot of people want to be seen in stuff that's not generally accessible, right? Like, there are... I mean, every hobby or passion or whatever you call it.

Like, for instance, look at watches, right? There'll be... Grand Seiko makes great watches. Seiko makes great watches. Even Casio's G-SHOCKs and all of them are great watches. But there might be a watch collector who will do everything from a Seiko to a Rolex to an Audemars Piguet, but there might be some people who would shun Seiko because it's at a lower price point, it's more widely accessible, although the technicality of the product is at par or maybe, at times, even superior to some of the other luxury brands.

So there is always going to be that element or that crowd or population that only wants to be seen in something that's not easily accessible.

Kudrat (Host): So, hype is a part of it. But as is storytelling and mythology.

Here’s Nikhil Omprakash Jain, founder of Citykicks India, a sneaker and streetwear reselling company, talking about this.

Nikhil: I think there are, like, two, three angles to it. First, mainly, mainly it is hype. So when you wear them, you get recognized by certain communities, like certain people, and then it gives you confidence. So that's the first part.

Second is the story that who was wearing these sneakers. How, how, how did they color it red, or is it the brand? Like, there are multiple stories by the brand itself, so that sells. Like, that is really personal to a lot of people. They connect it to their childhood days. The people who ball, they reconnect it to their favorite players.

Kudrat (Host): As well, another idea that kept coming up: Indian brands just aren’t doing anything original.

Nikhil: I mean, I'm critical of the brands that are making them. So I'd really... I really don't like any of the brands who have, like, come up with any of these collabs, because most of them are just trying to copy the Western brands, which is, as a personal sneakerhead, when I have, like, 60 Jordans in my collection, I don't really want a spoof of a similar sneaker that you're just trying to, like, like, downsell and, like, a 20,000 sneaker you are trying to sell at a 3,000 rupee price point. So I really don't like it. I really like a few collabs, a few brands here and there, but not, like, exactly into it.

Kudrat (Host): Here’s Allen again:

Allen: Great designs. Personally, I don't think I would wear a pair yet. I, I, I think they are not original, you know? Just by putting in, slapping on Indian motifs on... Oh, man, am I gonna get into trouble for this? But it's an opinion, right? Yeah. However flawed it might be, I think, like I said, some of the designs are really cool. Yeah. But sometimes I think that they're not... The heart isn't there—

Kudrat (Host): A multi-brand store worker I met pointed to a popular Comet model and said it felt too close to the Nike Air Force 1. Even the logo reminded him of Bape, a Japanese streetwear brand.

We reached out to emerging brands to chat on the record but didn’t hear from them. I did speak to someone who works in store design at a top Indian emerging brand. Let’s call him P.

He agreed with the criticism that sneakerheads have of Indian brands.

P: Well, in one way that's true, actually. There are a lot of designs that actually get inspired from the existing bigger brands.

Kudrat (Host): But P also offered some nuance. Emerging Indian brands aren’t really targeting the hardcore sneakerhead who owns 60 Jordans.

Instead, they’re reaching newcomers — people who want the look at a relatively accessible price without comparing every silhouette to a 1985 Jordan.

And when it comes to building an Indian sneaker mythology, he believes patience matters.

P: For everything, it takes time. So these guys, as you mentioned also, they have a very strong storytelling, like, from the '80s, '70s, the retro sneakers, the retro styles, all these things just get repeated across, more like a classic getting repeated again. In terms of India, it's just maybe a decade-old kind of thing, which you can say is actually getting into the market. It would definitely take some time, but I'm sure it would reach there.

That's the reason what they try to do is they try to add in small micro stories across, like small micro storytelling capsules, which are there, which talk just about the product and the storyline around it. So nothing as strong as how Nike has its Air Jordans, or Onitsuka Tiger or ASICS, which has a different storyline altogether. But these brands, I'm sure that, as time passes by, they'll definitely capture the market.

Kudrat (Host): So, are Indian sneaker brands simply not cool enough?

Maybe.

Or maybe we’re comparing them to legends that took decades—and billions of dollars in marketing—to build.

Ironically, even Nike didn't start with an entirely original visual language.

Before co-founding Nike, Phil Knight sold Onitsuka Tiger shoes in the US, and many say that some of Nike's earliest designs closely resemble Japanese models.

Maybe the next generation of Indian sneakerheads will grow up chasing the same brands people chase today.

Or maybe they'll grow up chasing something else.

Outro: That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.

If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at feedback@thecore.in or you can write to me personally at kudrat@thecore.in.

Thank you for listening.