No matter what kind of shoes we put on daily, it is the most essential and important item that we must have because it serves to protect our feet from harm and danger. For the fashionista, a pair of shoes can be turned into a fashion statement but for someone working in the kitchen, a pair of non-slip covered safety shoes can protect him from potential dangers and hazards. From the very basic to the most complex shoes in the market, they definitely wear and tear over prolonged usage but do you know that with proper shoe care and shoe storage, you can increase their durability and lifespan?
I recently stumbled upon isSHOE Singapore, a local homegrown business that offers a wide range of shoe care products and accessories such as shoe eraser, hydrophobic spray, shoe fragrances, shoe storage boxes, and even shoe racks! If you are looking for solutions to solving all the issues you have with your shoe, you should definitely check them out.
I have personally tried the shoe tree and the hydrophobic spray by isSHOE Singapore and I absolutely love them!
Ecoblack Plastic Shoe Tree
A shoe tree is a device approximating the shape of a foot that is placed inside a shoe to preserve its shape and stop it from developing creases and thereby extend the life of the shoe. It is a reusable alternative to wadded rags or newspapers.
Perhaps more important than maintaining the shape, shoe trees also play a crucial part of wicking away leather-damaging moisture from the inside. This is especially important when shoes are worn without socks, as the sweat absorbed by the leather can lead to lining rot.
The Ecoblack Plastic Shoe Tree is made of plastic and it comes in two sizes; small and large. What I like about it is that it is adjustable and it allows multiple occupants to this single shoe tree; thus eliminating the trouble of buying a brand-new shoe tree for my siblings who have different shoe sizes.
For business travellers, the Ecoblack Plastic Shoe Tree is definitely the perfect shoe tree to get because it is highly compactable due to its small size and removable structure. The best part? It cost only SGD$4.40 for one pair!
isSHOE’s Hot Tip:
Wear your different leather shoes on alternate days. Your shoes need sufficient rest as well. Wearing your leather shoes daily will speed up wear and tear at a much-accelerated rate. REMEMBER to always slip in your shoe tree daily into your leather shoe after use, this way you can enjoy your leather shoe for longer periods of time
isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray
The isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray is extremely useful and it works very well! To be honest, I was quite sceptical as to whether the water will really repel but after trying it on my pair of fabric shoes, I am thoroughly convinced that it does a very good job of keeping my shoes dry. Well, I have to admit that previously, I have not used this pair of shoes for quite a while because I didn’t want to get it wet and dirty but ever since I gotten it temporarily waterproofed; I am now using it as my daily footwear!
A post shared by Melvin Lee & Jacqueline Teo (@awinsomelife) on Jun 12, 2017 at 5:17am PDT
Given Singapore’s tropical weather, the isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray is a lifesaver and it is pretty affordable too. A single can of isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray cost just SGD$14 and if you buy two, it cost only SGD$12.50 each! With the isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray, you’re truly well prepared for any rainy days ahead!
Keen to find out more about the young entrepreneurs behind isSHOE Singapore?
Well, here’s a short insight about isSHOE Singapore as shared by Wan Ching, one of the company’s founders.
What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture or to make significant changes in an existing business? How did the idea for your business come about?
Being students ourselves before, we understand the pain of many students especially during the monsoon season when the rain starts to pour and it relentlessly drench us from head to toe and makes our socks thoroughly soaked. This uncomfortable problem would have been avoided if we had something similar like the isSHOE: Repulse Hydrophobic Spray back then!
Furthermore, our experience with existing shoe retailers tells us that it makes more financial sense for them to sell us a pair of new shoes than telling us that our shoes can be repaired and restored. Hence, many people often tend to buy numerous pairs of shoes that they hardly use and simply leave them in the shoe cabinets to deteriorate.
Since we are really passionate about shoes, we feel that shoes shouldn’t be left to deteriorate and we hope that through our company, we can offer our customers some helpful ideas and products to extend the durability of their daily footwear.
What have been some of your failures and what have you learned from them?
One of the failures that we encountered lies in our planning for healthy product stock levels on certain items. Due to our lack of foresight to forecast and plan for healthy product stock levels, many customers were disappointed with us as they had to wait for an additional period of 2 weeks for the stocks to arrive! Hence, one key lesson that we have learnt from this experience is that it is always better to overstock than understock products and to always plan ahead!
Describe/outline your typical day?
There are just so much to do on a typical day and some of the tasks could fall in the following areas like logistics, stock count, administrative work, handling customer enquiries, gather product updates, website technicality checks, and the list can go on and on.
What sacrifices have you had to make to become an entrepreneur?
We spend a lot of time away from home and our loved ones just so we can do our job better. Whether it is to do some research, to stay online and answer customer’s enquiries or to improve our website; all these do require a significant amount of time and we often feel guilty for not spending enough time with our loved ones.
In one word, characterise your life as an entrepreneur?
Balance. As an entrepreneur, we believe that it is important to strike a fine balance of managing time because time is of the essence and we only have 24 hours a day. Although there are many different tasks to manage, we strongly believe that the tasks should be managed one at a time and not attempt to do all at the same time because that will compromise on operations efficiency and service quality.
If you are keen to find out more about isSHOE Singapore and the shoe care products they offer, do like their Facebook Page and check out their website for more information!