BENGALURU: India’s first D2C foot-health focused footwear brand for children, Plaeto, has announced Rahul Dravid as its brand ambassador and mentor. The cricketing icon, who is one of India’s most celebrated sportsmen, has been closely involved with Plaeto and its founding team, which consists of erstwhile top executives from Nike, adidas and Apple, since the idea stage of this pioneering made-in-India footwear brand.
In 2020, amidst the uncertainty of the prevailing pandemic, Plaeto’s founders, Ravi Kallayil, Sara Kilgore and Pavan Kareti, approached Dravid with the vision of developing ‘shoes for growing feet’ of Indian children. He agreed to not just endorse but also mentor and provide strategic advice to the brand. He was drawn to Plaeto’s mission of giving Indian kids world-class shoes at an accessible price.
Ravi Kallayil, CEO & co-founder, Plaeto, stated: “When a sporting legend like Dravid believes in your mission and vision, it is a great confidence booster. His passion to support children and cultivate a culture of Play has helped us immensely over the last few months. Plaeto is a result of extensive R&D to cater to the unique requirements of Indian children. Our product team in the US as well as the core team in Bengaluru are grateful to Dravid for providing us with valuable insights on the importance of foot health, his personal experiences on footwear and the changes that could make the product even better. Besides the rich experience that he brings to the table, he is also a great mentor, who actively champions the efforts of others.”
Brand Plaeto proudly announces this partnership with its launch campaign on November 14th, dedicated to the children of India. The campaign exudes a quiet confidence that features Dravid extolling Plaeto’s many innovations and design details, all engineered to care for a child’s growing feet. Videos and digital campaigns will focus on the simple yet powerful truth of Plaeto being a shoe for growing feet. The campaign has been developed by People Design and Communication, based in Bangalore, in partnership with Team Plaeto. The video campaign will go live across all Plaeto’s social media channels including Facebook and Youtube on November 14th.
Based on insights from Plaeto’s Foot Morphology Research covering 1000s of hours of research on Indian kids’ feet, the science-based shoes have been developed by a team of footwear designers and engineers from US, Italy and India. Plaeto shoes are not just protective of growing feet, but also kinder to the planet. The carbon footprint is 6.5 kg Co2 equivalent/pair, about 50% lower than an average athletic footwear.
Plaeto aims to impact at least 30% of the 300 million children in India through their product and programs. The Bengaluru-based brand’s global plans entail expanding to markets, such as Africa, where accessibility to good footwear is a challenge, as well as propagating the idea of accessible sustainability to developed markets, such as Europe and the US.
