ZUFR- Promising Luxury Footwear

Meet the Men behind ZUFR

Irfan, the eldest and the decision maker amongst the three, hold a Master’s Degree in Marketing and Media Handling. He is the main backbone of the brand and handles Tech and PR work. 
Next is Nikhil, the Strategic Consultant and Marketing expert. The creative head, Nikhil handles the website content and social media promotions.  He has a Master’s degree in Media and Artist Management.
Saad, the Youngest amongst the trio, looks after the production. Being a Master’s degree holder in Production, Logistics and Ecommerce, Saad looks after sourcing, product design and development, and quality check.

ZUFR, an Arabic term which means winning an almost lost battle, is a footwear brand owned by the duo Irfan Meer and Saad Meer. “The term is similar to Shahrukh Khan’s famous dialogue Haar ke jeetne wale ko Baazigar kehte hai,” Saad says. “We come from a service-oriented background and starting a business from scratch without any experience was nothing less than breaking a barrier in the family.” 

The brand aims to provide quality-driven and premium product experience to the consumers
and establish themselves as the finest leather goods suppliers in the market, while keeping the international ethics and cultures in mind. It also strives to provide opportunity for the under-looked yet skilled manpower in the country.

The Sprinting Journey

The founder duo, Irfan and Saad always had a drive to do something for their family. Although they belong to a service-oriented family but the duo never wanted to do the same old office work, “we wanted to try something which was not done in our family. We started to figure out possible business ideas and this hunt went on for almost 14 months,” Saad adds.
One fine day Saad went out to a cobbler to get his shoes stitched and BOOM!! The shoe manufacturing idea hit him hard then and there. Irfan continues on the journey, “we started researching about shoemaking and met many craftsmen across country. We did our sourcing and sampling work with around 22 shoemaking factories and workshop and one fine day we selected 3 workshops where we finalized our first design. After years of struggle, we finally developed our first pair in May 2018.”

Brand’s Market Presence

The thrilling journey continued with WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram as promotion and sales channel until the end of 2018. ZUFR launched its website in Nov 2018, selling almost 130 pairs until August 2019. As for now the brand sales around 280 pairs a month on an average via various sales channels.

ZUFR footwear are available online on its website and offline as well in multi-designer studios such as AZA Fashions, COMO Collectives {goa}, Outro {Jaipur}, Megaan {Delhi}.
“Additionally, we work with few designers in Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Delhi perceiving this as an opportunity to work on some innovative designs which is challenging sometimes yet one of the most fun things in the workshop,” Irfan says.

Supreme Quality Collections 

Being hardcore fan of leather goods and products, the founders prefer manufacturing footwears made of calfskin or suede leather. For their ready-to-wear edition leathers from Indian tanneries located in southern parts of the country are used. The inhouse craftsmen in Mumbai facility excel in the threadwork intricately embraided on mojris and ethnic footwear.

The year bygone witnessed ZUFR’s first ever sneaker collection in November. Saad adds, “our design was retro-inspired sneakers in 6 color options. This summer we worked on some of the basic yet timeless pieces any man should have in his shoe closet such as brogues, loafers, and moccasins.”

“The sneakers collection received a great response and we were stocked-out in the first 3 weeks itself,” Irfan says, “We don’t want to disappoint our precious clients and we know that our collections are in high demand, so we restock every 2 months. We’re also working on our Ethnic and vacation collection for the year end dropping this December.”

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Best for Loyals
“Well, since day one, we had only one thing in mind, QUALITY,” Irfan claims. “We have built a strong and local customer base whom we consider to be our extended family. So, none of our pairs leave our warehouse unless Saad is personally satisfied with the finish and QC.”
CS is of utmost importance to the founders, as they promise, “we survive on it. If we aren’t happy with the style or shape or color option or sizing and fitting, we do not even approve the design.
We believe for any business to run and grow, one needs to not just satisfy his customer but also excite them for what’s coming next.”

Where does ZUFR stand in the competitive market?  

“Wow, we’ll be very honest about this. We don’t even compare our products with anyone in the market. There are many great shoemaking brands and credits due they’re doing one great work here. But as much as we see, we stick to basics and work day in and day out to get our basics right. We believe that classics never fade out of style and they’ll always stay in a modern man’s closet irrespective of the season and era.”

The Meer Brothers are planning to setup ZUFR’s flag store in Mumbai for the customers who would like to try, come and feel the exclusive products. A new product line of leather goods and accessories is up for a grand launch in 2024. In addition to new product launch we are moving our warehouse to a bigger space to accommodate increasing inventories, creating employment opportunities, and building our own community. We’re really excited for the next few months as we’re really working on some exciting things for the next year,” Irfan says.

Why ZFUR?

The founders strongly believe in their brands policy i.e, Quality over quantity. It takes good 17 to 20 days to deliver some custom-made shoes. “We take time to process and get proper materials for the customers, we work on fits for every pattern we develop. More than often, we take 2 to 3 months to develop a pattern and get the samples right.”
“We have a strong faith in our craftsmen who put up everything on line to get our work done. We like for our customers what we like for us, an error free and a healthy online purchase which brings in a great experience to both our customers and to us,” Saad adds.