Wearable art with ‘Claws’
Small businesses and creative talents are popping up everywhere. In such a situation, everyone needs something to make them stand out. One such brand is ‘Claws Customization’, and they specialize in handmade drawings for your shoes. Sometimes there’s also a matching t-shirt as well. And of course, it can be fully customized.
Arun at work
‘Claws’ is the brainchild of Eashwaranathan Arunsanth (25) (Arun). Hailing from Kahapathana, Arun describes himself as a simple individual with a “small creative spark.”
This creative spark led him towards drawing from his younger days. “I started drawing ever since I got to know what drawing was,” he says.
The idea of starting ‘Claws.inc’ came through the prompting of a friend who noticing Arun’s talent, had gone through the market and advised him to start selling customized shoes. The pair had gone through with the idea and sold the first customized sneakers in 2018. Going by customer responses and feedback, Arun began selling the customised shoes as a business.
“We decided to buy more pairs, customise them and then showcase those,” Arun shared. But he faced the difficulty of being unable to properly dedicate his time to ‘Claws’ owing to his day job at a bank. Time management between the two was very hard he says but having come up with a schedule to allocate his time, Arun has managed to continue with customising a few pairs. Much to his surprise, they all sold out pretty quickly.
“I usually do doodles by combining and gathering various styles together. Some of them look like traditional, some of them are colourful, gothic and so on,” Arun said. He prides himself on the diversity of his style. He notes that this made it easier for him to customise shoes according to the wide variety of requests he got.
His customers have been very happy, he said, then added that most of them have actually recommended ‘Claws’ to people they know.
Arun also makes it a point to keep each pair of shoes unique. “People love it because it’s unique, and the only pair in the world with that particular design,” he says. He never does the same design on a pair of sneakers, each is different from the other.
Following the success of the ‘Claws’ shoes, Arun has started to customize t-shirts, backpacks, and hats as well.
However, he still thinks he has a long way to go, and he is not satisfied with his progress so far when his time is limited. But he is determined to continue he said.
As of now, he’s trying to market ‘Claws’ to a wider customer base, and make people aware of the brand.
He’s even completing his higher studies in fashion designing in order to give Claws a professional touch. When that happens, he hopes to produce his own designs with different materials and fabric. He hopes to someday take ‘Claws’ into the global fashion industry.
For now, Arun is slowly working on ‘Claws’, and even if a design doesn’t sell, he says he is still happy with himself because it offers an opportunity for preparation and practice for the future. He emphasizes that his ability and confidence grows with each pair of shoes that leave him with more colour than when they came in.
“Claws.inc is not only a business which gives me money, for me, it is my trademark, my brand, my business, my destination, my future and no matter whatever happens, I will try my best to make it the best brand.”
Follows Claws Inc at www.facebook.com/clawsinc/
Some of Arun’s custom designs. Pictures courtesy Arun Santh
