: Teens Help Cobblers, Recycle Tyres Into Fashionable Footwear That Ship To USA #IndiaNEWS #Environment Given their passion for business, it was only a matter of time before the New Delhi-based, 17-year-olds

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Teens Help Cobblers, Recycle Tyres Into Fashionable Footwear That Ship To USA #IndiaNEWS #Environment
Given their passion for business, it was only a matter of time before the New Delhi-based, 17-year-olds Divya Sijwali and Parth Puri launched their own business. They founded Tyron in April 2021, where they sell footwear made of a unique material — tyres.
“I remember complaining to Parth over the phone one day that while there are many shoe and slipper options for special occasions, there’s not much that’s ideal for home wear,� recalls Sijwali, in an interview with The Better India. So they decided to launch comfortable footwear that would be ideal for everyday use.
They struck upon tyres as their base material not just because it would help cut down drastically on cost, but also because it meant they were doing something for society.
Throughout their business, they have successfully recycled 80 tyres by selling 165 pairs of footwear.
Upcycling: with aesthetics and sustainability aplenty
Tyron footwear. All photos courtesy Tyron
The process starts with them visiting dump yards, particularly one in Ghaziabad, where tyres are available at a minimal cost. They then get the tyres cut, remove wires and spikes, and extract the specific parts that are useful to them.
From here, they visit their channel of cobblers, showing them potential designs for the footwear. The cobblers offer inputs and build on their ideas until they have a final design, and then get to work. “At Tyron, cobblers are given a monthly base salary of Rs 1,000. And depending on the orders they complete, they’re given a share of the money we make,� explains Sijwali.
This is especially important since when they started during the lockdown, several cobblers had lost their livelihood and were moving back to their villages. Puri says, “All the five cobblers we collaborated with in the first two months of our inception had left this profession for underpaid labour jobs. But we give them incentives to stick with Tyron. �
Besides being cheap material, their use of tyres also signals sustainability. They found that an excess of tyres in these dump yards meant they were being burnt, releasing harmful, toxic gasses into the atmosphere. “When such waste is disposed of into the ocean, it also becomes a major source of microplastics, which then harms marine biodiversity,� says Puri. By reducing this type of waste and upcycling tyres, they’re encouraging a fresh outlook toward approaching waste.
Thus far, the business launched by the two longtime friends is completely bootstrapped. The bulk of their funds has come from entering various competitions. “Parth and I keep looking for opportunities, we applied almost everywhere,� says Sijwali.

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