Startup Mantra: Every shoe gets a fresh start at SteamPress

How it started

Jonah did a small study and found that the local istriwalas ironed people’s clothes with or without the home delivery service. And they used dry ironing methods. Says he, “I thought what would it take to give people perfectly ironed clothes?” He realised that the steam press was the best way to get clothes ironed as “they did not use high temperature that can also damage the clothes.” Apart from the fact that ironing can play a big role in one’s appearance, the existing dhobis often damaged the clothes whilst ironing them, they got lost and they would come to your house at fixed times, often tying you down at home just to get your clothes ironed.

“I started SteamPress as a premium ironing service as I wanted to offer a service that went beyond the plain dhobi’s ironing. I would steam press your clothes that offered a superior look, I would pick up and drop the clothes at a time suitable to you. Moreover, your clothes would be packed well and put in specially designed laundry bags, we would insert a collar patti to hold the collar preventing them from getting crumpled and pack them well.”

Word of mouth helped this premium service and soon SteamPress had 2,500 customers who were very happy with the service. Jonah increased his staff to eight. All was going well. But soon enough in a year’s time, Jonah realised that this business posed three very crucial issues that he had to find a solution for or else he would not be able to grow.

Initial hurdles

He says, “The laundry industry has three main problems. One was that the unit price could not offer you economies of scale. If a person gave one shirt ironed or gave me 10, my per shirt cost remained the same, there was no advantage of getting more business and making higher profits as the cost remained the same.”

“The second problem is that logistics makes it very expensive. This business has a two-way logistic service I have to pick up and deliver the clothes. Unlike other branded platforms, they simply have to deliver. This puts pressure of high cost to the business. And if you do not offer delivery, then you are like any other dhobi. The third problem is that often the ironing gets damaged whilst delivering the clothes.

“In the early days, we had a cycle. I even designed a box that could hold the clothes, but the movement of the cycle itself damages the ironing. No matter how careful you are, we even got an EV cycle, there is a movement that will impact almost 95% of the time. Unless there was a solution to these three problems it was not possible for me to continue or grow this business.”

Seeking solution

Within a year, Jonah understood that he had to figure out these issues that beset the laundry industry. At that time there was a similar startup – The Purple Laundry that was started by some men from IIT. “They were shutting down and I reached out to them. “They told me that the unit price was an issue that they too were facing because of which they had decided to shut down,” says Jonah.

Meanwhile, Jonah noticed that he would at times get requests from his customers to get their shoes, bags and jackets cleaned. “In those days I would give it to another laundry service that cleaned shoes and bags. I also realised that delivering shoes and bags did not impact them in any way as they did for clothes. So, I thought why not pivot my SteamPress to focus on providing cleaning services for shoes, bags and helmets? Cleaning shoes and bags was also not tied down to a fixed unit price. If I was making 3% on ironing, I could charge ₹260 for a pair of sneakers and make 35% on it. Such margins would make scaling up feasible.”

Executing the pivot

In 2017 SteamPress began its pivot from ironing clothes to cleaning shoes and bags. Jonah had to invest in buying different grades of brushes and solutions. “My brother got me some top-of-the-line solutions from the US, and we had to get different attachments for our boilers. We got rid of the steam bed. But now we were using steam to clean sports shoes. Sports shoe has many layers while cleaning with the brush may only clean the top layer, but the inner layers are left intact and dirty. But steam works like magic on such shoes. We don’t need to increase the temperature or the pressure because the pressure of the steam itself penetrates not just the top layer but also the inner layers, giving you an absolutely clean pair of shoes. Moreover, cleaning with water takes about half an hour but with SteamPress it can be done in five minutes.” To clean leather shoes and bags Jonah has different techniques.

He also started training his staff in the new methods of cleaning his new products. “Simultaneously I reduced our ironing business. This I did by increasing the rates initially and in a year, we stopped the ironing business completely as the demand for shoes, bags and helmets started pouring in.”

The trial period also helped Jonah set up his own standards and standard operating procedures (SOPs). “I set up a process where there would be four departments when we received an order. The first is all shoes go to the inspection department. Here we inspect the shoes to see if there is any defect. Generally, shoes have a limited life span of say three to four years, after which their soles break off. If we see any such issue, we take pictures and inform our customers. After the inspection, it goes to the repair department where what can be fixed is fixed. Then it is to the dry-cleaning department where they handle leather and delicate items since the cleaning process for this is very different. And lastly, the shoes go to the finishing department where they are polished till, they shine like gems.

This pivot was also rather reasonable as he spent just ₹50,000 to add the new equipment. Earlier he was doing a 70:30 ration of ironing and shoe cleaning. Over months this moved to 50:50 and now it is 100% a shoe and bag cleaning business.

Customer profile

Earlier when SteamPress was simply ironing clothes, he knew that the decision maker for this was the housewife. But for shoes, the customer profile changed. “It was now the children who would have expensive shoes that cost them a pretty packet and would not want them to get damaged whilst cleaning. So, in the early days, it was the kids who’d send in their expensive Nikes and later they would send in their parents’ shoes too.

Unit price

The issue that had become an obstacle to growth now was helping the business grow. Though the number of units had shrunk our unit price was healthy. While I would iron a piece of garment for ₹7, now I charge ₹260 to ₹450 per unit. Now I can also afford delivery. If you are in a 3 km radius of our workshop we have free delivery, but if it’s more than that we charge delivery on actuals. Currently, we are serving all of Mumbai, and New Mumbai and have recently started operations in Pune in January 2024.

“Though the unit price is high, people do not clean their shoes and bags daily as they do for clothes. So, it works for the customer too. Generally, people send in their shoes every two to three months to be cleaned.”

Jonah gets all kinds of shoes that need cleaning. In November last year. “We got a pair of sneakers that was for ₹10 lakh. It was a pair of sneakers by Dior and Nike. Very obviously the owner would not want to send it anywhere else for cleaning. We cleaned it and he was very happy.” But Jonah stresses that he cleans any shoe be it a luxury one or a regular sneaker for even a ₹1,000 one. “We don’t discriminate. All our shoes are treated equally.” Of his customers 60% are male and the rest female.

Competition

“Our competitors are both local and international brands. However, what sets us apart is our faster turnaround time (three days) and unmatched quality standards. We are obsessed with delivering superior experience which is why we have a repeat customer of 65%. The international market is very cluttered, and I don’t believe in burning funds just for the sake of competition. We will enter new markets only if we feel we can add value and create differentiation.

The way forward

While most startups set targets to reach, Jonah has a unique ‘target’. Says he, “Last year we did a turnover of ₹1.2 crore, and I think we should reach ₹2 crore by this year’s end. But more than that I have targets for my quality. Our expansion strategy is quality first. We simply won’t scale for the sake of scaling up even though our unit price issue is now sorted. Expansion will happen in a structured, sustainable way as we further refine our service and operations.” His team now of 18 people has very strict mandates. “Just as we humans base our judgement based on the look, feel and smell of things we too actually check the look, feel and smell of our shoes, bags and helmets.” Looks like shoes just got a spanking new lease of life.