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Markhor — Luxury shoes direct from craftspeople
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What I like the most about Markhor is that the founders have a clear connection to the craftspeople who make the product and the village where it is made. I am, as always, a sucker for authenticity. There will no doubt be challenges ahead -- tackling the scale problem comes to mind - but the team is in good hands. =-)
Hunter
Waqas and Sidra grew up in the Pakistani village where a large number of luxury leather shoes and handicrafts are made. They know the craftspeople directly and are building tomorrow's luxury shoe line that cuts out all the middlemen and goes direct over the Internet. They're selling the highest quality shoes that would normally retail for $1000 or more at half the price, and giving 5X more directly to the people who make it.
This is like Everlane, but even more direct since Markhor works directly with the makers, not through a factory intermediary. It's a big idea whose time has come. Why is it that we can manufacture computers halfway around the world and get it overnighted to your doorstep while luxury goods sell the same way they have for decades?
Markhor is an interesting mix because they have the direct relationships with craftspeople who have been working on these crafts for decades, but they have the ability to translate those quality goods to a global stage. It's a new brand, and one enabled by the Internet.
Everything is great but styles are meh... Needs more taste, fashion and statement. Check out Officine Creative for inspiration.
Very cool! Just checked out the site. One quick piece of feedback would be to shrink the size of your image loading spinners to about 1/4 the size or so. Super random but it bothered me when they popped up! Good luck :)
@spencerrwise Will look into this Spenecer. Thank you for pointing out such detail!
Best of luck to Markhor. I am a Pakistani and I really loved the brand since it was HomeTown. The marketing and execution is just amazing.
I've been following Markhor from their very early days and it's a formidable team. They've been able to solve the hard problem of getting authentic handicrafts from Pakistan to consumers who care about the craft while reducing middlemen and benefiting the crafts men and women more than they possibly could have before. If you care about where your footwear comes from and how it's made, Markhor is a great choice.
Link to Kickstarter in case anyone else wants to see it... https://www.kickstarter.com/proj...
@corleyh Hi Corley, we started Markhor with a small group of craftsmen in our village. At that time (early 2012) they were making just men handcrafted shoes. So it was natural to start with just men shoes and master that before we add new products. In addition to me being CEO, 4 of our 7 team members are women - so we too feel left out. :)
But the good news is we have been working on our women collection for few months now and will be launching them within two months. Are you up for an early look on the designs and give us feedback may be? 👠👠Just DM me on twitter and we'll get start.
Been following Markhor right from their Kickstarter campaign. Great progress and Great shoes. I especially like the fact that a whole bunch of traditional craftsmen are being benefited by the venture.
Hi everyone,
I’m the co-founder of Markhor (YC S15). Our goal is to connect you (the customer) directly with the craftsmen, who are making your products regardless of in which part of the world they're being made. Internet has enabled us to do so especially in the developing countries (this is where most of the luxury goods are made).
Today we are taking the first step towards our goal and launching our transparency project. We believe you have the right to know where and under what conditions your products are made and who is making them. We believe no one wants to wear a pair of shoes/clothing made by a child or a pregnant women. Even though our craftsmen have been making European shoes for decades, it’s only now that we are able to connect them directly to the end customer.
So what transparency are we bringing to our own company? For every order or a pair of shoes, you’ll know about the craftsmen/women who made them. You’ll receive step-by-step details about the work in progress through email. This is our first step (in beta right now) in this direction and we're experimenting this with some of our customers and the Kickstarter backers. And as part of being transparent, I just wanted to clarify this: We pay 2-5x the local wages to our craftsmen.
You can see the email screenshot above.
Happy to answer any questions about our products or the transparency mission in general.
PS. Product Hunters get 20% off their first order by using the code 'PH20' at the checkout! 👊
@sidraqasim Great work Sidra. Loved the whole concept. It would be interesting to see what challenges you face while scaling and how you resolve them. All the best :)
@sidraqasim Any chance of getting the Kaptaan Chappal in a size 13? They look awesome
@sidraqasim Awesome love the concept. What are your beliefs in regards to customer experience?
@frazahmed We're launching our first women collection very soon. Thank you Fraz!
I got to see these shoes (now waiting on my pair to get shipped). Highly recommend checking out The Derby (Tan).
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