At first sight, the 20sq.m room may look like a warehouse of a shoe company, but it turns out to be part of a shoe-and-bag care service store that 32-year-old Nghia founded a few years ago.

Unlike the domestic footwear market, which has been struck hard by declining global orders, Nghia’s business thrives thanks to high domestic demand during this time of the year.

“The high season for care services is before and after Tet (Lunar New Year). Before the holiday, there is a high demand for cleaning, refurbishing and repairing items to be used for Tet. After the holiday, the weather in northern Vietnam is often wet and cold with light rain, so the road is dirty, and there is a high demand for shoe cleaning," he said.

On average, the store receives more than 1,000 items, but for near Tet, the number might be five to six times.

Prices for shoe services range from VND90,000 (US$3.8) to millions of dong. He said those for branded bags are from VND700,000 to VND10 million depending on the materials and issues of the bags, adding that his customers are mostly middle-income people with disposable income.

It’s not hard to spot items from Nike, Dolce & Gabbana, Adidas, Lining, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci and Dior in the store.

Nghia founded the business in 2015, shortly after he graduated from university.

He was a sneaker enthusiast who ran a small business selling shoes and was curious about professional care services for branded items.

“At that time, I noticed that it was difficult to find a good place that offers professional shoe cleaning and fixing services.”

He started experimenting with it by offering to clean 200 pairs of shoes for free, and within a few days, he got 300-400 pairs of shoes sent to him.

One of his first customers was a young man born in 1997 or 1998, who drove a BMW i8 and brought four bags with about 20 pairs of shoes worth about VND300-400 million in total.

“At that time, I was new in this and had just started my business with a small store on the second floor of a house in Dang Tien Dong Street.

“I was very worried. It was not that I worried I couldn’t handle all of them, but I was worried about the valuable items, so I stayed at the store for three days to work on them and kept an eye on them. When giving back the shoes to my customer, I was relieved,” Nghia said.

“Realising that was high demand for these services, I began investing my time and resources into this business,” Nghia said.

From a humble store, it has expanded into a business providing jobs for nearly 20 people. He said developing professional procedures for each service and building trust are crucial.

“We have developed professional procedures for different care services and a list of user problems with their shoes and bags. Even those with the same material have a different way of dealing with it. Each material has unique characteristics. It is important to be aware of the differences between each material,” he said.

“Building trust with customers is also important, especially when there are items worth millions or even billion dong,” the founder said.

Nghia said one of his most memorable items is a pair of self-lacing Nike sneakers in a limited edition worth more than VND1 billion.

“For these valuable items, they are collected and exhibited only. Users hardly wear it. They just brought it to us to remove the dust,” he said.

To further develop his business, the 32-year-old said it is important to stay tuned with the latest shoes released.

“Footwear industry develops very quickly and releases new products regularly. There are items made from materials that have never been used before, so we must catch up. When a new product is released, we have to be able to come up with a solution to fix the problems that product may have in the future,” he said.

Noting that there is great potential for the shoe-and-bag care service in Vietnam that remains untapped, Nghia said he was not worried too much about competition.

He said that the demand for care services for branded items is increasing thanks to rising middle income and improved awareness about the use of branded goods.

The 32-year-old is also open to sharing his experience with those who want to learn about the trade.

Vu Ngoc Tram, an overseas Vietnamese who owns a store selling branded bags and secondhand items in Melbourne, is one of the trainees.

“I want to learn so that I can fix items that I sell, as well as launch professional services for bags,” said Tram, who lived in Australia for 15 years and returned to Vietnam for a month to celebrate Tet with her family and learn about bag care services.

“People here are very helpful and always make it easy for me to follow. This work requires precision and meticulousness. This is just my second day here, so hopefully, after a few days more, I can catch up with others,” she said. 

Source: Vietnam News