From rappers to chefs, cool collabs give ‘desi’ sneakers a burst of speed
Homegrown shoe brands are dropping limited editions that draw on Indian pop culture – and it is paying off
There’s a visible chuckle in Utkarsh Gupta’s voice as he talks of the long lineof customers that snaked through the neighbourhood on 2 August. That Saturday homegrown sneaker brand Comet, of which Gupta is the co-founder, had launched the limited edition Comet X Naru drop at their Indiranagar store in Bengaluru. “We’d announced that we’d stock 200 pairs (each priced ₹5,899) in-store and over 200 people queued up before opening time," recalls Gupta, 32. They sold out within an hour.
This special collaboration between Comet and Naru Noodle Bar was limited totally to 400 pairs. It was a rare coming together of a standalone Indian restaurant and a shoe label: the sneakers sported the noodle bar’s logo and even had a chopstick holder integrated into the side, among other elements. The continued hype around Naru as the ramen bar where seats sell out in seconds on Instagram amped up the chatter. “The pairs available online sold out in 45 seconds," says Gupta adding, “Even chef Kavan (Kuttappa, the founder), couldn’t snag one when he tried shopping on our website."
Over a week ago, in Delhi, Gully Labs, another India-born sneaker label, launched a limited edition sneaker capsule for men and women, called Aandhi Kobicha ( ₹6,999) in collaboration with rapper Raga (aka Ravi Mishra). “This wasn’t just a quick name-tag collab for the sake of things. Instead it was a series of conversations that we had with him to come up with a design that aligned with both our visions," says Arjun Singh, 33, co-founder of the brand. The resultant design is a sneaker crafted from raw jute featuring subtle nods to Raga’s background such as 92, the pin code of east Delhi embroidered on the back tab, and his lyric “Muh se Nikle Aandhi" printed on the insock. They sold out the first run of the drop.
Launched as D2C brands that mainly sold sneakers on their websites, both Comet and Gully Labs have become top-of-recall names in India’s homegrown sneakers scene. From having an only online presence, they have expanded to retail stores. While Comet has three stores, one each in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, Gully Labs has its flagship store in Delhi. Gully Labs’ Noida-based factory has the capacity to make between 4,000-8,000 shoes per month while Comet manufactures around 2,000 pairs of the basic models and between 400-800 of the limited drops. It depends on demand, Gupta says. Other well-known players in this fragmented but rapidly expanding scene include Neeman’s, CHNKS and 7-10 Sneakers.
In a scene that for long was dominated by giants like Nike, adidas and is now seeing newer, cooler players like New Balance, On and Hoka, India’s homegrown brands are realising that the best way to stand out is to look inward to create their own stories and offer imaginative limited drops.
In 2025, this ethos spoke quite loudly. If it was the family game Monopoly that inspired Comet’s Diwali drop, it was the flavours of kulfi that Gully Labs chose as the theme for their summer 2025 line. And in August, ARKS, the brand owned by actor Ranbir Kapoor, launched a limited-edition capsule collection called Colour-Lays ( ₹6,999) that was inspired by the colours of Lay’s chips packets in neon-ish green, red, orange and blue. In short, a trend that stood out in this year was of traditional motifs, food and desi pop-culture adding a distinct pop to those soles.
“Youngsters today are not sticking to generic brands, instead they are looking for brands with strong storytelling that will help give them a distinctive identity. Also, these products need to be Instagrammable," says Nikunj Duggal, 38, co-founder of the Indian Sneaker Festival, an annual flag ship event that brings sneakers, streetwear and hip-hop music together. The festival’s evolution itself from a rooftop gathering in 2021 in Delhi to a massive two-day event scheduled on 6-7 December in Mumbai this year is proof that India’s sneaker culture is finding its footing.
“Until last year, we only had homegrown brands setting up stalls at the fest. In our January edition this year, held in Delhi, we had mainstream brands like Puma, New Balance and Sketchers exhibiting with us. That’s how the festival has grown. The December edition has over 100 brands taking part," Duggal shares.
Last weekend, Bengaluru’s hip-hop loving crowd got its own taste of the sneaker-streetwear-music troika at Crack in the Pavement, a street culture event that was founded by four friends in late 2024 to revive the 00s street/hip-hop culture of Bengaluru. This year, the event saw two editions within months of each other. While music is the main draw, fashion—and sneakers, certainly—is not sidelined. “For up and coming brands who may find an Indian Sneaker Festival out of bounds, intimate ones like ours act as a testing ground to gain an understanding of their customers," says Nandith Jaisimha, a partner of the event.
THE NEXT BIG THING
With barely two months to go, it’s a good time to be discussing sneaker trends for the year ahead. Is there a general picture they can paint about what this world of fleeting trends and loud flexes will look like in 2026? Gupta sees the retro runner silhouette making a comeback. “While the design may be from 10 or 20 years ago, the new shoes will have eclectic colourways and be extremely comfortable. You can run in them and use them as regular sneakers too." “We are also going to see more limited drops happening," he adds. Duggal believes comfort will be key to growth. “While big brands may remain aspirational, homegrown labels will start drawing buyers from tier-2 and tier-3 cities." Jaisimha is gung-ho about the new players poised to enter the market. “There are some really young premium India sneaker brands getting ready for launch and I cannot wait to try them out."
While it’s too early to wonder if any of them will break into the global main stream, there’s enough to watch out for in the new year. And we’ll settle for that. For now.
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