India to have its own footwear sizing system
The customisation of the sizing system would help Indians have a much more comfortable footwear as it would not just consider the length but also the width of the foot for sizing.
Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director General of the CSIR
CHENNAI: India will get its own Indian footwear sizing system by 2025. The footwear will be certified by BIS, and a total of 1.25 lakh samples from 79 districts across the country have been collected by the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) towards the same.
The report has been submitted to the BIS and trials are to begin after the approval.
Dr N Kalaiselvi, Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), on Tuesday said that CLRI has been given the responsibility to work on the Indian system of footwear sizing and it should be implemented by 2025.
The user trials will be done for about one year on about 10,000 people and monitored for the 5-55 age group.
The customisation of the sizing system would help Indians have a much more comfortable footwear as it would not just consider the length but also the width of the foot for sizing.
The Director of CLRI, K J Sreeram said that Indians have been wearing slightly longer footwear than required for them because of the foreign based sizing system.
"We are bringing out the customisation for Indians, which will help to improve the comfort for them. For trials, we are planning to work with mould manufacturers and then join hands with companies for the same. We will be doing user based trials for about 10,000 people and monitor them for a year. We should be able to launch the Indian footwear sizing system by 2025," he said.
Talking about the adaptability of the Indian system by other countries, Dr N Kalaiselvi said that India is the largest population and adapting the Indian sizing system would also boost the online sales of other brands.
"The footwear will be certified by BIS to aid in quality control, testing of raw laboratories and choose the right raw materials. The 3D printing technology is also being used for the same," he said.
In another initiative, CLRI is also bringing out footwear for healthcare, to ensure that comfortable footwear is made available for the people suffering from various illnesses, particularly women. The footwear for healthcare is being designed with support from doctors, psychotherapists, diabetic care, gynaecologists and other health experts.
"The testing of footwear is also being done for children particularly, Ankle foot orthosis, which is a orthopaedic technology device to design corrective footwear for kids born with disabilities such as cerebral palsy. The department is also looking at designing footwear for the differently abled, that also can also assist in bringing out movement in the foot," said Dr Kalaiselvi.
